Solitaire Expert 4+

Solitaire Expert is the ultimate card game challenge. You play it solitaire. Plan, scheme and try to win against those 104 stubborn cards. They are all in front of you, facing you boldly. How far can you think ahead? Do you dare to take risks? Can you envision the endgame? Go for it!

Solitaire Expert Rules

This game is played with 2 full decks of playing cards. Each card has one of 13 ranks, from high to low : king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ace. Also, each card has one of 4 suits, two of which are black: clubs and spades and two of which are red: diamonds and hearts.

Set up & goal

The cards are shuffled and laid out in 10 columns, each consisting of 10 cards. The 4 remaining cards are in your 'hand' (explained later). The goal is to get all kings at the top of a column.

Moving cards

To reach the goal of the game, you move cards from one column to another.
- you may only place a card in another column on the lowest card of that column.
- the card you move must be 1 rank lower than the card on which it lands. e.g. you may only move a jack onto a queen.
- the card you move must be of a different color from the card on which it lands. e.g. you may only move a black card onto a red card.
- cards, that lie on top of each other and apply to both rule 2 and 3, form a string of cards. You may also move such a string of cards. In that case, the top card of the string must apply to both rule 2 and 3.
- in case a column is empty (because you moved all its cards elsewhere), you may only move a king to that empty column or a string of cards, of which the top card is a king.


Building the piles

There are also 8 piles located beside the columns of cards. you may move the lowest card from a column to such a pile. the rules for this are more or less the opposite from above :

- the first card which you may move to a pile must be an ace.
- besides the aces, the card you move must be 1 rank higher than the card on which it lands. e.g. you may only move a queen onto a jack.
- the card you move must be of the same suit as the card on which it lands. e.g. you may only move a card of clubs onto a card of clubs.

The 'hand'

Last but not least, you start with 4 cards in your hand and may have a maximum of 4 cards in your hand. You may move a card from your hand to a column or to a pile, as long as you keep to the rules of the game. Also, you may move the lowest card of any column to your hand when you have less than 4 cards in your hand.

Enjoy!