Alhambra Solitaire

Thirty-two in reserve

How to play Alhambra Solitaire

Eight foundations are set out first — an ace and a king of each suit. Thirty-two cards then form eight reserve piles of four, and the remaining sixty-four become the stock.

Foundations build up in suit from the aces and down in suit from the kings, fed by the eight reserve tops and by the top card of the waste. A reserve card may also be played on to the waste when it is one rank away in the same suit — and for that rule, an ace and a king count as adjacent.

The reserve piles are never replenished. Eight piles of four is all you get, and every card taken from them is one fewer place to look.

Only the tops

What the reserve tops can do

Spending the reserve

Alhambra Solitaire strategy

Use the waste build deliberately. It is the only move that clears a reserve card without a foundation being ready, and the ace-king wrap makes it available more often than you expect.

Check both foundations before committing a middle rank. One climbs and one descends, and only two copies of each card exist.

Dig the deepest reserve piles first. All eight start at four cards, but the ones you neglect stay four deep while the others thin out — and a four-card pile hides three cards you cannot plan around.

Hold the redeals until the reserve has thinned. A second pass is worth most when there are foundations ready to receive and reserve tops able to follow.

Where it runs down

Where an Alhambra board runs down

Ignoring the waste-building move

Reserve cards can be played on to the waste whenever they are one rank away in suit, and the ace-king wrap makes that more often than you would guess. It is an extra outlet for cards neither foundation is ready for, and forgetting it costs you moves in a game that does not have many spare.

Sending both copies of a rank the same way

Each suit has one pile climbing and one descending. There are only two of each card in the pack, so committing both to the same direction leaves the opposite foundation waiting for something that has already gone.

Redealing before the reserve is worked

The reserve never refills, so the eight tops are the closest thing to a stable board you have. Cycling the stock while useful reserve cards sit unplayed wastes a redeal on cards you had already seen.

How often it comes out

Is Alhambra Solitaire winnable?

Sometimes. Eight pre-seeded foundations and three passes through the stock is a decent start, but a reserve that never refills means the board narrows steadily whatever you do.

The waste-building rule is what keeps it playable, and players who overlook it find the game much harder than it needs to be. We do not publish a win rate: the figure moves with the redeal count, and this version allows two.

Reserves compared

Reserves and how much they show you

Four games that hold a large block of cards away from you. What separates them is how many of those cards you can see, and whether anything ever puts a card back.

Crazy Quilt is the closest relative — same two-directional foundations, same trick of letting reserve cards build on the waste — but it shows you twice as many cards and gives you one redeal instead of two.