
Solitaires

Solitaires were originated in France. In XVII century, they were often played by prisoners, who found them to be a consolation in their forced solitude. Hence the name. Solitaires provide for excellent means to bear with solitude, or to relax after the hard day. There are hundreds of solitaires, from simplest to very complicated ones. Some of them are based on very interesting conformities to natural laws; so they were described in the works of such a famous mathematicians as Donald Knuth and Martin Gardner.

In this collection, we present the following set of solitaires:
(01) Binding
(02) Clock
(03) Color Star
(04) Cotillion
(05) Demon
(06) Eleven
(07) Eternal Wanderer
(08) Fortress
(09) Four Queens
(10) Four Roads
(11) Four Rows
(12) Metternikh
(13) Octagon
(14) Open Stack
(15) Permanent Stack
(16) Rainbow
(17) Sir Tommy
(18) Stubborn
(19) Sultan
(20) Trefoil
(21) Triad

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Permanent Stack

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 9 cards form a stack. You can play a card on this stack in descending order, disregarding card suit. Aces are base cards; they take their respective places in the course of looking through the deck. You can move a card on any base one in ascending order; suit is not taken into account.

The stack will never run out of cards -- if you play its last card, a card from the deck immediately takes its place.

You can look though the deck 3 times.

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Eternal Wanderer

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. The deck is dealt so that there are 7 rows -- 3 rows with eight cards each, and 4 rows with seven cards each. The objective here is to collect all the cards within one row.

Upper cards of a row are available for play. You can play them on other cards (disregarding their suits) which are higher or lower in rank by exactly one point; e.g. an ace can be played on either king or the two. Emptied rows cannot be reused.

At any moment, you can select a row (one per entire game) and move its lowest card on its upper, just with a mouse click on that lowest card. Later, you can shuffle that row that way any number of times, but you're not allowed to move cards on it. That row should be emptied in the course of the game.

You win the game by collecting all 52 cards within one row.

Note. Due to limited screen area, a row can wrap around at 41-st card, i.e. it is OK if 41-st card will jump itself onto a place which is a continuation of that row.

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Octagon

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 8 aces start suit stacks which are to be built in ascending order (A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K). There are also 4 closed stacks (with 5 cards each) in the corners.

You can open and play the upper card of any closed stack. You can also move a card from from the deck or from any closed stack on another closed stack, in descending order. Please note also that, unlike in other solitaires, you are allowed to play cards from suit stacks on closed stacks.

You win the game by ending all 8 suit stacks with kings.

As any closed stack runs out of cards, it gets restored with another 5 cards from the deck.

The deck can be looked through 3 times.

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Demon

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. 13 cards form a closed stack, where only the uppermost card is available for play (it's located at the bottom of the row). Four cards start auxiliary stacks, fifth card defines the rank of base cards, for all suits. Base cards are moved from the deck to their respective places while the deck is being looked through.

Cards can be played on an auxiliary stack in descending order, disregarding their suits. Entire auxiliary stack -- or its part -- can be moved on another stack, if new stack will maintain descending order. To accomplish this, simply click on the card which starts the portion of the stack which you wish to move, then click on the destination.

Cards of the deck are turned over 3 at a time, so that only the upper one is visible. That visible card is available for play; actually playing it will make the next card visible, etc. Cards that cannot be played from the deck, form the stack of unused cards. If only two cards remain in the deck, then both of them are playable, in any order.

You win the game by moving all the cards on base ones, disregarding their suits.

The deck may be looked though 6 times. It is shuffled just before the next turn.

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Four Queens

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. Cards from the deck are turned over one at a time. If a queen is found, it must be moved on one of gray cards-placeholders. When all the queens are laid out this way, there appear other placeholders for fives and sixes, respectively. When all these cards (i.e. fives and sixes) are laid out, other cards can be played on them, according to their suit:

- on fives -- in descending order,
- on sixes -- in ascending order.

You win the game by ending stacks of sixes (i.e. stacks started with sixes) with jacks, and stacks of fives -- with kings.

The deck may be looked through 3 times.

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Cotillion

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. All fives and sixes are extracted from the deck and laid out on the board -- they are base cards. Then, as the deck is being looked through, other cards are played either on fives, in descending order, or on sixes -- in ascending order, according to their suits.

You win the game if you played all the cards so that stacks of fives (that is, started with fives) are ended up with kings, and stacks of sixes are ended up with queens.

The deck may be looked through two times.

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Fortress

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. This ancient solitaire is known for more than 100 years. The cards are dealt faces-up, in 5 horizontal rows, both to the left and to the right of the vertical row of aces. There are 6 cards in the upper row, other rows contain 5 cards each.

Leftmost and rightmost cards of each row are available for play, you can move them (according to their suit) on other available cards, in either ascending or descending order. If an ace is available for play, it should be moved to the row of aces, so that you can start to play other available cards on it, in ascending order, of the same suit.

When a horizontal row gets emptied, its place is used for the suit stack, which can contain any number of cards of the same suit. Cards are played on the suit stack in descending order only. If upper card of the suit stack can be played on the row of aces, it means that entire suit stack could be moved there, thus freeing space for another suit stack.

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Metternikh

This solitaire is played with one full deck without kings (48 cards).

Not very accurate historical sources associate this solitaire with the name of Metternikh.

Game rules. First, kings get excluded from the deck. Then, seven cards are laid out (faces-up) on the board to form a shape of a horseshoe; they are auxiliary stacks. 8-th card -- the base card -- is placed in the center of the horseshoe. The goal here is to move all the card from the deck and auxiliary stacks on that base card.

Each card is assigned several points: queen -- 12, jack -- 11, ..., up to the ace which is assigned 1 point. You can play any auxiliary card on base (disregarding card suits) provided that the value of that card is two times the value of base, e.g. you can play the four on the two, the queen on the six. If doubled value is greater than 13, than you simply subtract 13 (from that doubled value) and thus get the required card, e.g. we can move ace on the seven (7 * 2 - 13 = 1).

When neither card can be played from the auxiliary stacks, you start looking through the deck. You can play either current or previous card from the deck on either base card or an auxiliary stack, according to the above rules.

The deck can be looked through two times.

Note. Don't be afraid of numbers -- after three or four games, you will easily memorize which card can go where. Although if you don't want to do those sums at all, there is a table for your convenience. Red color designate simple doubling, blue color designate doubling with subsequent subtraction; please note that these colors have nothing to do with suits. So, the following plays are allowed by the rules:

ace		on	seven
two		on	ace
tree		on	eight
four		on	two
five		on	nine
six		on	three
seven	on	ten
eight	on	four
nine		on	jack
ten		on	five
jack		on	queen
queen	on	six

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Eleven

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. Cards are played disregarding their suits. 11 cards form 2 rows; then these cards are searched for the two that, if their ranks are summed, will give 11 points. If such cards are found, they get taken off and, possibly, replaced with next two cards from the deck (if the latter is not empty yet).

Ace (one point) can be taken off with the ten. You can take off king, queen, and jack altogether.

You win the game by taking off all cards.

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Open Stack

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 18 cards form an open stack. The next card from the deck become the first base one. Other cards can be played on base cards in ascending order, disregarding their suits. Cards that cannot be (currently) played, are moved on either of 5 auxiliary stacks. You cannot move cards between auxiliary stacks.

You can play a card on the last card of open stack, in descending order (suit is not taken into account).

The deck can be looked through one time only.

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Binding

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 20 cards, dealt faces-up, form an open stack, where only the upper (rightmost) card is available for play. 10 closed cards form a closed stack, where you can open and play the lower card only. The next card from the deck will be the first base card. Then you  begin to take cards from the deck, five at a time, and distribute them among five auxiliary stacks. From the first five cards, you should select three -- those will be another base cards. Now you can start to play cards from stacks on base cards (see below). From the next five cards moved on auxiliary stacks, you select three more base cards; and, at last, from the next five -- the 8-th base card.

You can play cards from stacks on base cards, in ascending order (king on queen, ace on king, two on ace). Cards cannot be moved from an auxiliary stack to another auxiliary stack, but you can play cards from auxiliary stacks on open stack, in descending order.

You win the game by moving all the cards on base ones.

When the deck is emptied, cards from auxiliary heaps are gathered and dealt again, five at a time, as at the beginning. The deck can be looked through 3 times.

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Sultan

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. Eight kings and the ace of hearts are taken off the deck. The king of hearts is Sultan, you cannot play a card on it. You may try though... First six cards take their respective places round Sultan -- they are Sultan's divan. As soon as one of these places gets emptied, it should be filled with a new card from the deck.

You can play cards from divan on kings or on the ace of hearts (on their respective stacks, if more exactly), in ascending order.

You win the game by surrounding Sultan with harem -- with eight queens.

You're allowed to look through the deck 3 times.

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Rainbow

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 28 cards form an open stack. You can play its topmost card or you can play another card on it, in descending order, disregarding cards' suits. Two rows, four cards each, are base cards. You move a card on a base card in ascending order, suit is not taken into account.

If a card cannot be moved on either open stack or base card, it must be played on either of three auxiliary stacks. You will want to keep cards within these auxiliary stacks in descending order, to ease subsequent moves on base cards.

You win the game by moving all the cards from open and auxiliary stacks on base cards.

If you've done looking through the deck for the first time, you have an option of gathering and shuffling cards of auxiliary stacks.

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Sir Tommy

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. This is an ancient solitaire, probably, the oldest of all known. It is even also known as Old Solitaire. You start turning over cards of the deck. When you stumbled upon an ace, you move it on the suit stack. You have to move all other cards on these suit stacks, in ascending order. If you cannot play a card on either suit stack, you play it on either of four auxiliary stacks. You cannot move cards between auxiliary stacks; though, you can play a card from an auxiliary stack on the suit stack.

You win the game by moving all the cards on their respective suit stacks.

The deck can be looked through one time only.

Note. You will not want to play a card from the deck on an auxiliary stack which already contains (probably, deep inside) the card of lower rank but the same suit, e.g. queen of spades -- on the stack containing the seven of spades. In such a case, you will definitely lose the game. Instead, you will want to collect (in each auxiliary stack) cards of each suit in descending order. In spite of such a simple rules, this solitaire is very and very challenging, since taking this hint into account requires quite a good memory.

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Triad

This solitaire is played with one small deck (36 cards).

Game rules. The deck is dealt by groups, 3 cards per group, faces up. In each group, the upper (rightmost) card is available for play -- you can move it either on suit stack or on another group, according to certain rules.

Aces must be moved on their respective suit stacks. Other cards should be played on aces (i.e. on suit stacks), in ascending order, according to their suits.

You can play a card on a group provided that in that group there are less than 3 cards and its (group's) upper card is of the same rank. Emptied groups cannot be reused.

When there are no legal moves left, unused (not yet moved to suit stacks) cards get collected and dealt again.

You win the game by moving all cards on suit stacks with not more than three deals.

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Trefoil

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. 51 cards are dealt as trefoils, the very last card is left alone. You can play the upper card of a trefoil on another trefoil provided that the latter one has upper card of the same rank (suit is not taken into account), e.g. queen on queen, three on three, etc. Aces must be used as the base cards of suit stacks. You move upper cards of trefoils on suit stacks in ascending order (suit does matter here).

A trefoil cannot contain more than three cards (hence the name). If the last card of a trefoil is taken off, that freed cell cannot be reused. If you cannot make a move, you click on the empty deck to gather, shuffle, and re-deal cards of remaining trefoils.

You win the game by moving all the cards on suit stacks.

You're allowed to re-deal cards two times, i.e. there are three turns.

Note. Try to move cards on their respective suit stacks as evenly as possible; i.e. first try to play all 2s, then all 3s, etc. If you disregard this rule considerably (e.g. you took off four of spades only, while other suits are played up to tens), then chances are you will not succeed within 3 turns, the longer suit (in our example - 5, 6, ... 10 of spades) will block most plays -- you will end up being unable to move cards between trefoils.

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Stubborn

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 15 cards form a stack. Three cards are placed nearby the deck -- they start auxiliary stacks and define starting rank of base stacks. Next, you have to select one of those three cards of auxiliary stacks and move it on either of 8 base stacks. The upper card of the stack immediately takes place of just moved card.

You move a card on base stack in ascending order, disregarding its suit. You play cards from stack on either base or auxiliary stacks. You can also play cards on auxiliary stacks in descending order (suit is also not taken into account). Finally, you can move cards between auxiliary stacks, in descending order.

You cannot play a card on the stack. If the stack runs out of cards, it gets immediately filled with new cards from the deck.

You can look through the deck one time only.

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Clock

This solitaire is played with one full deck (52 cards).

Game rules. The menu icon SUIT displays primary suit. Gray cards-placeholders show board layout. A card can be played on another card of the same rank, but of different color, e.g. the five of clubs can be played on the five of spades.

You win the game by moving all the cards on 13 rank stacks; there must be four cards of the same rank per stack.

The deck can be looked through two times.

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Four Roads

This solitaire is played with one small deck (36 cards).

Game rules. Cards are dealt faces-up, in 4 rows, 9 cards per row. All four aces are then moved to to left-hand side of each row.

The objective here is to order cards so that, within each row, all cards have the same suit and are laid out in the ascending order: A 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K. To accomplish this, you should use free cells in each row. A card can be played on a free cell if there is a card of the same suit and next in rank immediately to the left of that cell. As you might guess, you cannot play a card on the cell to the right of a king, which has highest rank.

If neither card can be played on either free cell, you should click on the rightmost lower card (or, if it has been moved, on the empty stack) to gather all yet unordered cards, shuffle them, and deal so that they will occupy positions to the right of the free cells in each row, which in turn, go right after the last-ordered (according to the above rules) card in that row.

To play a card, you first click that card, and then the card to the left of the target free cell.

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Four Rows

This solitaire is played with one small deck (36 cards).

Game rules. The deck is dealt in 4 rows, 8 cards per row. The lowest row is searched for two cards of the same rank (disregarding their suits). If found, these cards are taken off. In the third row, cards just above the free cells become available for play; these cards can now be removed in pairs with cards from either lowest or third row, etc.

In other words, you remove pairs of cards of the same rank under which there are no cards (or -- there are free cells).

You win the game by taking all the cards off the board.

Note. Move cursor to the bottom of the game window to access game menu while the lowest row is not yet removed (the menu will pop up). To hide menu, move cursor there again.

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Color Star

This solitaire is played with two full decks (104 cards).

Game rules. 13 cards form a main stack in the center of the board. Then, 14-th card gets opened and defines the rank of base cards, which are then to be put on their respective places while the deck is being looked through. You can also move cards from the deck on 10 auxiliary stacks; you cannot play cards between stacks.

You can move cards from the deck, or either stack, on eight base cards, providing that cards are played:

- in ascending order, with wrap-around king - ace - two.
- on alternating suit colors, i.e. black on red, red on black.

Please note that this solitaire is extremely challenging.

The deck is allowed to be looked through one time only.


If you've selected a card (with mouse click) but then changed your mind, 
simply make some deliberately invalid move.

The card will remain in place, and you will be able to select another one.

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Glossary

Alternating suits -- different in color, red and black (e.g. clubs and spades considered alternating, while clubs and hearts not).

Ascending order -- A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K.

Descending order -- K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A.

Disregarding suits -- when only cards' ranks are taken into account (e.g. for ascending order, the seven of clubs could be played on the six of hearts).

Face up -- the card is opened and (possibly) available for play.

Full deck -- a deck of 52 cards.

Small deck -- a deck of 32 cards.

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People who made the game for you:
Game design -- Eugene Sotnikov.
Graphics -- Igor Ivkin, Sergei Skakov, Nataliya Chubarova.
Programming -- Eugene Kochkin, Vadim Sytnikov.
System Programming -- Vadim Sytnikov.
Sound -- Alexander Posvyansky.
Music -- Nikolai Stukalin.
Characters -- property of Varicom 11.
