King Albert

Full rules

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

Overview

King Albert is a patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) in which every card lies face up from the start. You try to sort the whole deck onto four piles, one per suit, from Ace up to King. Nine columns of cards and a small reserve give you plenty of choice, but you may only ever move one card at a time – so the game rewards careful planning. It is also called Idiot's Delight.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Time: about 15 minutes per game.

Card order and colours

The Ace is low. From lowest to highest:

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

♥ hearts and ♦ diamonds are the red suits, ♠ spades and ♣ clubs the black suits.

The parts of the layout

• Tableau: nine columns of face-up cards. In each column the cards overlap downwards so you can see them all, but only the last card – the one nearest to you, not covered by any other – can be moved.
• Reserve: seven single cards spread out below the tableau. Every reserve card can be played at any time.
• Foundations: four piles above the tableau, empty at the start. Each is started with an Ace and built up in suit: the 2 of the same suit, then the 3 and so on up to the King.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal 45 cards face up into nine columns: the first column gets 1 card, the second 2, and so on up to 9 cards in the ninth column. It is easiest to deal in rows: nine cards across, then eight cards starting with the second column, then seven starting with the third, and so on.
2. Spread the remaining 7 cards face up in a row below the tableau. They are the reserve.

Playing

Move one card at a time. You can move the last card of any column or any reserve card:

1. To a foundation: an Ace starts a foundation as soon as it is free. On it goes the next card of the same suit (2♥ on A♥, then 3♥ …).
2. To the tableau: on the last card of a column you may put a card that is one rank lower and of the other colour (red on black, black on red) – for example a red 9 on a black 10. This is called building down in alternating colours.
3. Empty column: when a whole column has been cleared, you may put any free card there – the last card of a column or a reserve card.

You can never move several cards together. A group of cards in order only moves card by card, via empty columns or other columns. Cards never go back into the reserve, and an emptied reserve place stays empty.

Example: Column 4 ends with the 8♣, column 7 with the 9♦ and the reserve holds the 7♥. Put the 8♣ on the 9♦, then the 7♥ from the reserve on the 8♣. The card that lay above the 8♣ in column 4 is now free.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards lie on the foundations. When no useful move is left, the game is lost. Morehead and Mott-Smith put the chance of winning at 1 in 2; Peter Arnold at 2 in 5.

Tips for beginners

• Your first aim is to free the Aces, 2s and 3s. A low card buried under high cards of its own suit can block the whole game.
• An empty column is valuable: use it to move a short sequence card by card, or to park a card that is in the way.
• Don't use reserve cards for building in the tableau just because you can – every reserve card you put into a column is one card less that is free at all times.
• Clearing the short columns on the left first often gives you an early empty column.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Raglan: a well-known variant that starts with the four Aces already on the foundations, which makes the game easier.