Rules
How to play Calculation Solitaire
Build four suitless foundations by counting in steps of one, two, three, and four.
Foundation one advances by one rank, foundation two by two, foundation three by three, and foundation four by four; continue through king and wrap to ace.
Suits do not matter.
Turn one stock card at a time and play it to a legal foundation or any waste pile; resolve that turned card before moving a previous waste top.
Only the top card of each waste pile may move, and only to a foundation.
How to win
Place every card onto the four calculation foundations.
Physical deck
Set up the table
Use the steps below to play this rules version with ordinary cards and no screen.
- Remove an ace, two, three, and four from the shuffled deck as four foundation bases.
- Keep the remaining 48 cards face down as stock.
- Leave space for four face-up waste piles.
Calculation Solitaire opening deal
These counts summarize the opening table; follow the numbered steps above for exact placement and overlap.
- Stock
- 1 pile48 cards · 0 face up
- Turned card
- 1 pile0 cards · 0 face up
- Calculation foundations
- 4 piles4 cards · 4 face up
- Four waste piles
- 4 piles0 cards · 0 face up
Strategy
Strategy for Calculation Solitaire
Memorize the next two ranks needed on every foundation.
Keep low, flexible cards near the tops of waste piles.
Avoid stacking a soon-needed card beneath a late one.
Common mistakes
- Building foundations in ordinary rank order.
- Trying to move cards between waste piles.
- Ignoring the wrap after king.
Sources & variant
The chosen rules, documented
This playable beta uses rules version 1.1.0. The references below support this version; other tables may use different redeal, wrapping, movement, or scoring rules. A saved deal always keeps the rules it began with.