Play Rainbow Fan Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Spread two decks across twenty three-card fans, work eight foundations seeded from both ends, and let the emptied fans redraw straight from the stock.

Rainbow Fan Solitaire is the two-deck game at the root of the Crescent family, the wider group of fan-and-foundation solitaires that Crescent itself grew out of. Instead of Crescent's sixteen fans of six cards, Rainbow Fan spreads its board into twenty small fans of three, which keeps far more top cards exposed and gives you plenty of early choices.

The eight foundations are seeded before you touch a card: four Aces build up in suit toward the King, and four Kings build down in suit toward the Ace, so every suit is worked from both ends at once. The tableau builds up or down in the same suit, and only the top card of each fan is live, so the real skill is reading which fans to unlock first.

What sets Rainbow Fan apart from the rest of the family is the leftover stock. Thirty-six cards stay parked there and never deal out on their own. Instead, whenever you empty a fan, the stock quietly feeds its top card into that gap, so clearing columns is not just cleanup, it is how you draw fresh material into play. Played with two decks, the game rewards patient sequencing over luck.

If you enjoy Rainbow Fan, try Crescent Solitaire and Crescent Four Solitaire, the fan games it is most closely related to, or Demon Fan Solitaire for another fan-built layout.

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

Enjoy playing!

How to play Rainbow Fan Solitaire

Layout:

8 foundation piles: Four foundations start on the Aces and build up in suit to the King; four start on the Kings and build down in suit to the Ace. All eight are dealt for you before play begins.

20 tableau fans: Each fan is dealt three cards face-up. Only the top card of a fan may be played.

Stock: Thirty-six cards remain here. They are never dealt to the board directly; the stock only exists to refill emptied fans.

Foundation:

There are eight foundation piles, and all of them are seeded automatically at the deal.

Four foundations begin on an Ace and are built up in the same suit toward the King. The other four begin on a King and are built down in the same suit toward the Ace. A card can be added only if it continues its foundation's suit and direction.

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

Tableau:

There are twenty tableau fans of three cards each, all dealt face-up.

A card can be added to a fan if it is one higher or one lower than that fan's top card and of the same suit. Because you can build in either direction, a 7 of spades will accept either a 6 or an 8 of spades. Only the top card of each fan is available to move, whether to a foundation or to another fan.

When a fan is emptied, its space is immediately refilled with the top card of the stock, so clearing columns keeps new cards flowing into the game.

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