Beleaguered Castle

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Playing
6. Moving several cards
7. Winning
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Beleaguered Castle is a patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire). The four Aces sit in a column in the middle like a castle, and the rest of the deck lies around them in eight rows. Your goal is to build all 52 cards onto the Aces, one pile per suit, from Ace up to King. All cards are face up from the start, so there is very little luck once the cards are dealt – it is a game of planning ahead.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and a table with room for a wide layout.
• Time: about 15 minutes per game.

Card order

The Ace is low. From lowest to highest:

A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K

The parts of the layout

• Foundations: the four piles in the middle, one per suit, each starting with its Ace. Here you collect the cards in order, Ace up to King.
• Tableau: the eight rows of cards, four to the left and four to the right of the Aces, where you rearrange the cards. Together the four rows on one side are called a wing.
• Available card: in each row the cards overlap, so you can see them all, but only the outermost card – the one furthest from the Aces, lying on top of the others – may be moved.

There is no stock: every card is in the layout from the start.

Setup

1. Take the four Aces out of the deck and place them in a column one below the other in the middle of the table. They are the foundations.
2. Shuffle the other 48 cards and deal them face up into eight rows of six cards – four rows to the left of the Aces, four to the right, one row next to each Ace on each side. Deal column by column, alternately to the left and the right wing, so that each new card partly covers the previous one of its row and ends up further away from the Aces.

Example (the outermost, available card of each row is in bold):

The rows belong to no particular Ace – they just sit next to them.

Playing

There are no turns – you make one move after another in any order you like. You always move one card at a time, and only an available card (the outermost card of a row). These are the moves:

1. To a foundation: put an available card on the foundation of its suit if it is one rank higher than the top card there: the 2♥ on the A♥, then the 3♥, and so on up to the K♥.
2. Onto another row: put an available card on the outermost card of another row if it is one rank lower, regardless of suit or colour – this is called building down. For example, any 9 can go on any 10, and any 8 on that 9.
3. Empty rows: when a row has no cards left, it is a space. You may move any available card into it. The card then starts a new row.

There is no stock and no redeal. If no useful move is left, the game is over.

Example: In the layout above, move the 3♦ from the bottom-left row onto the 4♥ at the end of the top-right row (one rank lower, suit does not matter). Now the K♠ is the outermost card of the bottom-left row. The K♠ itself can't be moved except into an empty row, but any Queen may be built on it.

Moving several cards

Because you may only move one card at a time, you cannot simply pick up a whole sequence like 9–8–7. But with empty rows you can do it step by step: put the 7 into an empty row, the 8 onto the 9 you wanted, then the 7 back on the 8. Many computer versions do these steps for you automatically.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the four foundations, each from Ace to King in one suit. If you cannot make any more useful moves, the game is lost – shuffle and try again. Morehead and Mott-Smith estimated that about one game in three can be won; with perfect play (all cards are visible, after all) about two thirds of deals can be won.

Tips for beginners

• Don't make a move until you have planned a whole line of play that leads to an empty row. Empty rows are the key to the game.
• Twos and threes can always go to the foundations safely. After that, try to keep the four foundations level – a foundation that runs far ahead takes away cards you need in the tableau.
• Before you start, look where the low cards (2s, 3s) are buried and plan how to dig them out.
• Kings can only move into an empty row. A low card lying under a King is freed only when you move that King into a space, so plan an empty row for it early.

Variants

All of these are optional – choose one before you start.

• Streets and Alleys: the Aces are not taken out beforehand. Shuffle all 52 cards and deal them into the eight rows, leaving the column in the middle empty: four rows get seven cards, four rows six. Aces go to the foundation column as soon as they become available. Otherwise the rules are the same. Harder – Morehead and Mott-Smith put the chance at about one in four.
• Citadel: the Aces are not taken out. While dealing, any Ace goes straight to the foundations, and any card that fits on a foundation goes there instead of into a row (only the card just dealt, not one already in a row). Rows can therefore end up shorter. Then play as usual.
• Moving sequences: allow moving a whole sequence at once if you have enough empty rows to do it card by card (as described above) – this only saves time.