This article is about the solitaire family of card games. See Solitaire (disambiguation) for other meanings.
Solitaire is a family of single-player card games of a generally similar character, but varying greatly in detail. The games are more commonly known as "Patience" in British English.
These games typically involve dealing cards from a shuffled deck into a prescribed arrangement on a tabletop, from which the player attempts to reorder the deck by suit and rank through a series of moves transferring cards from one place to another under prescribed restrictions. Some games allow for the reshuffling of the deck(s), and / or the placement of cards into new or 'empty' locations.
Solitaire has its own terminology; see solitaire terminology.
There are many different solitaire games, but the term "Solitaire" is often used to refer specifically to the most well-known form, called "Klondike". Klondike and some other solitaire games have been adapted into two-player competitive games.
There are a vast array of variations on the solitaire/patience theme, using either one or more decks of cards, with rules of varying complexity and skill levels. Many of these have been converted to electronic form and are available as computer games. A basic form of Klondike solitaire comes with every current installation of Microsoft Windows, for example. Arachnid Solitaire is an example of a two-deck electronic version. 123 Free Solitaire and PySol are two examples of solitaire collections that can be downloaded from the internet at no charge.
The term 'solitaire' is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout of tiles, pegs or stones rather than cards. These games include:
Examples of Solitaire card games
A
- Above and Below
- Accordion
- Aces Up
- Acme
- Agnes Bernauer
- Agnes Sorel
- Algerian Patience
- Alhambra
- All Fours
- Alternate Patience
- Alternation
- Amazons
- American Toad
- Aremis
- Argos
- Auld Lang Syne
- Aunt Mary
B
- Babette
- Baccarat Solitaire
- Backbone
- Baker's Dozen
- Baker's Game
- Batsford
- Beleaguered Castle
- Betsy Ross
- Bisty
- Black Hole
- Blind Alleys
- Block Fourteen
- Blockade
- Blondes and Brunettes
- Board Patience
- Box Kite
- Bridesmaids
- Brigade
- Bristol
- British Blockade
- British Constitution
- British Square
- Buffalo Bill
- Busy Aces
- But The Same
C
- Caesar
- Calculation
- Canadian Patience
- Canfield
- Canfield Three Decks
- Canister
- Capricieuse
- Captive Queens
- Carlton
- Carpet
- Carre Napoleon
- Casket
- Castles in Spain
- Chameleon
- Chess Solitaire
- Chessboard
- Chinese Patience
- Cicely
- Citadel
- Class Day
- Climb The Hill
- Clock
- Clock Patience/Clock Solitaire*
- Coleopter
- Colonel
- Colorado
- Colours
- Concentration
- Cone
- Congress
- Connections
- Contradance
- Corners
- Corona
- Counting
- Courtyard
- Cover Up
- Crescent
- Crescent Four Decks
- Cribbage Solitaire
- Cribbage Square Solitaire
- Cruel
- Czarina
D
- Decade
- Deuces
- Diamond
- Diplomat
- Double Canfield
- Double Dot
- Double Golf
- Double Klondike
- Double Line
- Double or Quits
- Double Rail
- Doublets
- Duchess
- Duchess de Luynes
- Duke
E
- Eagle Wing
- Easthaven
- Egyptian Pyramid
- Eight Off
- Eighteens
- Eleanor's Solitaire
- Elevens
- Elizabeth
- Emperor
- Engineer
- Everest
- Exchange
F
G
H
- Haden
- Half And Half
- Harp
- Heads And Tails
- Hemispheres
- Hit or Miss
- House in the Wood
- House of Commons
- House of Lords
- House on the Hill
I
- Icarus
- Idle Aces
- Imaginary Thirteen
- Imperial
- Indian
- Intelligence
- Interregnum
- Intrigue
J
- Jacqueline
- Joker Forty Thieves
- Joker FreeCell
- Joker Golf A-K
- Joker Klondike
- Joker Pyramid
- Jubilee
- Juvenile
K
L
M
- Maria
- Marshal
- Martha
- Maze
- Memory-Up (6x4 grid)
- Memory-Up (8x5 grid)
- Midshipman
- Milky Way
- Milligan Harp
- Minerve
- Mirror
- Miss Milligan
- Mississippi
- Monte Carlo
- Monte Carlo Thirteens
- Mount Olympus
- Move for the Goal
- Mrs. Mop
- Museum
N
- Napoleon
- Napoleon's Exile
- Nationale
- Nestor
- New York
- New Zealand Patience
- Nines
- Ninety-One
- Nivernaise
- Number Fourteen
- Number Ten
O
- Octagon
- Octave
- Odd and Even
- Only-One-Left (4x4 square) Puzzle
- Only-One-Left (5x5 square) Puzzle
- Open Crescent
- Open Start
- Opus
- Osmosis
P
Q
- Quadrangle
- Quadruplets
- Quartets
- Queen of Italy
- Queens and Knaves
R
- Rachel
- Railway
- Rainbow
- Rank by Rank
- Red and Black
- Regal Family
- Reversi
- Robert
- Rosette
- Rouge et Noir
- Rows of Four
- Royal Aids
- Royal Cotillion
- Royal Marraige
- Royal Parade
- Royal Ranks
- Royal Rendezvous
- Rule of Seven
- Russian Solitaire
S
T
- Tabby Cat*
- Tam O'Shanter
- Tantalus
- Tens
- The Dial
- The Dial II
- The Flea
- The Plot
- The Spark
- Thirteen, Fifteen, Seventeen
- Thirteen Up
- Thirteens
- Thirty
- Thirty-Six
- Three Hills
- Three Pyramids
- Three Shuffles and a Draw*
- Thumb and Pouch
- Tournament
- Tower of Hanoy
- Tower of Pisa
- Trafalgar Square
- Transformation
- Trapezoid
- Travellers
- Trefoil
- Triad
- Tri Peaks*
- Triple Alliance
- Triple Line
- Tristan and Isolde
- Twenty
- Twin Queens
- Two Rings
U-Z
(Unless marked by an asterisk, all games are from the 428 games of Solsuite 2005.)
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