Play Knotty Nines Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Squeeze all 43 leftover cards through just nine narrow piles, with no foundations to bail you out. One deck, real grit, and only a 10% chance you'll clear it.

Knotty Nines Solitaire is Trusty Twelve's tighter little sibling. The recipe is identical — deal one card to each pile, pack the tableau down regardless of suit, and let every space you empty pull a fresh card off the stock — but here you get only nine piles to work with instead of twelve.

That difference changes everything. There are no foundations at all: you win the moment the last card leaves the stock, which means 43 cards have to squeeze through nine narrow slots. Every pile you manage to empty is refilled automatically, so clearing piles is the engine that drives the whole game — stall the engine and the deal is lost.

Nine piles instead of twelve is what makes it hard: only about 10% of deals clear. It is played with a single deck, and luck decides most of the outcome, since three fewer piles leave you far less room to maneuver.

Trusty Twelve Solitaire, Bunker Solitaire, and Up and Up Solitaire all run the same empty-pile-refill engine, just with different pile counts.

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

Enjoy playing!

How to play Knotty Nines Solitaire

Layout:

9 tableau piles: Build down regardless of suit. Only one card can be moved at a time. Spaces are automatically filled from the stock. At the start of the game, each pile is dealt one card.

Stock: Fills empty spots in the tableau automatically. The game is won when the stock is empty.

Tableau:

Nine tableau piles, one card each at the start. Every card is dealt face-up.

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

Cards on the tableau that are not covered by another card can be played onto any other tableau pile.

Empty tableau spots are immediately filled with the top card of the stock. Once the stock is empty, any card may be used to fill the tableau's empty places.

Only one card may be moved at a time; sequences are not permitted.

Stock:

The 43 leftover cards make up the stock.

Cards cannot be drawn from the stock manually; the stock's only job is to refill emptied tableau piles, one card per space.

Notes:

There are no foundations in Knotty Nines. The goal is to bring every card into play: each pile you empty is refilled from the stock, and the game is won as soon as the entire stock has been dealt to the tableau.