Play Chessboard Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Play any card first, and its rank becomes law: all four foundations must start there too. One deck, medium difficulty, and a skill-driven 30% win rate.

A twist on Fortress Solitaire: instead of always building from the Ace, whichever card you play first sets the base rank that all four foundation piles must start from. With a 30% win rate, medium difficulty is about right for this one. It's played with a single deck, and skill matters more than luck here.

It's also related to Castle's End Solitaire and Lasker Solitaire, two other members of the same wrap-around foundation family.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Enjoy the game!

How to play Chessboard Solitaire

Layout:

4 foundation piles: Build up in suit from whatever rank you play first; that same rank must start all four piles, wrapping from King back to Ace, until each pile holds 13 cards.

10 tableau piles: Build up or down in the same suit; the sequence wraps, so a King and an Ace can sit on each other. Only the top card of each pile is playable, and any card can fill an empty space. At the start of the game, the top two piles are dealt six cards each, and the rest get five each.

Foundation:

There are four foundation piles, and any card can start the first one. Whatever rank you choose becomes the required starting rank for all four piles.

A card can be added to a foundation pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on a 6 of spades is a 7 of spades.

The top card of each foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.

Tableau:

The ten tableau piles are dealt face-up: the first two get six cards each, and the other eight get five cards each.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank higher or lower and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the cards that fit on a 7 of clubs are a 6 of clubs or an 8 of clubs. Because the sequence wraps, a King can also follow an Ace, and an Ace can follow a King.

Any uncovered tableau card can be played onto the foundation or another tableau pile.

Any card can fill an empty slot in the tableau.

Technically, only one card moves at a time, but because super-moves are allowed, we'll let you drag whole sequences whenever there are enough empty tableau columns to get the same result one card at a time.