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Forty Thieves Solitaire

Two decks, ten columns and eight foundations. Columns build down in suit, one card moves at a time, and the stock turns once and never returns — spend it like money.

ObjectiveBuild eight foundations up from Ace to King — two of every suit — using all one hundred and four cards.

Two decks, forty guards, no shortcuts

Forty Thieves deals forty cards face up in ten columns of four, and that opening wall gives the game its name. Two full decks are in play, so eight foundations must climb from Ace to King, two per suit, and a hundred and four cards stand between you and the end.

The rules allow very little: columns build down in the same suit, exactly one card moves at a time, and the stock turns one card with no redeal. Any card may start an empty column, which is the single genuinely generous rule in the set and the pivot the whole game turns on.

Forty Thieves solitaire deal with ten columns of four face-up cards and eight foundations
The forty thieves, face up. One card moves at a time, and the single stock pass is the whole game.
  • Eight foundations, each built up Ace to King — two of every suit.
  • Columns build downwards in the same suit, one card at a time.
  • Any card may start an empty column.
  • The stock turns one card and there is no redeal.

Why one-card movement changes everything

Most patiences let you carry a sequence in one gesture. Forty Thieves does not, and that single restriction is where its reputation comes from. Relocating a four-card run needs four separate landing places, found in the right order — so distance is a real cost here in a way it simply is not elsewhere.

Work it out once and the game makes sense: a Five three columns away from its Six is not one move, it is however many moves it takes to build scaffolding for each card in between. Players who lose at Forty Thieves usually lost twenty moves earlier, by starting a rearrangement they could not afford to finish.

The forty
The ten columns of four dealt face up at the start. All visible, none of it movable in bulk.
Single pass
The stock turns one card at a time and never recycles. What reaches the waste stays there.
Scaffolding
The intermediate moves needed to shift a sequence one card at a time.
Free column
An emptied column. Accepts any card, which makes it the only real workspace in the game.

Discipline as strategy

  1. 01

    Empty a column before you need one

    With no group moves, a column is the only way to relocate a sequence — every rearrangement is paid for card by card, so a free column is where all your future problems get solved. The shortest column at the deal is the cheapest to clear.

  2. 02

    Never turn the stock for something to do

    Each turn is irreversible and the waste only grows. A card buried under thirty others is gone for the rest of the game, so a stock turn should answer a question you have already asked, not fill a silence.

  3. 03

    Build in suit even when it feels slow

    An off-suit stack cannot be moved at all here, so it is not slow progress — it is a wall you built yourself. The tempo you appear to lose by waiting for the right suit is tempo you would have lost twice over later.

  4. 04

    Track both copies of every low card

    Two decks mean two Aces of Spades, and a buried Two costs you a foundation you cannot start. Knowing which copy is where converts the game's most common dead end into something you can plan around.

What to expect from a famously hard game

Deals are random here. Forty Thieves' difficulty is traditional and genuine, and only a minority of random deals can be won even with careful play — which is precisely why some sites quietly hand you unwinnable ones without saying so.

Unlimited undo does a great deal of work in a game this unforgiving, since most losses trace to a single irreversible stock turn. If you want the same two-deck scale with a guarantee behind it, four-suit Spider is built winnable by construction.

Questions about this game

How hard is Forty Thieves really?
It is among the harder classical patiences: one-card movement, same-suit building and a single stock pass leave very little slack. Careful players win a meaningful share of deals, but every win is constructed rather than stumbled into.
Why two of every foundation?
Two decks mean two of every card, so each suit fills two separate Ace-to-King foundations — eight in all. It also means seeing one King of Spades tells you nothing about where the other one is hiding.
Is there a redeal?
No. When the stock is spent, whatever is in the waste stays there. That single rule is responsible for most of the game's reputation.