Forty Thieves
The tough two-deck solitaire: build eight foundations one card at a time.
How to play Forty Thieves
Two full decks are dealt into ten columns of four face-up cards. Tap a card, then tap where it should go. Build the ten tableau columns downward in the same suit, moving only one card at a time, and build the eight foundations upward from Ace to King by suit. Tap the stock to deal a single card to the waste. There is no redeal, so spend it wisely. Double-tap a card to send it straight to its foundation. You win when all 104 cards reach the foundations.
Why Forty Thieves earns its reputation
Most solitaire games let you build the tableau down in alternating colours, which keeps legal moves flowing. Forty Thieves does not. Here you build down in the same suit, and you can only ever pick up one card at a time: no dragging a tidy run from one column to another. Add two full decks, ten stubborn columns and a stock you deal through exactly once with no redeal, and you have a patience that a skilled player still loses more often than they win. Going in expecting that changes how you play.
The eight foundations climb from Ace to King by suit, and the whole game is a slow negotiation to feed them without burying the cards you will need next.
How to give yourself a chance
- Empty a column early if you can: a free column is the most valuable thing on the board, a place to park a card while you dig.
- Do not rush cards to the foundations. A five you send home too soon might have anchored a same-suit run that unpicks a whole column.
- Respect the kings. A king can never sit on another card, so a buried king only escapes to an empty column. A column with low cards trapped under a king is the most expensive dig on the board; start it early or leave it alone.
- Keep an eye on both copies of every card; with two decks a rank you need is never truly gone, but the useful one might be trapped.
- Double-tap sends a card straight to its foundation, but treat that as a reward for good position, not a reflex.
Aces and twos set the tempo. Until an ace is up, its whole suit is locked out of the foundations, so digging out a buried ace is nearly always worth more than a tidy-looking build somewhere else. Scan all ten columns before your first move and note where the eight aces sleep. The columns holding two of them are where your game will be decided, and the sooner you start on them, the more tools you still have.
Play the stock like a budget
The stock is where most games are quietly lost. Every tap deals one card onto the waste and buries whatever was there, and with no redeal, a buried waste card is close to gone for good. So never tap just to see what happens. Before each deal, make every tableau move you actually want, look at the current waste card, and ask whether you can use it now, because this is its last cheap chance.
A worked moment: the waste shows the nine of clubs, and the ten of clubs sits exposed on a column. Play the nine onto the ten before you deal again, even if you have no further plan for it, because the next tap entombs the nine and the club run dies with it. The reverse discipline exists too: sometimes you hold a tableau move back so an incoming stock card has a landing spot when it appears. Watching the waste, and thinking one deal ahead, is worth more than any clever shuffling of the columns.
A patience for the patient
The name is literal: the forty thieves are the forty cards dealt face-up at the start, ten columns of four, all staring at you like a rogues' gallery. The game is old enough to have collected other names as well. Victorian patience books of the 1800s list it as Big Forty and Le Cadran, and most famously as Napoleon at Saint Helena, from the tale that the exiled emperor dealt it out through his final years on that island. Whether he truly did is anyone's guess, but the name stuck because the game feels like a long campaign: methodical, unforgiving, and quietly satisfying when the columns finally start collapsing into the foundations.
Go in with honest expectations. Even careful players lose more deals than they win, and losing streaks are part of the game's furniture, not proof you are playing badly. Some deals are simply dead on arrival, with key cards stacked in orders no skill can unpick. What skill changes is the margin. Sloppy play wins almost never, patient play wins a meaningful share, and the victories feel earned in a way easier patiences cannot match. Win one and you have earned it.
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Forty Thieves: frequently asked questions
Why is Forty Thieves so hard?
You may only move one card at a time and build the tableau strictly down in the same suit, with a single pass through the stock and no redeal, so every deal has to be planned carefully. Not every game is winnable.
Can I move a whole run of cards at once?
No. Forty Thieves moves exactly one card per turn, so to relocate a sequence you must move each card individually using empty columns and the foundations as space.
How is the score calculated?
Your score is the number of cards you have sent to the foundations, up to 104. Reaching 104 completes all eight foundations and wins the game; your best score is saved.
Can I move more than one card at a time?
No. Forty Thieves lets you move only a single card per move, so a run you want to relocate has to be shifted one card at a time, using empty columns and the foundations as staging room.
How many times can I go through the stock?
Just once. The stock deals one card at a time to the waste and there is no redeal, so once a card passes the waste and you cannot place it, it stays stuck there for the rest of the game.
What direction do the tableau columns build?
Downward and in the same suit: a six only accepts the five of its own suit, not any five. That single-suit rule is what makes the game so much tighter than Klondike.
Why is emptying a column so important?
An empty column is free workspace. You can drop any card there to unbury the cards beneath it, which is often the only way to break a jam, so guard your empty columns and do not fill them carelessly.
When should I deal from the stock?
Only after you have made every useful tableau move and checked where the current waste card could go. Each deal buries the waste one card deeper with no redeal coming, so tapping the stock just to see what happens is how winnable deals get lost.
How many cards do I need to clear to win?
All 104. Two full decks build the eight foundations from Ace to King, and the game is only won when every last card has reached them.
Is Forty Thieves free to play?
Yes. Forty Thieves is completely free on Inkplay, with no download, no sign-up, and no in-game purchases. Open the page and play instantly on desktop or mobile.
Can I play Forty Thieves unblocked?
Yes. Forty Thieves runs entirely in your browser with no download, install, or plugins, so it loads instantly and keeps working even on school or work networks where bigger game sites get blocked.
More games to play
In the mood for more? Try Chess, Tic Tac Toe, Connect Four, Reversi, or browse all board games and the full games list on Inkplay. Forty Thieves also appears in Solitaire.