Rank and File Solitaire
How to play Rank and File
Rank and File is a two-deck solitaire game of the Forty Thieves family in which ten piles of four, three face down under one face up, are built down in alternating colours and runs move together.
Ten piles of four with three cards face down in each, built down in alternating colours, where runs move together.
The goal of Rank and File
Move all 104 cards onto the eight foundations, two for each suit, each built up from the Ace to the King.
How to set up Rank and File
Two standard decks are shuffled together, 104 cards in all. Forty are dealt into ten piles of four, three face down under one face up, and the other 64 form the stock.
Rank and File rules
Piles build down in alternating colours, one rank at a time. A face-up card moves together with every card above it if they run down in alternating colours, however many there are. A face-down card turns face up once it is on top of its pile, and an empty pile takes any card or run.
Turn the stock onto the waste one card at a time, once through with no redeal. Only the top waste card is in play.
A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to send it to its foundation, else onto the first pile it builds on, else into an empty pile; a card clicked in a pile takes the cards above it along. Drag a card or a run to choose yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Rank and File
You win when all 104 cards are home. With the stock and waste empty, no card face down and every pile in order, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, plays the rest for you. The game is stuck when no card can move and the rest of the stock brings up nothing that can.
Rank and File strategy tips
Three of the four cards in every pile start face down, thirty in all. Prefer a move that turns one of them over to a move that only tidies a pile.
Only one card in each pile starts face up, so the first moves come mostly from the waste. Building runs pays off, because a run moves as one onto any card it builds on, and moving every face-up card off a pile turns up the card beneath them.
A run moves as one only while it alternates colours all the way down. Lay each waste card so the run it joins stays whole, and even a long run can then leave its hidden cards in a single move.
An empty pile takes a whole run. Move a run there when it sits on face-down cards, and the top hidden card turns over at once.
Do not split a run just to reach one card. Any face-up card can take the cards above it along, so a run can be cut in two, but two short runs then need two places where one long run needed one.
A King on top of a pile blocks the three hidden cards under it, and only an empty pile takes it. Build a run on the King first if you can: the King and everything on it then move into the empty pile in one go.
Rank and File questions and answers
How do you play Rank and File solitaire?
Shuffle two decks together and deal ten piles of four, three cards face down under one face up, keeping the other 64 cards as the stock. Build the piles down in alternating colours, move runs as one, and go through the stock once, one card at a time. You win when all 104 cards are home.
Is Rank and File the same as Dress Parade?
Yes. Dress Parade is another name for Rank and File, the same game with ten piles of four, three cards face down in each, built down in alternating colours.
What is the difference between Rank and File and Emperor?
Both deal three cards face down and one face up to each pile and build down in alternating colours. Rank and File moves a run as one, where Emperor moves one card at a time. Emperor also lets the top card of a foundation come back into play, which Rank and File does not.
How does a run uncover cards in Rank and File?
Say a pile shows a red Eight and you build a black Seven, a red Six and a black Five on it from the waste. Those four cards are now one run. Moved onto a black Nine or into an empty pile, they leave the three face-down cards beneath with nothing over them, and the top one turns up at once.
Is Rank and File harder than Deauville?
Slightly, by the solver's count: it proved 38% of the Rank and File deals it tried winnable and 40% of the Deauville deals. Both deal three cards face down under one face-up card in each pile and build in alternating colours; only Rank and File moves runs whole.
Can every Rank and File deal be won?
Not necessarily. Searching up to a million positions per deal, the game's solver proved 38% of the Rank and File deals it tried winnable, so at least that share can be won. Number Ten, which deals two cards face down in each pile instead of three, proved 30%. With Winnable on, in the menu beside New deal, each board comes from a list of 500 proved deals. Hint asks the same solver for a winning line before it suggests a move.
Is there a daily Rank and File game?
Yes. Rank and File has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. Log in to play it.