THE SINGLE-PASS GAUNTLET
Forty Thieves Solitaire
Play Forty Thieves solitaire free online — no download, no sign-up, works on any device. Two full decks, ten columns of four dealt face up, and one unforgiving rule pair: cards build down in suit only, and the 64-card stock deals exactly once — no redeal, no second chances. Every deal here is honestly random, hints run a real search solver on your actual deal, and the odds we quote below are measured by that solver, not copied from folklore: across 1,000 random deals it proved a winning line on just 77 — and on the deals it could not crack, even its best line banked barely 40 of the 104 cards.
Learn Forty Thieves in 80 seconds: rules and tips
The forty-card deal, the strict single-card rules, what empty columns are worth, and five habits that win more games. Full written rules follow below.
In this video
01 · THE TABLE
How Forty Thieves works
Forty tableau cards — ten columns of four, all face up — give the game its name. Eight foundations wait above them: with two decks in play, every suit builds Ace to King twice. On the tableau you may move exactly one card at a time, onto a card one rank higher of the same suit; a 6♠ builds on a 7♠ and nothing else. Any single card may claim an empty column. When nothing moves, deal one card from the stock to the waste — and mind the count, because the stock deals through exactly once. Whatever the waste buries when the stock runs dry is buried for good.
02 · THE NAME
Napoleon and the forty thieves
Legend says Napoleon played this game in exile on Saint Helena, and half its aliases — "Napoleon at Saint Helena", "Big Forty" — repeat the story. The historical record is thinner: his companions’ memoirs do describe the fallen emperor laying out cards in the evenings, but none of them names the game, and the attribution first hardens in card-game books decades after his death. We tell you this for the same reason we publish measured win rates instead of folklore odds: the legend is charming, the evidence is not there, and this site does not print things it cannot back. What IS documented: the game was a fixture of nineteenth-century patience books, and it has been frustrating careful players for two hundred years.
A memorable story, repeated long after his death—but no contemporary source names this game.
The game itself is documented. The imperial attribution is not.
03 · THE PRESSURE
Why one pass changes everything
Most Klondike-family games forgive: redeals recycle the stock and a buried card comes around again. Forty Thieves does not. Each of the 64 stock cards is dealt once, and every waste play is a permanent decision — which is why the game runs so much harder than its rules look. We ran our search solver over 1,000 random deals under these strict rules: it proved wins on 77 (a 7.7% floor); 922 searches hit the two-million-position budget and one more bounded search ended without a winning line. All 923 remain unresolved because the solver also has a depth limit — Forty Thieves games run too deep for cheap certainty, so the floor is the only claim we make: the true winnable share is anywhere from 7.7% up. The average best line on an uncracked deal banked just 40.6 of 104 cards. Our Hint button runs the same search on your live position and always points at the strongest continuation it found; when it can prove a winning line within its budget, hints follow that line move for move. The full numbers, beside every other game we run, live on our win-rates page.
× 04 · THE EDGE
Strategy: columns are currency
Nothing else in Forty Thieves matters as much as an empty column. With single-card moves and in-suit building, a full board is nearly frozen — every empty column is a loading dock that lets you re-sort suits one card at a time. Open the shallow columns early, and think twice before parking a card in an empty column you cannot un-park. The counter-intuitive lesson our solver lines teach: banking a card is not always right. A 5♦ on the foundations is five points of progress; a 5♦ on the tableau may be the only seat the second 4♦ will ever find. Watch the twin piles too — with two of every card, the second copy is only as useful as the lane you have kept open for it.
An empty column is a loading dock for sorting one card at a time.
A foundation move can remove the only landing place your twin card needs.
When one copy is buried, the surviving card carries the whole suit line.
≥ 7.7% proven winnable—77 of 1,000 random deals. The true rate may be higher; the solver refuses to pretend it knows.
05 · PLAY THE LESSON
Two deals. Two essential skills.
These are fixed, solver-verified positions. Start with the obvious foundation progress, then learn why an empty column is more valuable than a tidy tableau.
01 Release the two Aces Start where every Forty Thieves game starts: two Aces sit exposed on this real deal. Bank them both. +
02 Open a working lane The whole strategy in one exercise: this deal can open a column inside ten moves. Empty columns are the only currency this game respects. +
06 · THE HABITS
Five habits that win more Forty Thieves games
Forty Thieves punishes optimism. These habits are how deliberate players survive the single pass.
- 01 Read the tableau
Before your first stock deal, exhaust every useful tableau move — each deal buries the waste one card deeper, and the pass never comes back.
- 02 Open a lane
Dig for empty columns before you dig for Aces: the Aces will still be there, the tempo will not.
- 03 Protect the bridge
Delay a bank when the card is doing work as a landing spot — especially mid ranks (5–9) that the twin copy will need.
- 04 Track the waste
Track what the waste has swallowed. When one 8♥ is dead in the waste, the whole 7♥-line depends on the survivor.
- 05 Undo empty moves
Spend empty columns on unburying, not on tidying — moving a card that frees nothing is a wasted tempo, undo it.
07 · QUICK ANSWERS
Forty Thieves FAQ
01 Is every Forty Thieves deal winnable? +
No — and unlike most sites we can put an honest floor under it. Our solver searched 1,000 random deals: 77 are proven winnable, 922 outran a two-million-position search budget, and one more bounded search ended without a winning line. Those 923 are all unresolved because the solver also has a depth limit. Deals here are honestly random, with no pre-filtered pool; losing often is the authentic Forty Thieves experience.
02 What are the odds of winning Forty Thieves? +
Older card-game literature quotes anywhere from one game in ten to one in three depending on skill. Our own measurement is stricter and humbler: a proven floor of 7.7% across 1,000 random deals, with 92% of deals too deep for our search budget to settle — so the honest answer is "at least one game in thirteen, probably more". Real human rates will appear on our win-rates page once enough games are logged here.
03 Why can’t I move a whole run of cards? +
Because strict Forty Thieves says one card per move — even a perfect 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ run must travel a card at a time, which is exactly why empty columns are precious: they are the staging area that makes multi-card relocations possible. The popular variant that allows full-run moves is called Josephine; it plays noticeably easier and is a different game.
04 Why is it called Forty Thieves? +
The forty face-up tableau cards are the thieves, and the Ali Baba tale supplied the romance. The game also travels under "Napoleon at Saint Helena" — see the history section above for why we tell that legend with a raised eyebrow.
05 Is there a redeal? +
Not in strict Forty Thieves: the stock deals through exactly once, one card at a time. That single pass is the game’s defining decision pressure — versions that recycle the stock belong to easier cousins.
06 How do the hints work? +
The Hint button runs a real search solver on your actual deal — the same standard as our Golf and FreeCell hints. When it finds a winning line within its search budget, every hint is a move along that line; when it cannot, it plays the strongest continuation it reached (most cards banked, most columns opened). Hints are honest advice, not certification that your deal can be won.