Play Forty Thieves Solitaire Free Online
Forty Thieves is a notoriously difficult two-deck solitaire that has frustrated and delighted patience enthusiasts for more than a century. The game uses 104 cards dealt into 10 tableau columns of 4 cards each, with the remaining 64 cards forming a single stock pile. Above the tableau sit eight foundation piles — two for each of the four suits — and your job is to fill all of them in order from Ace to King, building strictly by suit. The catch, and the reason Forty Thieves has earned its reputation, is that you can only move one card at a time between tableau columns, and each tableau build must also be strict same-suit descending. There is no shuffling the stock back when it empties, no free cells to lean on, and no second chances. Historical estimates place the win rate around 10% with random play; even with perfect planning, the rate climbs only to roughly 25–30%. If you want a solitaire that punishes greed and rewards patience, Forty Thieves is your game.
How to Play
- Two complete 52-card decks (104 cards total) are shuffled together. Ten tableau columns are dealt with four face-up cards each, leaving 64 cards in the stock.
- Above the tableau there are eight foundation slots — two empty piles for each suit. Your goal is to fill every foundation, building from Ace at the bottom up to King, strictly by suit.
- Move a single card between tableau columns only. Unlike Klondike or Yukon, Forty Thieves does not permit group lifts under any circumstances. To move a sequence, you must relocate it one card at a time.
- Build tableau columns down by one rank in the SAME suit. A red five can only sit on a red six of the same suit (six of hearts onto seven of hearts, for example) — alternating colors are not enough.
- Send Aces and subsequent same-suit cards to the foundations as they become accessible. Once a card reaches a foundation it can never come back into play, so commit only when you are sure.
- Tap the stock pile to deal a single card to the waste. The top card of the waste is always available to play onto the tableau or a foundation. When the stock runs empty there is no redeal — every card has had its one chance.
- Any empty tableau column accepts any single card from the waste or another tableau column. Empty columns are precious and should be filled deliberately, never out of reflex.
- You win when all 104 cards reach the foundations. You lose when no legal move remains and the stock is empty. Use the Hint button when you are stuck and Undo to backtrack from a misstep.
Strategy
Foundations are easy to start and easy to lose track of. Once you commit a card to the foundation it is gone for good, so before sending a low card up, ask yourself whether it would be more useful holding open a tableau slot for the next few moves.
Empty tableau columns are the single most valuable resource in the game. Treat them like FreeCell free cells: only fill an empty column when doing so opens a path to a buried card you genuinely need.
Work the stock slowly. Every stock card you flip is a one-way trip — there is no redeal — so try to make every tableau move you can before drawing the next card from the stock. Sometimes the right move is to hold off the stock for three or four tableau plays.
Watch for the suited four-card sequences that fall into place naturally during the opening. If you can immediately consolidate a 6-5-4-3 of hearts into one column, do it — that buys you flexibility for the harder cards still to come.
Plan two cards ahead of every foundation play. Building 5♣ onto 4♣ looks like a free move, but if your only 6♣ is buried under seven other clubs in the stock, you have just locked that foundation column for a long time.
Avoid burying high cards under low cards in the same column. A King with no cards on top can move to an empty column; a King with eight cards on top has to be excavated one card at a time. Reorder ruthlessly while it is still cheap.
When the stock is running low, count the cards you still need. If two specific Kings are still in the stock and you are down to the last ten cards, you need to clear empty columns now to receive them — there will not be a second pass.
Use Undo as a planning tool, not a safety net. Make a candidate move, look at the resulting board for ten seconds, and undo if you see a better path. Forty Thieves is short enough that careful exploration pays off in the win rate.
Symmetric foundations matter. Because there are two foundations per suit, you can build them at different rates — one to Six and the other to King — to absorb cards in whichever order they arrive. Do not feel obligated to keep them level.
Accept the deal. Even with perfect play, the majority of Forty Thieves deals are unwinnable. If a deal has stalled after thorough exploration, restart and try again — that is not failure, that is the published difficulty showing up in your statistics.
History
Forty Thieves first appears in print in the late 19th century, where it is sometimes called Napoleon at St. Helena after the persistent (though almost certainly apocryphal) legend that the exiled emperor played it during his imprisonment on the Atlantic island. By the early 20th century the game was a fixture of patience compendia under several names, including Big Forty, Le Cadran, and Roosevelt at San Juan. The "Forty Thieves" name itself is widely attributed to a fanciful reference to the Arabian Nights tale, the forty being the forty cards initially exposed across the ten columns of four. The game gained renewed mainstream attention when it shipped as one of the bundled solitaires in early Mac and Windows collections, where its punishing difficulty made it the choice of players who had mastered Klondike and were looking for a sterner challenge. Modern computer analysis has confirmed the game's reputation: with no luck of the draw, only about a quarter of Forty Thieves deals are solvable.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Forty Thieves?
Forty Thieves is a two-deck solitaire played with 104 cards, ten tableau columns of four cards each, and eight foundation slots — two per suit. You build the foundations up by suit from Ace to King, with strict same-suit descending sequences in the tableau and single-card moves only. There is no redeal.
Why is Forty Thieves so hard?
Three rules combine to make it punishing. First, tableau builds must be same suit, not just alternating colors. Second, you can only move one card at a time — no group lifts. Third, the stock has no redeal: every card gets exactly one pass through the waste. Historical solver analysis puts the win rate around 25% with perfect play.
Can I move multiple cards between tableau columns?
No. Forty Thieves is strictly single-card moves. Even if you have a perfectly ordered same-suit sequence sitting on a column, you have to move each card individually to relocate the whole run. This is the rule that gives Forty Thieves its planning depth.
What goes into an empty tableau column?
Any single card from the waste or from another tableau column. Empty columns are the closest thing Forty Thieves offers to a FreeCell free cell, and managing them well is the single biggest skill you can develop in the game.
How many foundations are there?
Eight — two per suit. Each foundation builds Ace to King by suit, and the two foundations of a given suit can be built at independent rates. You do not have to keep them level.
Is there a redeal?
No. Once a card leaves the stock and enters the waste, that is its last appearance. When the stock empties the waste is not turned back over, which is the structural reason Forty Thieves is so much harder than its single-deck cousins.
Why is the game called "Forty Thieves"?
The forty refers to the forty cards initially dealt to the ten tableau columns of four. The "thieves" is a colorful name borrowed loosely from the Arabian Nights story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves; it is a naming flourish rather than a connection to the gameplay.
Is it free to play here?
Yes. Forty Thieves plays instantly in your browser with no signup, no ads, and no in-app purchases.