The classic two-deck solitaire that made card sharps sweat: climb eight foundations from 104 cards, one move at a time, one pass through the stock. Undo and hints keep it fair — winning is on you.
About Forty Thieves Solitaire
Forty Thieves is the solitaire that solitaire players graduate to. Two full decks land on the table — ten piles of four, every card face up — and the job is to climb all eight foundations from ace to king. The catch is the discipline: piles build down in their own suit, you may move only one card at a time, and the 64-card stock allows a single pass with no recycle. Every deal from the stock is a small commitment, because whatever the waste swallows stays buried until you dig it back out one card at a time.
The best moments here are engineered, not lucky: hollowing out a pile to win an empty space, then spending that space to unpick a suit that got packed in the wrong order. Empty columns are the game's only real currency, and deciding when to spend one is the whole skill.
It is honest about being hard — most deals are losable — which is exactly why the multi-step undo and the hint button exist. For patience players who want a fight, not a formality.
Where Forty Thieves Solitaire comes from
Forty Thieves is the American name for Napoleon at St Helena, a two-pack patience of ten columns that Annie Henshaw recorded in 1870 as 'a most excellent game which has the added charm of having been a favorite with Napoleon at St Helena', and that Lady Adelaide Cadogan listed as Le Cadran, 'the dial', in 1874. The Napoleon story is almost certainly a legend: the games historian David Parlett notes that it rests on a misread account of a whist game in exile, at which the emperor's companion Las Cases was the one shuffling the cards. With only one pass through the stock roughly one deal in ten can be won, which earns it a place among the hardest of the classic patiences; this version is 360 PlayZone's own take on the classic. Source.
Inside Forty Thieves Solitaire: what we checked
The numbers below come from Forty Thieves Solitaire's own source code, and the screenshots are from our own test run of the game (20 October 2026).
- The game uses two decks, 104 cards. The deal puts 4 cards in each of 10 tableau columns, which is 40 cards, leaving 64 in the stock. Eight foundations along the top each build one suit from Ace to King, so you need all 104 cards home to win.
- Tableau columns build down in the same suit, so a 7 of hearts can only go on an 8 of hearts. You can move only one card at a time, and only the top card of a column (or the waste) can move.
- Any card can be placed in an empty column.
- The stock deals one card at a time into the waste, and there is no recycling: once the 64 cards are drawn, they are gone. Every draw counts as a move.
- The game checks for you. When no move is left, it offers New Deal, Undo or Keep looking, and as the notice says, many deals simply cannot be won. Undo takes back moves one at a time, with no limit besides your move history.
- Space or D draws, U undoes, H shows a hint, N starts a new deal and M mutes. Your games played and won, fewest moves in a win, and most cards sent home are kept in this browser.
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How to play Forty Thieves Solitaire
Build all eight foundations from ace to king by suit. On the tableau, stack cards downward in the same suit, moving one card at a time; any single card can fill an empty pile. Click the stock to deal one card to the waste — you only get one pass through it, and the waste top is always playable. Get all 104 cards home to win.
Controls
Click or tap a card, then click where it should go — drag works too, and tapping a selected card again sends it to its foundation. Space or D deals from the stock, U undoes, H hints, N starts a new deal, M mutes.
Tips & tricks
- Empty piles are the only currency this game has. Dig one out early, and don't spend it on a lazy parking move — a space should either free a buried card or unpack a suit stacked in the wrong order.
- Play everything you can before touching the stock. Each deal buries the waste one card deeper, and with a single pass there is no second chance at what's underneath.
- There are two of every card, so check which copy you're burying. Covering the first 9♦ is fine while the second one sits shallow; covering both is how deals die.
- Hold a foundation move back when that card is the last landing spot for a buried lower neighbour — and be honest about the odds: most Forty Thieves deals can't be won even with perfect play, so winning even one in three with undo help is genuinely strong. Judge yourself by cards banked, not games won.
Frequently asked questions
Does Forty Thieves Solitaire save my progress?
Partly. Forty Thieves Solitaire keeps a running win/loss tally and your settings in this browser's local storage; there is no level progress to save. Nothing is uploaded and no account is involved — clearing your browser data is what resets it.
Is Forty Thieves Solitaire unblocked at school or work?
Forty Thieves Solitaire is a plain web page of about 40 KB — no plugin, no installer, no app store — so it loads on a Chromebook or a locked-down school or office laptop the same way any other page does, and the whole game arrives in one short download. Whether it opens comes down to your network's filter rather than the game itself.
Who made Forty Thieves Solitaire?
Forty Thieves Solitaire was built in-house by the 360 PlayZone team using open web technology (HTML5), which is why it runs instantly without any download.