How to Play Batsford Solitaire

What Is Batsford Solitaire?

Batsford is a two-deck solitaire built on the Klondike layout and then made considerably harder. Ten columns build down in alternating colours, eight foundations run from Ace to King in suit, and the 49-card stock turns one card at a time — but you get a single pass through it and no redeal. To soften that, the game gives you one small privilege: a reserve pile that holds up to three Kings, and nothing else. Those three slots are the only safety valve in the whole game, and learning when to spend them is what Batsford is really about. Fewer than one deal in twenty is won, which puts Batsford among the hardest of the classic two-deck patiences.

The Layout

Two standard decks are shuffled together into one 104-card pack and dealt into five areas:

• The tableau. Ten columns in a staircase: 1 card in the first, 2 in the second, and so on up to 10 in the tenth — 55 cards in all. Only the last card of each column is face up; the 45 cards beneath are face down.
• The stock. The remaining 49 cards, face down in the corner.
• The waste. Cards turned from the stock land here one at a time, face up. Only the top card is available to play.
• The reserve. A single pile beside the columns, dealt empty. It accepts Kings only, up to three of them, and only the top King can be taken back out.
• The foundations. Eight piles, two for each suit. Each starts with an Ace and builds up in strict suit order to the King — so every suit is completed twice.

How to Move Cards

• To a foundation, when the card is the next rank that pile needs in the same suit: the Ace of hearts, then the 2 of hearts, and so on to the King. With two foundations per suit, either may take a card — whichever has reached the rank below.
• Onto a tableau column, when the card is exactly one rank lower and the opposite colour. A red 7 goes on a black 8; a black Jack goes on a red Queen.
• As a group, when the cards already form a proper descending alternating-colour run. A run of 10 of clubs, 9 of hearts, 8 of spades moves as one unit onto any red Jack.
• Into an empty column, but only a King, or a run headed by a King. This is the rule that makes gaps expensive rather than useful.
• Into the reserve, but only a single King — never a Queen, never an Ace, and never a King with cards stacked on it. Drag the King there deliberately; the game will not park one for you by accident.

The Reserve: Three Kings, One Way Back

The reserve exists because of the single stock pass. Kings are the only card an empty column will take, so a King that surfaces in the waste with no gap available is normally lost for good. The reserve is where you rescue it.

• It takes Kings and nothing else, and it fills to a maximum of three. A fourth King has nowhere to go.
• Cards stack on top of one another there, and only the top King is available. Park three and the bottom two are frozen until the ones above them leave.
• A King leaves the reserve in exactly two ways: onto an empty column, or up to its own foundation once that pile has reached the Queen — which in practice means very late in the game.
• You cannot move a King out of the reserve with cards attached, because runs never enter it in the first place.

The Stock: One Card, One Pass

Clicking the stock turns a single card onto the waste. When the stock runs out, that is the end of it — the waste is never recycled. Every one of those 49 cards gets exactly one moment of being playable, and if you cannot use it then, you never will. This single rule is the main reason Batsford is so hard, and it means the tableau work has to be done ahead of time: the useful gaps and the useful sequences need to already exist when the card you want appears.

How to Win

You win when all 104 cards have reached the eight foundations, each running Ace up to King in one suit. Batsford does not wrap from King back to Ace, and there is no shortcut — the tableau has 45 face-down cards to dig out and only one pass through the deck to help you do it.

Playing on This Site

Drag and drop any card or valid run, or double-click (double-tap on touch) a card in the waste or the reserve to send it to its best legal home. Parking a King in the reserve is always a deliberate drag, never automatic, so a slot is never spent by accident. The buttons above the table give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint when you are stuck, and Auto-finish to sweep the last cards home. Undo is unlimited, which matters more here than in most games: with a single stock pass, being able to walk a decision back is often the difference between a win and a dead board. Every deal has a seed number, so you can replay a layout or share it with a friend.

Batsford Solitaire

Treat the Three Reserve Slots as Currency

The reserve is the only place in Batsford where you can put a card that has nowhere else to go. Three slots is not many, and a King you park is a King you may not see again for a long time.

• Spend a slot to rescue a King from the waste. That is the reserve doing its job: the alternative is losing the King permanently, and with it any chance of using the columns it would have anchored.
• Spend a slot to unbury a face-down card. A King sitting on top of hidden cards is a plug; moving it to the reserve pulls the plug and is usually worth the cost.
• Do not park a King that is already doing useful work. If a Queen can go on it, it belongs on the table, not in the reserve.
• Remember that stacking hides what is underneath. If you already have a King you will want back soon, think twice before burying it under another one.

One Pass Means Preparing Before You Draw

With no redeal, the stock rewards patience and punishes curiosity.

• Exhaust the tableau before you click. Every move available on the table is free; every click of the stock is spent forever.
• Before each draw, know what you would do with a King, with an Ace, and with a middle card. If a King would have nowhere to go, consider making room first.
• Aces and 2s go up the moment you see them — there is no second chance to collect them.
• Late in the deal, an empty column held open is worth more than a card played for its own sake, because the next King in the stock is only useful if there is somewhere to put it.

Dig the Long Columns Early

Forty-five cards start face down, and the right-hand columns hold most of them.

• The tenth column has nine hidden cards under one visible card. Getting into it early is worth real effort; leaving it until the stock is gone usually means leaving it forever.
• Prefer a move that turns a card face up over a move that merely tidies the board. Exposure is the only progress that lasts.
• The short left-hand columns are cheap to clear — but an empty column only accepts a King, so clear one when you actually have a King ready for it.

Kings and Gaps Are the Same Problem

In Batsford the King supply and the gap supply have to be managed together, because each is useless without the other.

• An empty column with no King available is dead space. A King with no gap available needs a reserve slot. Try not to create either situation.
• Eight Kings exist across the two decks. Keep a rough count of how many you have already placed — it tells you how much a gap is really worth.
• Moving a King-headed run into a gap is usually better than moving a bare King, since it relocates useful builders at the same time.

Do Not Rush the Foundations

With two of every card there is room to be relaxed, but not careless.

• A card sent up too early cannot come back. Before playing a middle rank, check whether it is holding an alternating-colour run together.
• Because there are two of every card, you can often send one copy up while its twin keeps working on the tableau.
• Keep the eight foundations climbing at a similar pace. Letting one suit sprint ahead tends to strand the builders you needed elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

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