Everything you need to know about Forty Thieves Solitaire. Rules, foundations, win rates, strategy tips and common questions answered.
Everything you need to know about Forty Thieves Solitaire. Rules, foundations, win rates, strategy tips and common questions answered.
Q: How do you set up Forty Thieves Solitaire?
Forty Thieves Solitaire uses two standard 52-card decks shuffled together — 104 cards in total. Forty cards are dealt face-up into ten columns of four cards each. These forty tableau cards give the game its name. The remaining 64 cards form the stock pile. Eight foundation piles are set up above the tableau, one for each of the four suits across both decks — each foundation starts empty and must be built from Ace up to King in the same suit. One card is not pre-dealt to the waste pile; instead play begins with all ten columns occupied and the stock available to draw from. For a full setup guide see our how to play Forty Thieves Solitaire page.
Q: What are the basic rules of Forty Thieves Solitaire?
The goal is to build all eight foundations from Ace to King in the same suit, using both copies of each suit across the two decks. A face-up card can be moved to another tableau column if it is the same suit and exactly one rank lower than the column's top card — only single cards may move at a time; no multi-card groups. When a column is emptied it may be filled with any single face-up card. One card at a time may be drawn from the stock to the waste pile; only the top card of the waste pile is available to play. The stock is not recycled — once exhausted, no further draws are available. Any face-up card may be sent to a foundation if it is the correct suit and the next rank required on that foundation.
Q: Can you only move one card at a time in Forty Thieves?
Yes — Forty Thieves uses strict single-card movement. Only one face-up card may be moved at a time between tableau columns, and only onto a card of the same suit one rank higher. This single-card rule is the primary source of Forty Thieves' difficulty: unlike Spider or Scorpion where entire groups can be relocated, every reorganisation in Forty Thieves requires individual card-by-card moves, making the management of 104 cards across ten columns and eight foundations a complex and unforgiving challenge. The single-card restriction makes empty columns and waste pile management far more critical than in group-move games.
Q: What are the tableau movement rules in Forty Thieves?
A card may be moved from the top of any tableau column to the top of another tableau column if and only if the moving card is the same suit as the destination column's top card and exactly one rank lower. For example, the 7 of Hearts can be placed on the 8 of Hearts but not on the 8 of Spades. A card may also be moved directly to a foundation if it is the correct suit and the next rank required. An empty column accepts any single card from the tableau top, the waste pile, or a foundation (though sending a card from a foundation back to the tableau is rarely beneficial). The waste pile's top card is always available to move to the tableau or directly to a foundation.
Q: How does the stock and waste pile work in Forty Thieves?
One card at a time is drawn from the stock to the waste pile — the player controls when each draw happens. The top card of the waste pile is the only waste card available to play. Drawing a new card from the stock covers the previous waste pile top and makes it inaccessible until the new card is played. The stock has 64 cards — a very deep reserve compared to most solitaire games — but it is a single-pass resource with no recycle in standard Forty Thieves. This means all 64 stock draws are permanent decisions, and the order in which cards surface from the stock is a major determinant of the game's difficulty. The waste pile depth is also critical: a card buried deep in the waste pile cannot be retrieved without first playing all the cards that were drawn on top of it.
Q: Can you go through the stock more than once in Forty Thieves?
No — in standard Forty Thieves the stock is a single-pass resource of 64 cards. Once all 64 cards have been drawn to the waste pile, no further draws are available. Some variant implementations permit one or more redeals of the waste pile, but standard Forty Thieves does not. The no-redeal rule means that any card drawn from the stock and then covered by subsequent draws is permanently inaccessible unless the cards drawn on top of it are first played. This is why the timing of each stock draw is a strategic decision — drawing prematurely can bury a tableau opportunity.
Q: What is the foundation rule in Forty Thieves?
There are eight foundations — two per suit — because two decks are used. Each foundation starts with an Ace of the appropriate suit and is built upward, same suit only, from Ace through to King. Both copies of each suit must be fully built: both Ace-to-King sequences of Hearts, both of Spades, both of Clubs, and both of Diamonds. A card can be sent to a foundation at any time if it is the next rank required on that foundation pile. Foundation cards cannot be moved back to the tableau in most implementations, making the timing of when to send cards to the foundations strategically significant.
Q: What percentage of Forty Thieves games are winnable?
Forty Thieves is one of the hardest mainstream solitaire games — approximately 40–60% of deals are theoretically winnable under optimal play, but in practice strategic players complete the tableau in only 20–40% of hands. The large gap between theoretical and practical winnability reflects how easy it is to play a theoretically solvable deal into an unwinnable state: a single premature stock draw, a poor empty column decision, or a foundation timing error can lock the game irreversibly. See our solitaire win rates guide for a full comparison across all major solitaire games.
Q: Is Forty Thieves always solvable?
No — approximately 40–60% of deals are genuinely unwinnable regardless of play quality, making Forty Thieves one of the most unwinnable major solitaire games alongside Pyramid. The most common unwinnable patterns are: a suit cluster where both copies of a critical low rank are buried deep in the stock in positions that cannot be reached before the tableau locks; and a circular column dependency where each column contains a card needed to unblock another column in a circular chain that empty columns alone cannot resolve. The single-card movement rule means that dependencies which could be broken in group-move games are permanent in Forty Thieves.
Q: What is a good Forty Thieves win rate?
Below 15% suggests fundamental strategy improvement is possible; 20–30% is competent play; above 35% is strong strategic play. Because Forty Thieves has a high genuine unwinnable rate (~40–60%), it is important to distinguish between losses from unwinnable deals and losses from avoidable strategic errors. The most useful indicator of strategic skill is not raw win rate but the proportion of theoretically winnable deals that are actually completed — a player who wins 30% of all deals but loses most of the winnable ones due to strategic errors has more room to improve than their win rate alone suggests. See our advanced Forty Thieves strategy guide for the full framework.
Q: Why is Forty Thieves so hard compared to other solitaire games?
Four structural features combine to make Forty Thieves exceptionally hard. First, single-card movement means every reorganisation requires multiple individual steps with no shortcutting via group moves. Second, the same-suit column rule (only same-suit cards stack) creates far more restrictive movement conditions than alternating-colour games like Klondike — the probability that the top card of any given column will accept the card you want to place is roughly one in four rather than one in two. Third, the 64-card single-pass stock is enormous — the card order is almost entirely out of the player's control, and a bad stock sequence can make a theoretically winnable deal practically impossible. Fourth, the two-deck scale (104 cards, eight foundations, ten columns) magnifies all of these constraints simultaneously. No other mainstream solitaire game combines all four of these difficulty factors at the same scale.
Q: What is the most important Forty Thieves strategy tip?
Never draw from the stock until all possible tableau moves have been exhausted — and even then, scan the waste pile top and all ten column tops before drawing to confirm the current state cannot be improved further. In Forty Thieves, a premature stock draw covers the previous waste pile top and may bury a card that would have been critical two or three moves later. The cost of a premature draw is not just the immediate missed move — it is the permanent loss of access to the previous waste top until every card drawn on top of it is first played away. This single discipline — complete tableau scan before every draw — produces the largest measurable improvement in both win rate and average game length for players transitioning from casual to strategic Forty Thieves. For the full beginner framework see our beginner strategy guide.
Q: How should I use empty columns in Forty Thieves?
Empty columns are the scarcest and most valuable resource in Forty Thieves. Because only single cards can move at a time and same-suit stacking is required, the only way to reorder tableau cards is by using empty columns as temporary staging positions. The four primary uses of an empty column in order of strategic value are: moving a card that is blocking a same-suit continuation to temporary storage while the continuation is executed; staging a sequence of single-card moves that would otherwise require a same-suit destination that does not yet exist; parking a waste pile card whose suit has no current tableau destination; and as a last resort, holding a King that can anchor a new suit column. Before filling an empty column permanently, always perform one full scan of all ten columns and the waste pile top to confirm that no higher-value use exists for that empty space. See our advanced strategy guide for the full empty column hierarchy.
Q: When should I send cards to the foundations in Forty Thieves?
Foundation timing is one of the most consequential decisions in Forty Thieves because a card sent to a foundation cannot be retrieved. Sending a card too early removes it from tableau circulation before it has served its function as a same-suit destination for the card one rank above it. The practical guideline is a four-tier system. Aces and 2s should go to foundations immediately — they have no value as tableau destinations (nothing stacks below an Ace; only Aces stack on 2s in the foundation direction). Cards ranked 3–6 should go to foundations only when both copies of that rank are accounted for on foundations or in visible tableau positions — if one copy is in the stock or waste and unreachable, keeping the tableau copy active as a potential destination is more valuable. Cards ranked 7–9 can go to foundations when doing so does not strand a same-suit card of the rank above on the tableau with no valid destination. Cards ranked 10 and above can generally go to foundations freely, since high-rank cards are less likely to serve as critical same-suit destinations. For the full treatment see our advanced Forty Thieves strategy guide.
Q: How should I manage the stock draws in Forty Thieves?
The 64-card stock is the most important source of new cards in Forty Thieves and each draw is irreversible. Three principles govern effective stock management. First, draw only when the tableau is fully developed — all achievable same-suit continuations have been made, all empty column manoeuvres have been executed, and the waste pile top has been played if possible. Second, when drawing is necessary, mentally note which ranks are most needed across all eight foundation sequences and across the ten column tops — a draw that surfaces a needed rank is productive; one that does not is a positional cost. Third, track the waste pile depth: cards that have been drawn but not yet played are accessible in last-in-first-out order, so planning which waste cards can be freed by playing subsequent draws is an advanced but high-value habit. For the complete stock management framework see our beginner strategy guide.
Q: What is the N×N column compatibility check in Forty Thieves?
Before drawing from the stock, scan all ten column tops against each other: for each column top, check whether its rank minus one exists as the top card of any other column of the same suit. If a same-suit continuation exists between any two column tops that has not yet been made, that move should be executed before drawing. This N×N check — comparing every column top against every other column top for same-suit adjacency — is the foundational pre-draw discipline in Forty Thieves. At ten columns, there are 45 unique pairs to check, which experienced players execute in a rapid systematic scan rather than a random check. Missing a same-suit continuation because the check was incomplete is one of the most common causes of avoidable stock draws. See our advanced strategy guide for the full pre-draw protocol.
Q: Does it matter which tableau column I choose to fill an empty column with?
Yes — significantly. The choice of which card fills an empty column is often the highest-stakes single decision in a Forty Thieves hand. The optimal card to place in an empty column is the one that, at this position, creates the most forward momentum: a low-rank Ace or 2 that can go immediately to a foundation and re-empty the column; a card that unblocks a same-suit continuation chain of two or more moves; or a waste pile card whose suit has no current tableau home and which would otherwise become permanently inaccessible as new stock draws cover it. The worst use of an empty column is placing a mid-rank or high-rank card from a tableau column that already has viable same-suit options, permanently consuming the empty space for marginal gain.
Q: What are the main Forty Thieves Solitaire variants?
Several closely related two-deck variants exist. Napoleon at St Helena uses the same rules as Forty Thieves and is often considered an alternative name for the same game. Forty Bandits reduces the initial deal to nine columns of four (36 tableau cards). Lucas deals thirteen columns of three cards each and allows any card to be moved to any tableau column — not just same-suit destinations — making it significantly easier. Indian uses the same layout as Lucas but reverts to the same-suit restriction. Our Forty Thieves guide covers the full variant family in detail.
Q: How is Forty Thieves different from Spider Solitaire?
Both Forty Thieves and Spider use same-suit sequence building as the primary mechanic, but differ in almost every structural detail. Spider deals ten columns of varying depth from a stock that replenishes the tableau in rounds; Forty Thieves deals ten columns of four from a waste-pile stock with no replenishment. Spider allows same-suit group moves; Forty Thieves allows only single-card moves. Spider builds K-to-A sequences in the tableau before removing them; Forty Thieves builds A-to-K sequences to eight separate foundations. Spider uses one, two, or four suits depending on difficulty setting; Forty Thieves always uses both decks' full four suits. Spider is generally considered harder than Forty Thieves at the four-suit level but easier at one suit. Play Spider in our free Spider Solitaire game.
Q: How is Forty Thieves different from Klondike?
Forty Thieves and Klondike are structurally distinct. Klondike uses one deck, seven columns, alternating-colour sequences, and a stock that can be cycled; Forty Thieves uses two decks, ten columns, same-suit-only movement, and a no-recycle stock of 64 cards. Klondike allows multi-card group moves of properly sequenced stacks; Forty Thieves allows only single-card moves. Klondike has face-down cards that are progressively revealed; Forty Thieves deals all cards face-up. Forty Thieves is generally considered harder than Klondike due to the same-suit restriction, the single-card movement rule, the no-recycle stock, and the two-deck scale. Play Klondike in our free Klondike Solitaire game.
Q: Is Forty Thieves a game of luck or skill?
Both, with a higher luck component than most mainstream solitaire games due to the 64-card single-pass stock. The stock order — which is entirely random and outside the player's control — determines which cards surface and when, and a bad stock sequence can make a theoretically solvable deal practically unwinnable regardless of strategic quality. That said, skill is highly significant within the constraints of the deal: the N×N column compatibility check, empty column hierarchy, foundation timing discipline, and stock draw restraint all produce measurably better results on the same deal. The large gap between a 15% casual win rate and a 35% strategic win rate on the same set of deals confirms that skill matters substantially. For a full breakdown see our challenging solitaire games guide.
Q: Can Forty Thieves Solitaire be played with physical cards?
Yes — Forty Thieves can be played with two standard decks shuffled together. Deal forty cards face-up into ten columns of four, set aside the remaining 64 as the stock face-down, and set up eight foundation spaces above the tableau. The single-card movement rule is straightforward to enforce physically. The main practical difference from digital play is that the stock order is unknown until each card is drawn (adding a genuine information dimension that digital implementations sometimes spoil by showing the top stock card), and there is no undo function — premature draws are permanent, as in standard rules.
Q: Why is the game called Forty Thieves?
The game is named after the forty initial tableau cards — the forty thieves of the title — dealt face-up in ten columns of four at the start of play. The name also connects to the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves from One Thousand and One Nights, a cultural reference that gave the game its memorable identity. The alternative name Napoleon at St Helena is sometimes said to reference Napoleon Bonaparte's reputed pastime of playing patience during his exile on the island of Saint Helena, though the historical accuracy of this claim is disputed. Play our free Forty Thieves Solitaire game to apply everything covered in this guide.
Q: What does it mean when Forty Thieves says no more moves?
A no-more-moves notification means no tableau column top can be moved to any other column top by same-suit rank adjacency, the waste pile top cannot be moved to any tableau column or foundation, and the stock is exhausted. If the notification appears while stock cards remain, drawing will place a new waste pile top — the game continues. If the stock is exhausted and no plays are available from the waste pile top or any tableau column, the game is over. As with all complex multi-column games, the no-moves check should be verified exhaustively — at ten columns and 45 unique column-top pairs, plus the waste pile top against all columns, it is easy to miss a valid same-suit adjacency on a quick scan.
Forty Thieves Solitaire uses two standard 52-card decks shuffled together — 104 cards in total. Forty cards are dealt face-up into ten columns of four cards each. These forty tableau cards give the game its name. The remaining 64 cards form the stock pile. Eight foundation piles are set up above the tableau, one for each of the four suits across both decks — each foundation starts empty and must be built from Ace up to King in the same suit. One card is not pre-dealt to the waste pile; instead play begins with all ten columns occupied and the stock available to draw from. For a full setup guide see our how to play Forty Thieves Solitaire page.
The goal is to build all eight foundations from Ace to King in the same suit, using both copies of each suit across the two decks. A face-up card can be moved to another tableau column if it is the same suit and exactly one rank lower than the column's top card — only single cards may move at a time; no multi-card groups. When a column is emptied it may be filled with any single face-up card. One card at a time may be drawn from the stock to the waste pile; only the top card of the waste pile is available to play. The stock is not recycled — once exhausted, no further draws are available. Any face-up card may be sent to a foundation if it is the correct suit and the next rank required on that foundation.
Yes — Forty Thieves uses strict single-card movement. Only one face-up card may be moved at a time between tableau columns, and only onto a card of the same suit one rank higher. This single-card rule is the primary source of Forty Thieves' difficulty: unlike Spider or Scorpion where entire groups can be relocated, every reorganisation in Forty Thieves requires individual card-by-card moves, making the management of 104 cards across ten columns and eight foundations a complex and unforgiving challenge. The single-card restriction makes empty columns and waste pile management far more critical than in group-move games.
A card may be moved from the top of any tableau column to the top of another tableau column if and only if the moving card is the same suit as the destination column's top card and exactly one rank lower. For example, the 7 of Hearts can be placed on the 8 of Hearts but not on the 8 of Spades. A card may also be moved directly to a foundation if it is the correct suit and the next rank required. An empty column accepts any single card from the tableau top, the waste pile, or a foundation (though sending a card from a foundation back to the tableau is rarely beneficial). The waste pile's top card is always available to move to the tableau or directly to a foundation.
One card at a time is drawn from the stock to the waste pile — the player controls when each draw happens. The top card of the waste pile is the only waste card available to play. Drawing a new card from the stock covers the previous waste pile top and makes it inaccessible until the new card is played. The stock has 64 cards — a very deep reserve compared to most solitaire games — but it is a single-pass resource with no recycle in standard Forty Thieves. This means all 64 stock draws are permanent decisions, and the order in which cards surface from the stock is a major determinant of the game's difficulty. The waste pile depth is also critical: a card buried deep in the waste pile cannot be retrieved without first playing all the cards that were drawn on top of it.
No — in standard Forty Thieves the stock is a single-pass resource of 64 cards. Once all 64 cards have been drawn to the waste pile, no further draws are available. Some variant implementations permit one or more redeals of the waste pile, but standard Forty Thieves does not. The no-redeal rule means that any card drawn from the stock and then covered by subsequent draws is permanently inaccessible unless the cards drawn on top of it are first played. This is why the timing of each stock draw is a strategic decision — drawing prematurely can bury a tableau opportunity.
There are eight foundations — two per suit — because two decks are used. Each foundation starts with an Ace of the appropriate suit and is built upward, same suit only, from Ace through to King. Both copies of each suit must be fully built: both Ace-to-King sequences of Hearts, both of Spades, both of Clubs, and both of Diamonds. A card can be sent to a foundation at any time if it is the next rank required on that foundation pile. Foundation cards cannot be moved back to the tableau in most implementations, making the timing of when to send cards to the foundations strategically significant.
Forty Thieves is one of the hardest mainstream solitaire games — approximately 40–60% of deals are theoretically winnable under optimal play, but in practice strategic players complete the tableau in only 20–40% of hands. The large gap between theoretical and practical winnability reflects how easy it is to play a theoretically solvable deal into an unwinnable state: a single premature stock draw, a poor empty column decision, or a foundation timing error can lock the game irreversibly. See our solitaire win rates guide for a full comparison across all major solitaire games.
No — approximately 40–60% of deals are genuinely unwinnable regardless of play quality, making Forty Thieves one of the most unwinnable major solitaire games alongside Pyramid. The most common unwinnable patterns are: a suit cluster where both copies of a critical low rank are buried deep in the stock in positions that cannot be reached before the tableau locks; and a circular column dependency where each column contains a card needed to unblock another column in a circular chain that empty columns alone cannot resolve. The single-card movement rule means that dependencies which could be broken in group-move games are permanent in Forty Thieves.
Below 15% suggests fundamental strategy improvement is possible; 20–30% is competent play; above 35% is strong strategic play. Because Forty Thieves has a high genuine unwinnable rate (~40–60%), it is important to distinguish between losses from unwinnable deals and losses from avoidable strategic errors. The most useful indicator of strategic skill is not raw win rate but the proportion of theoretically winnable deals that are actually completed — a player who wins 30% of all deals but loses most of the winnable ones due to strategic errors has more room to improve than their win rate alone suggests. See our advanced Forty Thieves strategy guide for the full framework.
Four structural features combine to make Forty Thieves exceptionally hard. First, single-card movement means every reorganisation requires multiple individual steps with no shortcutting via group moves. Second, the same-suit column rule (only same-suit cards stack) creates far more restrictive movement conditions than alternating-colour games like Klondike — the probability that the top card of any given column will accept the card you want to place is roughly one in four rather than one in two. Third, the 64-card single-pass stock is enormous — the card order is almost entirely out of the player's control, and a bad stock sequence can make a theoretically winnable deal practically impossible. Fourth, the two-deck scale (104 cards, eight foundations, ten columns) magnifies all of these constraints simultaneously. No other mainstream solitaire game combines all four of these difficulty factors at the same scale.
Never draw from the stock until all possible tableau moves have been exhausted — and even then, scan the waste pile top and all ten column tops before drawing to confirm the current state cannot be improved further. In Forty Thieves, a premature stock draw covers the previous waste pile top and may bury a card that would have been critical two or three moves later. The cost of a premature draw is not just the immediate missed move — it is the permanent loss of access to the previous waste top until every card drawn on top of it is first played away. This single discipline — complete tableau scan before every draw — produces the largest measurable improvement in both win rate and average game length for players transitioning from casual to strategic Forty Thieves. For the full beginner framework see our beginner strategy guide.
Empty columns are the scarcest and most valuable resource in Forty Thieves. Because only single cards can move at a time and same-suit stacking is required, the only way to reorder tableau cards is by using empty columns as temporary staging positions. The four primary uses of an empty column in order of strategic value are: moving a card that is blocking a same-suit continuation to temporary storage while the continuation is executed; staging a sequence of single-card moves that would otherwise require a same-suit destination that does not yet exist; parking a waste pile card whose suit has no current tableau destination; and as a last resort, holding a King that can anchor a new suit column. Before filling an empty column permanently, always perform one full scan of all ten columns and the waste pile top to confirm that no higher-value use exists for that empty space. See our advanced strategy guide for the full empty column hierarchy.
Foundation timing is one of the most consequential decisions in Forty Thieves because a card sent to a foundation cannot be retrieved. Sending a card too early removes it from tableau circulation before it has served its function as a same-suit destination for the card one rank above it. The practical guideline is a four-tier system. Aces and 2s should go to foundations immediately — they have no value as tableau destinations (nothing stacks below an Ace; only Aces stack on 2s in the foundation direction). Cards ranked 3–6 should go to foundations only when both copies of that rank are accounted for on foundations or in visible tableau positions — if one copy is in the stock or waste and unreachable, keeping the tableau copy active as a potential destination is more valuable. Cards ranked 7–9 can go to foundations when doing so does not strand a same-suit card of the rank above on the tableau with no valid destination. Cards ranked 10 and above can generally go to foundations freely, since high-rank cards are less likely to serve as critical same-suit destinations. For the full treatment see our advanced Forty Thieves strategy guide.
The 64-card stock is the most important source of new cards in Forty Thieves and each draw is irreversible. Three principles govern effective stock management. First, draw only when the tableau is fully developed — all achievable same-suit continuations have been made, all empty column manoeuvres have been executed, and the waste pile top has been played if possible. Second, when drawing is necessary, mentally note which ranks are most needed across all eight foundation sequences and across the ten column tops — a draw that surfaces a needed rank is productive; one that does not is a positional cost. Third, track the waste pile depth: cards that have been drawn but not yet played are accessible in last-in-first-out order, so planning which waste cards can be freed by playing subsequent draws is an advanced but high-value habit. For the complete stock management framework see our beginner strategy guide.
Before drawing from the stock, scan all ten column tops against each other: for each column top, check whether its rank minus one exists as the top card of any other column of the same suit. If a same-suit continuation exists between any two column tops that has not yet been made, that move should be executed before drawing. This N×N check — comparing every column top against every other column top for same-suit adjacency — is the foundational pre-draw discipline in Forty Thieves. At ten columns, there are 45 unique pairs to check, which experienced players execute in a rapid systematic scan rather than a random check. Missing a same-suit continuation because the check was incomplete is one of the most common causes of avoidable stock draws. See our advanced strategy guide for the full pre-draw protocol.
Yes — significantly. The choice of which card fills an empty column is often the highest-stakes single decision in a Forty Thieves hand. The optimal card to place in an empty column is the one that, at this position, creates the most forward momentum: a low-rank Ace or 2 that can go immediately to a foundation and re-empty the column; a card that unblocks a same-suit continuation chain of two or more moves; or a waste pile card whose suit has no current tableau home and which would otherwise become permanently inaccessible as new stock draws cover it. The worst use of an empty column is placing a mid-rank or high-rank card from a tableau column that already has viable same-suit options, permanently consuming the empty space for marginal gain.
Several closely related two-deck variants exist. Napoleon at St Helena uses the same rules as Forty Thieves and is often considered an alternative name for the same game. Forty Bandits reduces the initial deal to nine columns of four (36 tableau cards). Lucas deals thirteen columns of three cards each and allows any card to be moved to any tableau column — not just same-suit destinations — making it significantly easier. Indian uses the same layout as Lucas but reverts to the same-suit restriction. Our Forty Thieves guide covers the full variant family in detail.
Both Forty Thieves and Spider use same-suit sequence building as the primary mechanic, but differ in almost every structural detail. Spider deals ten columns of varying depth from a stock that replenishes the tableau in rounds; Forty Thieves deals ten columns of four from a waste-pile stock with no replenishment. Spider allows same-suit group moves; Forty Thieves allows only single-card moves. Spider builds K-to-A sequences in the tableau before removing them; Forty Thieves builds A-to-K sequences to eight separate foundations. Spider uses one, two, or four suits depending on difficulty setting; Forty Thieves always uses both decks' full four suits. Spider is generally considered harder than Forty Thieves at the four-suit level but easier at one suit. Play Spider in our free Spider Solitaire game.
Forty Thieves and Klondike are structurally distinct. Klondike uses one deck, seven columns, alternating-colour sequences, and a stock that can be cycled; Forty Thieves uses two decks, ten columns, same-suit-only movement, and a no-recycle stock of 64 cards. Klondike allows multi-card group moves of properly sequenced stacks; Forty Thieves allows only single-card moves. Klondike has face-down cards that are progressively revealed; Forty Thieves deals all cards face-up. Forty Thieves is generally considered harder than Klondike due to the same-suit restriction, the single-card movement rule, the no-recycle stock, and the two-deck scale. Play Klondike in our free Klondike Solitaire game.
Both, with a higher luck component than most mainstream solitaire games due to the 64-card single-pass stock. The stock order — which is entirely random and outside the player's control — determines which cards surface and when, and a bad stock sequence can make a theoretically solvable deal practically unwinnable regardless of strategic quality. That said, skill is highly significant within the constraints of the deal: the N×N column compatibility check, empty column hierarchy, foundation timing discipline, and stock draw restraint all produce measurably better results on the same deal. The large gap between a 15% casual win rate and a 35% strategic win rate on the same set of deals confirms that skill matters substantially. For a full breakdown see our challenging solitaire games guide.
Yes — Forty Thieves can be played with two standard decks shuffled together. Deal forty cards face-up into ten columns of four, set aside the remaining 64 as the stock face-down, and set up eight foundation spaces above the tableau. The single-card movement rule is straightforward to enforce physically. The main practical difference from digital play is that the stock order is unknown until each card is drawn (adding a genuine information dimension that digital implementations sometimes spoil by showing the top stock card), and there is no undo function — premature draws are permanent, as in standard rules.
The game is named after the forty initial tableau cards — the forty thieves of the title — dealt face-up in ten columns of four at the start of play. The name also connects to the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves from One Thousand and One Nights, a cultural reference that gave the game its memorable identity. The alternative name Napoleon at St Helena is sometimes said to reference Napoleon Bonaparte's reputed pastime of playing patience during his exile on the island of Saint Helena, though the historical accuracy of this claim is disputed. Play our free Forty Thieves Solitaire game to apply everything covered in this guide.
A no-more-moves notification means no tableau column top can be moved to any other column top by same-suit rank adjacency, the waste pile top cannot be moved to any tableau column or foundation, and the stock is exhausted. If the notification appears while stock cards remain, drawing will place a new waste pile top — the game continues. If the stock is exhausted and no plays are available from the waste pile top or any tableau column, the game is over. As with all complex multi-column games, the no-moves check should be verified exhaustively — at ten columns and 45 unique column-top pairs, plus the waste pile top against all columns, it is easy to miss a valid same-suit adjacency on a quick scan.