Why is Forty Thieves so hard?

Three rules combine to make it punishing: same-suit building (instead of alternating colors), single-card moves only (no group moves), and the stock recycles only once or not at all. Together these eliminate most of the mobility that makes Klondike and Spider winnable. Skilled players win 8–12% of deals.

Can any card fill an empty column?

Yes — unlike Klondike and Yukon, where only Kings fill empty columns, Forty Thieves lets any card fill them. This is one of the few rules that makes the game easier rather than harder, and it's why empty columns are so valuable.

Why is it called "Napoleon at St. Helena"?

Folklore says Napoleon Bonaparte played the game during his exile on St. Helena (1815–1821). The historical evidence is weak — his biographers don't dwell on it — but the name stuck and appears in 19th-century patience anthologies.

Are all Forty Thieves games winnable?

No. The win rate even with skilled play is only 8–12% in the standard ruleset. There is no peer-reviewed solvability study like Yan et al. (2005) for Klondike, but the strict move rules guarantee a high proportion of unsolvable deals. Some variants ease the stock recycle rule to push win rates higher.

Where does the "forty" in the name come from?

From the 40 cards dealt to the tableau at the start — ten columns of four cards each. The remaining 64 cards (out of two 52-card decks = 104) form the stock pile.

Forty Thieves Solitaire — Free online (two decks)

Play Forty Thieves Solitaire — Two Decks, Ten Columns, Same-Suit Only

Forty Thieves is one of the harder common solitaire variants. Two 52-card decks, ten tableau columns, eight foundations, and three rules that make every move expensive: build by suit only, move one card at a time, and the stock recycles only once (in many versions, not at all). It's also called Napoleon at St. Helena — Napoleon Bonaparte was rumored to have played it during his exile, though the historical record is thin. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Forty Thieves?

Goal: build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit. Two decks means each suit completes twice.

Setup

Tableau: ten columns of 4 cards each, all face-up. 40 cards total in the tableau (hence the name).
Stock: the remaining 64 cards face-down in the corner.
Waste: one card flipped at a time. Only the top is in play.
Foundations: eight empty piles, two per suit. Build up Ace to King.

Rules

Build tableau columns down by same suit. A 9 of hearts goes on a 10 of hearts only.
Move one card at a time. No multi-card group moves. This is the rule that makes Forty Thieves hard.
Any card can fill an empty tableau column.
Foundations build up by suit, Ace to King. Each suit completes twice (one Ace–King run per deck).
Click the stock to flip the next card to the waste. In our version the stock does not recycle — once empty, you play with what's left.

What's the Best Forty Thieves Strategy?

Empty a column early. Empty columns are the only way to re-arrange chains, since every move is one card. Aim to clear at least one column in the first dozen moves.
Don't bury Aces and 2s. Once a low card sits beneath taller ones in a same-suit column, getting it to the foundation requires moving every card above it one at a time. Keep low cards near the top.
Same-suit columns are gold. A clean K-Q-J-10-9 of hearts is far more useful than the same five cards mixed across suits. The clean column lets you slide cards onto the bottom for free.
Save stock cards for openings. Drawing burns options. Wait until the tableau is fully worked before flipping the next stock card.
Mind the duplicates. Every card has two copies. Sending the first 5 of clubs to the foundation when the second is buried mid-stack is fine. Sending the only accessible 5 when the other is even deeper kills the foundation pace.
Use undo as a learning tool. Forty Thieves rewards experimentation. Take a path, see if it stalls, undo, take a different path. Pattern recognition develops fast.

A Short History

Forty Thieves entered the published patience canon in 19th-century Europe. The folklore name Napoleon at St. Helena ties it to the French emperor's exile (1815–1821), where he was said to have played the game frequently. The historical evidence is thin — Napoleon's biographers don't dwell on his card-game preferences — but the name stuck. The game appears in Lady Adelaide Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Patience (1870) and most subsequent patience anthologies.

About This Version

This Forty Thieves runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day so you can compare times.

Other Solitaire Games to Try

Klondike — the easier seven-column classic with looser move rules
Spider — also two decks, but with relaxed group-move rules
FreeCell — every card visible, four free cells for temporary storage
Double Klondike — two decks with Klondike's looser building rules

For deeper strategy and the full history of Forty Thieves, see our Forty Thieves guide.