Play Cornelius Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

You deal two decks into ten columns of four and haul any jumbled group at once, Yukon-style, chasing roughly a 30% win rate.

Cornelius Solitaire deals two full decks into ten tableau columns of four face-up cards each and plays like Forty and Eight with a twist: any face-up group of cards may be picked up and moved together, whether or not the cards are in order, just as in Yukon. Foundations are built up in suit, the tableau is built down in suit, and only Kings may claim an empty column. Two full decks go into those ten columns, and skill carries most of the weight; even so, the game is moderately difficult, with about a 30% chance of winning.

The game belongs to the Forty Thieves family, the nineteenth-century line of two-deck solitaires that legend ties to Napoleon's exile on St Helena. Forty and Eight softened that famously stern formula by granting a second pass through the stock; Cornelius goes a step further and borrows Yukon's signature move, letting you haul whole heaps of cards across the table in search of the one you need.

That freedom cuts both ways. Dragging a jumbled pile onto a column buries its top card under everything you brought along, and since building is strictly down in suit, a careless dump can lock a column for the rest of the deal. Use group moves to excavate buried cards, keep an eye out for Kings to occupy empty columns, and remember that the redeal is your one chance to catch anything you let slip past the first time.

It plays a lot like Forty and Eight Solitaire and Yukon Solitaire, which is no accident given where its rules come from.

Original Solitaire is still the simplest option here, if all this hauling gets to be too much.

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

Enjoy playing!

How to play Cornelius Solitaire

Layout:

8 foundation piles: Build up from Ace to King in the same suit.

10 tableau piles: Build down in the same suit. Any face-up group of cards may be moved together, in order or not. Only Kings can fill an empty space. At the start of the game, each pile is dealt four cards face-up.

Stock: Click to flip over cards one at a time to the waste. There is one redeal.

Waste: The top card is playable.

Foundation:

There are eight foundation piles.

Any ace may be moved to any vacant foundation pile.

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 5 of diamonds is a 6 of diamonds. There can be no more than 13 cards in a pile.

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

Tableau:

Ten tableau piles of four cards each. Every card is dealt face-up.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on an 8 of spades is a 7 of spades.

Any face-up card may be moved to another tableau pile where it fits, bringing all cards on top of it with it, even if those cards are not in sequence — just as in Yukon.

Only Kings may fill empty spots in the tableau; a King may bring the cards on top of it along.

Cards on the tableau that are not covered by another card are free to be played onto the foundation.

Stock and waste:

There is one waste pile, and the remaining cards make up the stock.

When you click on the stock, one card from the stock is dealt to the waste. When the stock runs out, the waste is turned over once to form a new stock, so there are two passes through the stock in total.

The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or foundation.