Rules
Diplomat Solitaire rules at a glance
- Use two standard 52-card decks, for 104 cards total.
- Deal 32 cards face up into eight tableau rows of four cards each.
- The remaining 72 cards form the stock.
- Foundations begin empty and build upward by suit from ace to king.
- Only the top card of each tableau row is available.
- The top waste card is also available.
- Tableau rows build downward by rank, regardless of suit.
- Only one card may move at a time.
- Empty tableau rows accept any single available card.
- Draw one card at a time from the stock. This version has no redeal.
- Win by moving all 104 cards to the foundations.
How to play
How to play Diplomat Solitaire
Diplomat is a two-deck foundation game with a wide but surprisingly flexible tableau. Your job is to build eight foundations from ace to king by suit. Since two decks are used, each suit appears twice: two club foundations, two diamond foundations, two heart foundations, and two spade foundations.
The opening deal creates eight tableau rows. Each row starts with four face-up cards, but only the exposed top card of a row can move. A top card may go to a foundation if it is the next card of that suit, or to another tableau row if it is one rank lower than the target row's top card. Suits do not matter in the tableau. A 7 of hearts may go on any 8.
Background
What is Diplomat Solitaire?
Diplomat is a patience game in the Forty Thieves family, but it is friendlier than the strict same-suit games nearby. Its opening layout is often described as two columns of four rows with room between them for foundations. That shape gives the game its table presence: the foundations sit like a negotiation table between two banks of tableau cards.
The name feels fitting because the game asks for compromise. The tableau is permissive, letting you build down without caring about suit, but the foundations remain formal and suit-bound. You can make progress quickly if aces appear early, yet the one-pass stock means every draw has a cost.
Setup
The layout on this page
This page deals eight rows of four face-up cards. The first four rows appear on the left side of the board and the next four on the right. The center panel holds the eight foundations, the stock, and the waste pile.
The stock begins with 72 cards because 32 cards are already in the tableau. When you draw, one card turns face up to the waste. Only the newest waste card is available.
Availability
Which cards are available?
An available card is either the top card of a tableau row or the top card of the waste. Cards buried earlier in a row are visible but blocked. They become available only after every card above them has moved away.
This distinction is the heart of Diplomat. You often know exactly where a useful ace or low card is hiding, but you need row moves, foundation moves, or a temporary empty row to uncover it.
Moves
Legal and illegal Diplomat moves
Tableau building is descending by rank only. If a row ends with a queen, any jack can build onto it. If a row ends with a 10, any 9 can build onto it. Suit and color do not matter. Rank does. A 9 cannot go on a jack, and a 7 cannot go on another 7.
Foundation building is stricter. A foundation starts with an ace and continues upward in the same suit: ace, 2, 3, and onward to king. A 4 of diamonds can go only on a diamond foundation whose top card is the 3 of diamonds.
FoundationAce of clubs starts a club foundation
Foundation6 of hearts onto 5 of hearts
Tableau9 of spades onto any 10
Empty rowAny single available card
Illegal9 onto jack, because it skips 10
IllegalMoving a packed row sequence together
Foundations
How the eight foundations work
Diplomat has eight foundations because two decks are in play. Each foundation belongs to a suit and builds from ace to king. You do not need to choose between two copies of the same suit in a special way; if a card legally fits either matching foundation, moving it to one of them makes permanent progress.
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Low foundation cards are usually urgent because they unlock future cards from both decks. Middle cards deserve more care. Sometimes a 9 is more useful as a landing place in the tableau than as a foundation card, especially if it can help expose an ace or create an empty row.
Stock
How the stock and waste work
The stock deals one card at a time to the waste. The newest waste card can move to a foundation, move to a tableau row, or fill an empty row. If you draw again, that card is covered by the new waste card.
There is no redeal here. That makes waste timing important. Before drawing, check whether the current waste card can start a foundation, extend a tableau row, or occupy a row space in a way that exposes something valuable.
Spaces
Empty rows are powerful but easy to waste
Any available card may fill an empty row. That freedom is generous, but a row space is still a limited resource. Filling a space with a card that has no follow-up can close the one lane you needed to free a buried ace.
A good empty-row move does at least one job: it saves a useful waste card, lets another row expose its next card, or creates a descending chain that can be peeled apart later.
Strategy
Diplomat Solitaire strategy that keeps rows moving
Start by finding aces and low cards. Aces are the first foundation cards, and 2s and 3s quickly become useful once their aces are up. If an ace is buried near the top of a row, favor moves that expose it over moves that merely make a tidy tableau.
Use rank-only building to create tempo. Because suit does not matter in the tableau, a queen can accept any jack, and any 10 can accept any 9. That flexibility lets you clear top cards faster than in Forty Thieves. The trap is making long rows that look organized but do not uncover anything important.
Treat the waste card as a deadline. A useful waste card that gets covered may remain buried until many other cards move away. If it fits a foundation or a row space now, use it before drawing unless you have a clear reason to wait.
Keep at least one row space open when the board is tangled. Empty rows let you move one blocker out of the way, but because sequences cannot move together, that space can vanish quickly. The best use of a space is often a short operation: move one card out, reveal the next card, then send the revealed card to a foundation or another row.
Mistakes
Common Diplomat mistakes
- Drawing over a waste card that already has a useful move.
- Forgetting that tableau suits do not matter, while foundation suits do.
- Using an empty row as storage instead of as a tool to reveal cards.
- Building long descending rows that bury low foundation cards.
- Trying to move a sequence as a group when only one card can move.
- Sending every middle card to a foundation before checking whether it is needed as a tableau landing card.
Winnability
Is Diplomat Solitaire winnable?
Diplomat is not guaranteed from a random shuffle. It is often more open than stricter two-deck games because tableau building ignores suit, but the one-pass stock and one-card move rule can still trap essential cards.
This page does not invent a win-rate number. A fair number would need to be measured against this exact version: eight rows, rank-only tableau building, one-card movement, one-pass stock, no redeal, and the undo and hint behavior used here.
Variants
Diplomat variants and house rules
Diplomat sits near games such as Congress, Parliament, Beleaguered Castle, and Forty Thieves, so rule descriptions can drift from one source to another. The biggest details to check are whether the aces begin on the foundations or must be played there, whether the stock gets any redeal, whether tableau building cares about suit, and whether sequences can move together.
The version here uses empty foundations that accept aces as they become available, a one-pass stock, rank-only tableau building, single-card moves, and any available card into an empty row. Those choices make the game clear, fast to read, and faithful to the classic Diplomat feel without adding a relaxed mode.
Comparison
How Diplomat compares with Forty Thieves, Josephine, and Colorado
Diplomat and Forty Thieves share two decks, eight foundations, a one-pass stock, and one-card movement. The difference is the tableau. Forty Thieves builds down by suit, which makes it strict and slow. Diplomat builds down by rank regardless of suit, so it creates more short-term moves and asks you to manage that extra freedom wisely.
Josephine relaxes a different part of the same family by allowing same-suit sequences to move together. Colorado changes the shape entirely: it uses many storage piles and paired foundations that build upward and downward. If you enjoy Diplomat, those games are natural next stops because each keeps the two-deck scale while shifting the main decision.