Play King Albert Solitaire

King Albert Solitaire game info

This solitaire game is named after Albert I of Belgium, the former king of Belgium that is also known as the Knight King.

• Family: Klondike Solitaire Games
• Decks: One deck (52 cards)
• Game time: Medium
• Change of winning: Low
• Also known as: Idiot’s Delight

Goal

Like in most other solitaire games, the goal in King Albert solitaire is to move all cards to the foundations. They are located at the top left.

Layout & deal

The nine tableau piles are all dealt a different amount of face-up cards, going from one card to the first pile to nine cards for the last pile.

The remaining seven cards go face-up in the reserve at the bottom. This reserve is also referred to as the Belgian reserve.

Allowable moves

Cards in the tableau are built in descending order, and by alternating colour. Only one card can be moved at a time. An empty tableau pile can be filled with any card.

The cards in the reserve can be moved to the tableau or to the foundations.

The foundation piles are built in the same suit and in ascending order, from Ace to King.

Strategy

• Because any card can be moved to an empty tableau pile, it is important to get empty columns and use them wisely.
• Cards in the reserve are always available, so keep them there until you really need them.

Variants

• Queen Victoria: Queen Victoria Solitaire follows the same rules as King Albert Solitaire, except that it allows to move correctly ordered sequences of cards in the tableau instead of only one card.
• Raglan: Raglan Solitaire has the exact same rules, but with a slightly different layout.
• Somerset: Somerset Solitaire has the same layout as Raglan but doesn’t have a reserve.

System requirements

King Albert Solitaire can be played in all modern browsers, on all device types (desktop, tablet, mobile), and on all operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, ...).