Terrace

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

Terrace, also called Queen of Italy, is a two-deck patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire). You build eight piles of thirteen cards each, alternating red and black. You choose the starting rank yourself – after looking at the eleven cards of the "terrace", a row of cards that can only be played in a fixed order. The better you plan around them, the more often you win.

• Players: 1
• You need: two standard 52-card decks (104 cards), no jokers, shuffled together, and a large table.
• Time: about 15 minutes per game.

Card order and colours

Ranks follow the usual order, but without an end: after the King comes the Ace again.

… – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K – A – 2 – 3 – …

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

The parts of the layout

• Reserve (the terrace): eleven cards in an overlapping row. Only the rightmost card, which lies on top, is available, and only for a foundation.
• Foundations: eight piles that you build up in alternating colours (red on black, black on red), each starting with a card of the rank you chose. Each ends after thirteen cards.
• Tableau: nine piles below the foundations, where you arrange cards.
• Stock: the face-down rest of the cards.
• Waste: a face-up pile onto which you turn cards from the stock. Its top card is available.

Setup

1. Shuffle both decks together. Deal eleven cards face up in a row, each overlapping the one before: this is the reserve.
2. Below it, deal a row of three cards face up. Look at the reserve, then choose one of the three as your first foundation and move it up into a new row between the reserve and the tableau.
3. Move the other two cards down to a third row and deal seven more cards to it: these nine cards are the tableau. (If a rejected card has the same rank as your choice, it becomes a foundation too, and the gap it leaves is filled from the stock.)
4. The rest of the cards form the stock.

Example: The three cards are 7♠, J♥ and 6♦. You choose the 6♦. From now on, all eight 6s start foundations; the 7♠ and J♥ go to the tableau.

Playing

Foundations: as soon as another card of the chosen rank is available, it starts a new foundation. Build each foundation up by one rank, alternating colours, going round the corner from King to Ace.

Example: On the 6♦ (red) comes a black 7, then a red 8, a black 9, a red 10, a black J, a red Q, a black K, a red A, a black 2, a red 3, a black 4 and finally a red 5 – thirteen cards.

Reserve: the top card of the reserve can go only to a foundation. Then the next card becomes available.

Tableau: the top card of a tableau pile can go to a foundation or onto another tableau pile. On the tableau, build down by one rank in alternating colours (a red 8 on a black 9, a black A on a red 2, a red K on a black A). Move one card at a time.

Spaces: when a tableau pile is cleared, fill the space at once with the top card of the waste or, if the waste is empty, the top card of the stock – never from the reserve or the tableau. If both are empty, the space simply stays empty.

Stock: turn cards from the stock one at a time. Play each onto a foundation or the tableau, or put it face up on the waste. The top card of the waste may go to a foundation or the tableau at any time.

There is no redeal.

Winning

You win when all 104 cards lie on the eight foundations. If the stock is used up and no card can be moved, the game is lost. Morehead and Mott-Smith thought three games in four could be won; Peter Arnold says about half.

Tips for beginners

• Choose the foundation rank carefully. Avoid a rank of which several cards lie deep in the reserve.
• Look for reversed pairs in the reserve: a card needed later lying above one needed earlier. A good choice of rank can put such pairs in the right order.
• Build on the foundations mainly to take off the current reserve card, not just because you can.
• Don't build on a single tableau card without reason: once it is covered, you can only make a space there by clearing the whole pile. Keep soon-wanted cards uncovered and a variety of ranks available.

Variants

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

• Four cards to choose from: deal four cards in step 2 instead of three. Fill the gap left by your choice from the stock, then add five more cards beside these to make the nine tableau piles. Wikipedia and some computer versions describe the game this way; Morehead and Mott-Smith (1949) deal three.
• Freer spaces: a space may also be filled with a card from the tableau or the waste, whenever you like.
• Blondes and Brunettes: deal only ten cards to the reserve, then the nine tableau cards; the next card is the first foundation – no choice. Much harder.
• General's Patience: build the foundations in suit instead of alternating colours.