Rules
Accordion Solitaire rules at a glance
- Use one standard 52-card deck.
- Deal every card face up into a row of 52 single-card piles.
- A pile may move only onto the pile immediately to its left or the pile three places to its left.
- The two visible top cards must match by rank or by suit.
- When a pile moves, every card in that pile moves with it.
- The moved pile lands on top of the target pile, creating one larger pile.
- The empty space disappears, so all later pile numbers shift left.
- Win by compressing the entire deck into one pile.
How to play
How to play Accordion Solitaire
Accordion Solitaire is a one-deck compression puzzle. Instead of building foundations or clearing pairs, you repeatedly fold the row of cards into itself. At the start, every card is its own pile. After each successful move, one pile disappears from the row and the remaining piles close the gap.
Pick a pile and compare its top card with two possible targets: the pile immediately to its left and, if it exists, the pile three places to its left. If either target has the same rank or the same suit on top, the move is legal. The selected pile moves as a complete unit, so a pile of six cards lands as six cards, not as a single top card.
The game is won when every card has folded into one pile. That sounds simple, but each move changes the spacing of the row. A match that is three piles away now may become one pile away later, or vanish from consideration because another move changed the order.
Background
What is Accordion Solitaire?
Accordion Solitaire is a patience game built around position rather than suit foundations. Its personality comes from the shrinking row. Many solitaire games ask you to expose hidden cards, manage a stock pile, or sort suits into foundations. Accordion puts every card on the table immediately and asks you to choose the order of collapse.
The name is literal. As piles move left, the layout folds inward like an accordion. A short deal can feel effortless for the first dozen moves, then suddenly tighten because the remaining top cards no longer line up at the legal distances.
Setup
The Accordion layout on this page
This version deals the whole deck at once. On a wide screen, the piles appear as a compact grid so you can scan the row without horizontal scrolling. On a phone, the row wraps into several shorter lines, but the order is still left to right, top to bottom. The legal move rule is unchanged.
Deck52 cardsOne standard deck
Opening layout52 pilesOne card per pile
Move distances1 or 3 leftNo rightward moves
Goal1 pileCompress the deck
Examples
Legal and illegal Accordion Solitaire moves
Distance matters as much as matching. If pile 10 and pile 9 both show clubs, pile 10 can move onto pile 9. If pile 10 and pile 7 both show queens, pile 10 can move onto pile 7. Pile 10 cannot move onto pile 8, even if the top cards match, because two-left is not an Accordion distance.
LegalPile 8 onto pile 7 when both top cards are queens
LegalPile 9 onto pile 6 when both top cards are hearts
LegalA five-card pile onto the pile three places left when the visible top cards match
IllegalPile 9 onto pile 7
IllegalPile 6 onto pile 7
IllegalOne-left move with no rank or suit match
Rank and suit are the only matches. Two black cards do not match unless they share rank or suit. A 6 of clubs can move onto a queen of clubs by suit, or onto a 6 of diamonds by rank. It cannot move onto a queen of spades just because both cards are black.
Whole piles
Why pile size matters
Accordion moves the whole pile. The top cards decide the legality, but the hidden cards under that top card are part of the moving object. A large pile can be valuable because moving it compresses many cards behind one future top card.
It can also be dangerous. Once a useful card is buried under a pile, it stops being a top card and cannot create matches until the pile moves again. Treat a large pile as both progress and commitment.
Compression
Why the row keeps changing
After a move, the source pile is gone and every pile to its right shifts left. That means the one-left and three-left relationships are recalculated after every move. The best Accordion players look past the current match and ask what the row will look like after the fold.
This is why the hint button is useful for learning but not a complete strategy. It can show a legal move; it cannot know whether you prefer to preserve another match for later.
Strategy
Accordion Solitaire strategy that changes the deal
Always compare the one-left and three-left choices before moving. A one-left move is often easy to see, but a three-left move may preserve the neighboring pile and create better spacing for the next fold. If a card has both options, the three-left move is often worth inspecting first because it changes the row more dramatically.
Watch cards that are about to become three apart. A move that closes one gap can line up a future rank match or suit match that was previously unavailable. Conversely, a tempting move can destroy a future three-left match by shifting the row at the wrong moment.
Do not treat every match as equal. Matching by rank can be especially flexible because all four suits share that rank. Matching by suit can carry long suit streaks, but it may also bury a rank that would have connected to several other cards. The value of a move depends on what top card remains visible afterward.
Late in the game, count piles more carefully. With only a handful of piles left, every move changes nearly every legal distance. If two moves are available, prefer the move that leaves the most obvious next match on top of the row.
Mistakes
Common Accordion Solitaire mistakes
- Taking the first legal one-left move without checking the three-left option.
- Forgetting that piles can move only left, never right.
- Looking only at the top card and ignoring how large the moving pile has become.
- Breaking a future three-left match by compressing the row too soon.
- Assuming color matters. Accordion cares about rank or suit, not red or black.
- Using hints as a full strategy instead of a way to spot legal moves.
Winnability
Is Accordion Solitaire winnable?
Accordion Solitaire is not always winnable from a random shuffle. The game has complete information, but complete information does not mean every order can collapse into one pile. Some deals run out of rank and suit matches while several piles remain.
This page does not publish a win rate because a useful number should come from this exact implementation over many measured games. Undo lets you test alternate routes through a deal, which is especially helpful because one early compression can change the whole endgame.
Difficulty
How difficult is Accordion Solitaire?
Accordion is easy to learn and difficult to play perfectly. There are no hidden cards, no stock rules, and no foundation order to memorize. The challenge is positional: every move changes which piles are one or three spaces apart.
Compared with Aces Up, Accordion gives you more visible information but a less forgiving structure. Compared with Addiction, it is less about building rows in suit order and more about choosing the right collapse sequence. It is a good fit when you want a quick game that still rewards close attention.
Variants
Accordion variants and house rules
Some Accordion rules deal cards one at a time and allow moves as the line grows. That version has a different feel because later cards are not visible yet. Other house rules change the permitted distances or encourage players to scan the row from right to left before choosing a move.
This page uses the all-at-once version: all 52 cards are visible, piles move only one or three positions left, matching is by top-card rank or suit, and the goal is a single pile. The wrapped mobile layout is only a screen-fit choice. It does not change the row order.
Nearby games
How Accordion compares with Aces Up, Golf, and Addiction
Accordion and Aces Up are both short one-deck games where losing can happen quickly, but their logic is different. Aces Up removes lower exposed cards by suit. Accordion keeps all cards in play and folds piles by rank or suit.
Golf also cares about rank relationships, but it clears cards against a waste pile one rank up or down. Addiction is the closest in puzzle feel because all cards are visible and spaces matter, yet Addiction sorts rows by suit while Accordion compresses a single changing row.