Royal Marriage Solitaire

Goal

Bring the groom (the King of Hearts) to his bride (the Queen of Hearts) so that they end the game next to each other.

The Deal

Using one deck, All 52 cards are dealt in 4 rows of 13 non-overlapping cards. The cards are dealt in four rows only for the sake of convienience. Players should think of the cards as if they were arranged in just a single row of 52 cards. The first card of each row comes just after the last card of the row above it.>

The Queen of Hearts is placed in the first position in the upper left, and the King of Hearts is placed in the last position in the lower right.

Removing Cards

There are two rules for removing cards:

• Rule 1 - Individual cards may be removed if they are directly between two other cards of the same rank or the same suit. To remove these kinds of cards, just click on the card.
• Rule 2 - Two cards may both be removed if they are directly between two other cards of the same rank or the same suit. To remove these kinds of cards, drag one of the interior cards on top of the other. The two cards being removed can be any two cards and do not need to have any special relationship, except that they are next to each other.

After cards are removed, all of the cards following the removed cards are slid to the left to fill the empty space(s).

Example Plays

In the following diagram, the 10 of Diamonds (last card of the top row) is considered one space to the left of the 7 of Hearts (the first card of the second row.) Similarly, the 10 of Hearts is one space to the left of the 7 of Clubs, and the 2 of Diamonds is one card to the left of the 2 of Clubs.

In this diagram there are dozens of plays that could be made. Some examples of card movements are as follows:

• In the top row, the Jack of Hearts is between two cards of the same rank (the Aces) so the Jack of Hearts can be removed by clicking on it.
• In the second row, there are four Diamonds right next to each other. The 7 of Diamonds or the Jack of Diamonds could be removed singly because they each have cards of the same suit next to them. But both cards could be removed by dragging one on top of the other because the 5 and King of Diamonds surround them both.
• At the end of the second row is a 10 of Hearts and at the start of the third row is a 7 of Clubs. These two cards are surrounded by two other cards of the same rank (Queens) therefore the 10 and 7 may be removed by dragging one of those cards on top of the other. Remember that cards in the rows should be viewed as though they were layed out on a single row of 52 cards.
• In the fourth row, the 7 of Spades can be removed by clicking on it because there are cards of the same suit on each side of it (the 3 and 2 of Hearts.)