Kings in the Corner

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and colours
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. When the stock runs out
6. End of a hand
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Kings in the Corner is like a game of solitaire (patience) that the whole table plays together. Everyone adds cards from their hand to shared piles around the draw pile, always building downwards in alternating colours – a red 7 on a black 8, a black 6 on a red 7. Kings go into the four corners. The first player to get rid of all their cards wins.

• Players: 2–4 (best with 4), each playing for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil if you want to keep score.

Card order and colours

In each pile the cards run downwards: K – Q – J – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – A. The King is the highest card, the Ace the lowest – nothing can be played on an Ace.

♥ hearts and ♦ diamonds are red, ♠ spades and ♣ clubs are black. Each card you add must be one rank lower and of the opposite colour to the card it covers.

Setup

1. Deal: pick a dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals 7 cards to each player, one at a time, face down. This is your hand – keep it hidden.
2. Stock: the rest of the deck goes face down in the middle of the table as the stock (draw pile).
3. Layout: the dealer turns up four cards from the stock and places them next to it – one on each side (north, east, south, west). These are the four side piles. The four corners stay empty for now.

The player to the dealer's left starts. Play goes clockwise (to the left).

Playing a turn

On your turn you may make as many moves as you like, in any order:

1. Play a card from your hand onto any pile, if it is one rank lower and of the opposite colour to the top card.
2. Start a corner: put a King from your hand into an empty corner. It is built on like any other pile (a red Queen on a black King, and so on).
3. Move a whole pile: if the bottom card of a pile (the highest one, the card it started with) is one rank lower and of the opposite colour to the top card of another pile, move the whole pile on top of it.
4. Fill a gap: when a side pile becomes empty (because its cards were moved), you may put any card from your hand there to start a new pile. Corners can only be filled with Kings.

When you have finished your moves – or if you can't or don't want to play – draw one card from the stock. That ends your turn.

Example: The side piles show 9♠, 5♥, Q♦ and 4♣. Anna holds 8♥, 7♣, 4♠, J♠, K♥ and 2♦. She plays 8♥ on 9♠ and then 7♣ on 8♥, 4♠ on 5♥ and J♠ on Q♦. She puts K♥ into an empty corner. Her 2♦ doesn't fit anywhere (it would need a black 3), so she draws one card and her turn ends.

Kings in the starting layout: if one of the four side cards is a King, the first player may move it into a corner. If two side cards already fit together, the first player may move one onto the other. Either way the empty side space can then be filled from the hand as usual.

Example (moving a pile): A corner shows K♠. A side pile has Q♥ at the bottom and J♠, 10♦ on top. On your turn you move the whole pile Q♥-J♠-10♦ onto the K♠. The side space is now empty, and you put your 8♣ there to start a new pile.

When the stock runs out

Play simply continues without drawing.

End of a hand

The hand ends when a player plays their last card – that player wins. It also ends if the stock is empty and nobody can (or wants to) play any more cards.

Scoring

Each player scores penalty points for the cards left in their hand:

Example: Ben goes out. Carla still holds K♣, 7♦ and 2♠ = 10 + 1 + 1 = 12 points. Dan holds 9♥ = 1 point.

Winning the game

For a single hand, the first player out wins (if the hand is blocked, the lowest penalty total wins it). For a longer game, keep a running total; when someone reaches the agreed limit – usually 25 or 50 – the player with the lowest total wins.

Tips for beginners

• Get Kings out of your hand quickly – they are worth 10 penalty points and only fit in a corner.
• Look for piles that can be moved: every pile you move opens a side space for any card.
• Before playing a card, check whether it would give the next player an easy play.
• Keep track of the Aces: a pile ending in an Ace is finished.

Variants

All of these are optional – agree on them before the game.

• Must play: if you can play a card, you must.
• Draw first: draw your card at the start of your turn instead of the end.
• Kings at once: a King must be put into a corner as soon as you can.
• Corners in suit: corner piles are built down in the same suit instead of alternating colours.
• Face value scoring: Aces 25, face cards 10, other cards face value; play to an agreed total.
• Corner collecting: whoever finishes a corner pile (down to the Ace) takes it; the player with the most corners wins.
• Four cards: deal only 4 cards each for a shorter game.