Crescent Solitaire

Crescent: rules and strategy

A two-deck solitaire: 16 piles of cards laid out in a crescent around 8 foundations. Four foundations build up from Ace to King, four build down from King to Ace, and the goal is to place all 104 cards on them. This site explains the exact rules, the strategy, and a winning game verified card by card. To play: Crescent Solitaire, on iPhone, iPad and Android.

Read the rulesDownload the app

Available on the App Store and on Google Play.

Crescent Solitaire on a phone held in landscape, start of a game on the green felt: sixteen piles in a horseshoe, with only the top card visible, around eight foundations, the four Aces then the four Kings; timer 0:00, 0 moves, Redeal button.

Crescent in a few lines

Crescent is played alone with 2 shuffled decks of 52 cards, so 104 cards. One Ace and one King of each suit serve as the bases of the foundations. The other 96 cards form 16 piles of 6 cards; only the top card of each pile can be played.

You place a card on another of the same suit (spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs) and of adjacent rank, above or below: the 7 of hearts on the 8 or on the 6 of hearts, and even the Ace on the King. An empty pile can no longer be filled. When nothing else can move, the redeal moves the bottom card of each pile to the top, 3 times per game. The rules detail every move, and the strategy explains how to go about it.

A deal from the app

Here is the deal with code CR1-N-AAAAAAB as the app deals it, laid out like the game screen: each cell shows the top card and, below it, the pile number and its number of cards; in the center are the ascending foundations (up arrow) and the descending ones. Paste this code into the New game window to play it; a game won in 128 moves is detailed on the Examples page.

ascending spade foundation: ace of spades on top, 1 card; ascending heart foundation: ace of hearts on top, 1 card; ascending diamond foundation: ace of diamonds on top, 1 card; ascending club foundation: ace of clubs on top, 1 card; descending spade foundation: king of spades on top, 1 card; descending heart foundation: king of hearts on top, 1 card; descending diamond foundation: king of diamonds on top, 1 card; descending club foundation: king of clubs on top, 1 card. pile 1: 6 cards, 2 of spades on top; pile 2: 6 cards, 8 of spades on top; pile 3: 6 cards, jack of clubs on top; pile 4: 6 cards, 9 of clubs on top; pile 5: 6 cards, 10 of spades on top; pile 6: 6 cards, queen of hearts on top; pile 7: 6 cards, 5 of hearts on top; pile 8: 6 cards, 6 of spades on top; pile 9: 6 cards, queen of spades on top; pile 10: 6 cards, ace of spades on top; pile 11: 6 cards, king of clubs on top; pile 12: 6 cards, 10 of clubs on top; pile 13: 6 cards, 7 of clubs on top; pile 14: 6 cards, king of spades on top; pile 15: 6 cards, 6 of spades on top; pile 16: 6 cards, ace of clubs on top.

Deal CR1-N-AAAAAAB at the start: 16 piles of 6 cards around the 8 foundations, each with its own base card.
Pile contents, from bottom to top
  1. Pile 12♥9♣J♦J♦2♥2♠
  2. Pile 27♥5♠8♠9♥3♠8♠
  3. Pile 34♣9♥9♠7♦Q♣J♣
  4. Pile 45♣3♥8♥4♦4♦9♣
  5. Pile 58♦7♠5♦4♣5♥10♠
  6. Pile 6J♠Q♦3♣Q♠10♣Q♥
  7. Pile 710♠8♣6♣3♥Q♥5♥
  8. Pile 8A♦10♦10♥J♥A♥6♠
  9. Pile 97♠2♠3♦3♠5♣Q♠
  10. Pile 10Q♣J♣6♦9♦J♠A♠
  11. Pile 118♣9♠6♣2♦10♦K♣
  12. Pile 122♣3♣7♣8♥6♥10♣
  13. Pile 136♦4♥9♦5♦Q♦7♣
  14. Pile 144♠2♦6♥7♥4♥K♠
  15. Pile 158♦K♦2♣K♥10♥6♠
  16. Pile 163♦4♠7♦5♠J♥A♣

Where to start?

On phone and tablet

The app is played in landscape. It offers a code for each game so you can replay or share a deal, undo of the last 100 moves, statistics and 36 languages.

Crescent Solitaire on a phone in landscape, game in progress: 22 moves played, timer 3:47, 22 cards on the foundations, no redeals left.
Phone, in landscape.
Crescent Solitaire on a tablet in landscape: the same game (22 moves, 22 cards on the foundations), larger.
Tablet, in landscape.