Play Forty Thieves Solitaire Online for Free

Forty Thieves Solitaire is a two-deck game for players who like a real challenge. It plays a bit like Klondike Solitaire, with a stock and waste pile, but you build ten columns down in suit and move only one card at a time. Every card in the tableau is face up, so careful planning is the key to completing all eight foundation piles.

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Forty Thieves Objective

Win Forty Thieves Solitaire by moving all 104 cards to the eight foundations, building each one up in suit from Ace to King. There are two foundations for every suit.

The game uses two decks shuffled together. Forty cards are dealt face up into ten columns of four, which is where the name comes from. The other 64 cards form the stock, which you turn over one card at a time. Because every tableau card starts face up, you can see the whole layout from the first move.

Forty Thieves Rules

Forty Thieves (also called 40 Thieves) has simple rules, but they leave very little room for error.

• Build down in suit. A card can only go on the next-higher card of the same suit. For example, the 9♠ can go on the 10♠, and the 7♥ can go on the 8♥.
• Move one card at a time. Only the top card of each column can be moved, and sequences can’t be moved as a group.
• Any card can fill an empty column. Empty columns are the most useful spaces in the game.
• Go through the stock once. Click the stockpile to turn its next card onto the waste pile. There’s no second pass, so the number under the stockpile tells you how many cards are left.
• Play the top waste card. It can go to the tableau or to a foundation.
• Build the foundations up in suit. Each foundation starts with an Ace and builds up to the King of the same suit. You can move a foundation card back to the tableau, but it counts as a penalty.

The game is over when the stock is empty and you can’t make another move. If you get stuck, Undo takes back a move and Hint points out a useful one. Choose Restart to replay the same deal or New Game for a fresh one. Every deal can be won. Each one is solved by a computer before it’s dealt.

Click-to-move is on by default, so you can click a card to send it to the best place it can go, starting with the foundations. In Options > Settings > Game Options, you can also set Autocomplete to finish a won game for you or to play safe cards to the foundations as you go.

Tips and Strategies to Win Forty Thieves

Every move matters in Forty Thieves. These tips will help you make the most of each one.

• Make every tableau move before you draw. You only go through the stock once, so play everything you can before turning the next card. Keep an eye on the stock count, which turns pink when only a few cards are left.
• Dig out low cards. Aces and 2s buried near the back of a column hold up a whole suit. Work on those columns first.
• Play to the foundations early. With two foundations per suit, moving a card up is almost always safe, and Aces and 2s should go up right away.
• Empty a column as soon as you can. An empty column lets you rearrange cards, free a buried card or park a card from the waste. Start with the column that’s closest to clearing.
• Use empty columns to rearrange cards. Since you can only move one card at a time, empty columns are where you take a sequence apart and rebuild it. One empty column lets you move a sequence of two cards, two empty columns let you move four, and three let you move eight, so it often pays to empty more than one.
• Don’t waste an empty column. Avoid filling it with a low card unless that move frees something useful right away. A King or a high card that starts a new sequence is usually a better choice.
• Don’t build long sequences over low cards. If an Ace, 2 or 3 is buried in a column, every card you add on top has to be moved off again, one at a time, before that low card can reach its foundation. Build long sequences where nothing underneath needs to move, such as on a King at the back of a column.

Your score rewards efficient play, so winning faster and in fewer moves scores higher. Every card you move, every stock card you draw, and every Undo or Hint counts as a move. Undo, Hint and moving a card off a foundation also count as penalties. Learn more about how Solitaire is scored.