Goal of the game
Move all 104 cards (two complete decks) onto the eight foundations, in ascending order and by suit (Spades on Spades, Hearts on Hearts, Diamonds on Diamonds, Clubs on Clubs), from Ace to King. The game is won when each foundation holds all 13 cards of its suit, twice — eight foundations × 13 cards = 104 cards total.
Setup
Shuffle two standard 52-card decks together (104 cards). Deal them face-up into ten tableau columns of four cards each (40 cards total). The remaining 64 cards form the stock pile, dealt face-up onto a single waste pile one card at a time. Place the eight foundations above the tableau — empty at the start, one for each suit of each deck — and start building them as Aces appear.
Regras do Forty Thieves
- Dois baralhos (104 cartas) distribuídos em 10 colunas de 4 cartas cada, todas viradas para cima.
- Monte o tableau em ordem decrescente por naipe (paus sobre paus, copas sobre copas…).
- Mova apenas uma carta por vez - sem movimentos em grupo.
- Monte 8 bases em ordem crescente por naipe, do Ás ao Rei.
- Cartas do monte saem uma por vez, sem redistribuição.
Win and loss conditions
You win when all 104 cards have been built onto the eight foundations and the tableau, stock, and waste are empty. You lose when the stock is exhausted, the top of the waste cannot be placed anywhere, and no legal move advances any foundation. Solitaire Royal's undo button lets you backtrack costly moves; you can also restart the deal or shuffle a new one. Deals are randomly shuffled and tuned to be solvable.
Estratégia e dicas
- Colunas vazias são preciosas - você vai precisar de pelo menos uma para reordenações complexas.
- Não enterre valores baixos. Um 3 preso sob 8 cartas costuma significar partida perdida.
- Experimente as variantes Relaxed primeiro se o Forty Thieves clássico parecer muito punitivo.
Forty Thieves is widely associated with Napoleon Bonaparte, who is reputed to have played it during his exile on Saint Helena (1815-1821) — the name's connection to the "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" tale dates from the same era's European fascination with Arabian Nights. The strict ruleset became a benchmark for difficulty in 19th-century patience anthologies, and by the 20th century had spawned a recognised family of relaxations (Josephine, Miss Milligan, Forty and Eight, Streets and Alleys, Lucas, Maria) that systematically soften one constraint at a time while preserving the core two-deck same-suit-only structure.
