Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These games include peg solitaire and mahjong solitaire. The game is most often played by one person, but can incorporate others.
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in describing, succinctly and accurately, how the games are played. Patience games are usually for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of patience grouped by object.
Klondike, also known as Canfield, is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family.
Yukon is a type of patience or solitaire card game using a single deck of playing cards like Klondike, but there is no deck or stock, and manipulation of the tableau works differently.
Spider is a type of patience game, and is one of the more popular two-deck solitaire games. The game originates in 1949, and its name comes from a spider's eight legs, referencing the eight foundation piles that must be filled to win the game.
Pyramid is a patience or solitaire game of the Simple Addition family, where the object is to get all the cards from the pyramid to the foundation.
Clock Patience, also called Clock Solitaire, or just Clock, is a luck-based patience or solitaire card game with the cards laid out to represent the face of a clock. It is also known under alternative names such as Dial, Travelers, Hidden Cards, and Four of a Kind.
Gargantua is a patience or solitaire card game that is a version of Klondike using two decks. It is also known as Double Klondike and as Jumbo.
Tri Peaks is a patience or solitaire card game that is akin to the solitaire games Golf and Black Hole. The game uses one deck and the object is to clear three peaks made up of cards. It was created by Robert Hogue in 1989, and popularized as a result of being included in Microsoft Solitaire Collection.
Forty Thieves is a 2-deck patience or solitaire card game. It is quite difficult to win, and luck-of-the-draw is a significant factor.
Canfield (US) or Demon (UK) is a patience or solitaire card game with a very low probability of winning. It was an English game first called Demon Patience and described as "the best game for one pack that has yet been invented", but was popularised in the United States at the turn of the 20th century by casino owner Richard A. Canfield, who turned it into a casino game. As a result it became known as Canfield in the United States, while continuing to be called Demon Patience in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It is closely related to Klondike, and is one of the most popular games of its type.
Westcliff is a patience or solitaire card game which is played using a deck of 52 playing cards. It is a variation of Klondike that is fairly easy to win; one can win this game nine times out of ten.
Napoleon's Square is a patience or solitaire card game which uses two decks of playing cards. First described in a revised edition of Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Patience or Solitaire in the early 1900s, it is an easy variation of Forty Thieves. It is not determined if Napoleon actually played this game, or any solitaire game named after him.
Double Solitaire is a two-player variant on the best-known patience or solitaire card game called Klondike. While it is mostly referred to as Double Solitaire, it is sometimes called Double Klondike. Games with more players are also possible.
The Clock, sometimes also called German Clock to distinguish it from the similarly named Clock Patience, is a game of patience played with 52 cards of a French deck.
Herringbone is a solitaire card game that is played with 104 playing cards. It is also commonly known as Pigtail, Braid or under its original German name "Der Zopf". The game requires relatively little planning but plays well as medium hard solitaire game. The English name was mentioned by Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience in 1914.
La Belle Lucie is a [[patience (game)| or card solitaire where the object is to build the cards into the foundations. It is considered to be representative of the "fan" family of solitaire card games, and has a pleasing layout.
Batsford is a solitaire game similar to Klondike except that it uses two decks instead of one. The cards are turned up only one at a time during a single pass through the deck, and there is also a reserve pile available for a single King.
Travellers is a card game of the patience genre which uses a single card pack of either 52 or 32 playing cards. It is also known as All Fours, Clock, Four of a Kind, Hidden Cards, Hunt, Sundial or Watch. Parlett notes that the game has a "rhythmical feature that might be called 'shuttling'", as in the game of Weavers.
Päckchen is a card game of the patience genre.
