Not the game you remember

Memory Solitaire

Fifty-two cards face down, matched by rank. That one detail changes everything: a rank has four cards, so every card you turn over has three possible partners rather than one.

Fifty-two cards face down
Match by rank alone
Three partners per card
Twenty-six pairs

Pairs0/26

Turns0

Misses0

Seen0

Match rule

Flip two cards. Same rank clears a pair; different ranks turn back over on your next choice.

Match cards by rank to clear the board.

Two minutes of rules

Memory Solitaire rules

Two minutes to learn. The rank-matching rule is the part worth noticing.

Memory Solitaire setup and rules
Setup
Deck	One standard 52-card deck, all face down.
The grid	Every card in a fixed position that never changes.
Pairs to clear	Twenty-six.
A turn
Flipping	Turn two cards face up.
A match	Same rank. Both cards are cleared from the grid.
A miss	Different ranks. Both stay face up until you choose your next card, then turn back.
Suit	Irrelevant. Only the rank is compared.
Winning
Win condition	All twenty-six pairs cleared.
Turns	Unlimited. Nothing forces the game to end.
The real measure	How few turns and misses it takes.

Turn two, clear two

How to play Memory Solitaire

The whole deck goes face down in a grid and stays exactly where it is for the rest of the game. Turn two cards over. If their ranks match — any two sevens, any two queens — both are removed. If they do not, they stay face up until you pick your next card, then flip back.

Suits play no part at all. Twenty-six pairs clear the board, and nothing limits how many turns you take, so the game is really scored by how few misses you accumulate on the way.

Rank matching is not a simplification — it is the only way this works. The children's game uses a deck of duplicated pictures, where each card has exactly one twin. A standard fifty-two card deck has none, so matching by rank is what makes a single deck playable. The side effect is three partners per card, which roughly triples the chance of a blind hit and makes partial knowledge far more valuable.

Same rank, any suit

What counts as a match

Legal and illegal Memory moves
The move	Verdict	Why
You flip a 7♥ and a 7♠.	Legal	Same rank. Both are cleared.
You flip a 7♥ and a 7♦.	Legal	Also a match — any two sevens will do.
You flip a 7♥ and an 8♠.	Illegal	Different ranks. They turn back over on your next choice.
You flip a card and then flip it again as your second card.	Illegal	Two different cards have to be chosen.
You flip a card already cleared from the grid.	Illegal	Cleared cards leave the board for good.
You leave two mismatched cards face up while you think.	Legal	They stay visible until you pick your next card.
You clear the last pair with sixteen misses on the counter.	Legal	Misses are recorded, not penalised. The board is still cleared.

How to remember more

Track ranks by region, not by card

Trying to hold fifty-two individual positions is hopeless. What works is coarser: remember that there were sevens in the top-left area and queens along the bottom edge. Because any two of a rank match, an approximate memory is often enough — you do not need to know which seven, only roughly where two of them are.

That is the practical consequence of the three-partner rule. In a game requiring exact twins, vague recall is useless. Here it is most of what you need, which is why Memory rewards attention rather than an unusual memory.

Remembering less

Memory Solitaire strategy

Open with cards you have not seen. Early turns are for information; there is nothing to lose by exploring while the board is entirely unknown.

Use a known match the moment you have one. If your first flip is a rank you have already located elsewhere, take the certain pair rather than gambling on a fresh card.

Read both cards after a miss. They stay face up until your next choice, and that is the only free information the game gives you.

Clear a rank completely when you can. Four cards of a rank make two pairs, and taking both while you still know all four positions is much easier than coming back to it later.

Where turns leak

Where turns get wasted

Flipping a second card at random after a useful first

If your first card is a rank you have already seen elsewhere, the second flip should be that known position — not a fresh guess. Turning a random second card when you already hold a certain match throws away the one piece of information you had.

Not using the free look at the end of a miss

A failed pair stays face up until you choose your next card. That is time to place both of them in memory, and it is the only reason a miss is not a total loss. Clicking straight on to the next card wastes it.

Forgetting that a rank has four cards

Seeing two sevens in different corners is not one fact but part of four. Once all four are located you have two guaranteed pairs, and it is worth clearing them together while you still remember where they all are.

The one you cannot lose

Is Memory Solitaire winnable?

Always, eventually — nothing forces the game to end and no position is ever unwinnable. That makes it the only game on this site you cannot actually lose.

The interesting question is not whether you clear the board but in how many turns. Perfect recall would finish in the low thirties; ordinary play takes considerably more. The misses counter is the real scoreboard.

This version

Fifty-two cards, rank matching, no limit

One deck face down in a fixed grid; positions never change.
Turn two cards; matching ranks are cleared, whatever the suits.
Mismatched cards stay face up until you choose your next card.
Twenty-six pairs to clear, with no turn limit and no way to lose.
Turns, misses and cards seen are counted as your score.

Undo is available for the last card choice. Also known as Concentration and Pelmanism.

The pairing games

Memory among the pairing games

Several games here ask you to pair cards up. What separates them is what counts as a pair and how much of the board you can see.

Memory compared with Monte Carlo, Pyramid, and Clock Patience
Game	Layout	What pairs	Partners per card	The skill
Memory	52 face down in a fixed grid	Same rank	3 for every card	Recall
Monte Carlo	25 face up in a grid	Same rank, and adjacent	3, but only if neighbouring	Sequencing
Pyramid	28 face up in a pyramid	Ranks totalling thirteen	4 for most cards	Arithmetic and planning
Clock Patience	52 face down on a dial	None — rank sends you to a pile	Not applicable	None at all

Monte Carlo uses the same rank rule with everything face up, and adds a requirement that the two cards be neighbours. Between them they cover both halves of what a pairing game can ask: remembering where a card is, or working out how to get to it.

Explore

More solitaire games

Other pairing games, and the other one that hides the whole deck.

Tested rules

How this solitaire game is checked

Game logic is implemented and tested by Brian Hamilton, then reviewed by Karan Hamilton for rule clarity, player flow, and correction notes.

How we make and test solitaire games