Crescent Solitaire
Overview
Crescent Solitaire is a single-player patience game played with two standard 52-card decks (104 cards). Sixteen crescent piles surround eight foundation piles. The goal is to move every card onto the foundations.
Setup
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Ace foundations (4): One Ace of each suit starts each pile. Build up by suit from Ace to King (A, 2, 3, …, Q, K).
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King foundations (4): One King of each suit starts each pile. Build down by suit from King to Ace (K, Q, J, …, 2, A).
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Crescent (16 piles): The remaining 96 cards are dealt face-up into 16 piles of 6 cards each, arranged around the foundations.
How to Play
Top cards only
Only the top exposed card of a crescent pile may be moved.
Moving to foundations
Move a top crescent card onto a foundation when it continues that pile’s suit sequence (up for Ace foundations, down for King foundations).
Moving between crescent piles
Place a top crescent card onto another crescent pile when:
1.
Both cards are the same suit, and
2.
The moving card is exactly one rank higher or one rank lower than the card it lands on.
Example: a 6♣ may land on a 5♣ or a 7♣.
Wraparound: Kings and Aces connect in the crescent. An Ace may land on a King of the same suit, and a King may land on an Ace of the same suit.
Empty crescent piles
When a crescent pile is emptied, it stays empty for the rest of the game. No card may be moved into an empty crescent space.
Moving between foundations
You may move the top card from an Ace foundation to the King foundation of the same suit, and vice versa, when the move continues the destination pile’s sequence. This is often needed to free cards trapped in the crescent.
Once a suit’s two foundations meet — the Ace foundation runs up to some rank and the King foundation runs down to the next one, thirteen cards between them — their top cards can trade back and forth indefinitely. That trade only counts as a move when it can free a crescent card of that suit; trading for its own sake never stops you reshuffling, and never keeps a stuck game going.
Cards never move from foundations back onto the crescent.
The reshuffle (shift)
There is no stock or waste pile. When no crescent card can move — onto another crescent pile or onto a foundation — you may reshuffle:
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The bottom card of every crescent pile moves to the top of that pile.
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You get three reshuffles per game.
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If you have no moves and no reshuffles left, the game is lost.
Winning and losing
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Win: All 104 cards are on the eight foundations (each foundation holds 13 cards) and the crescent is empty.
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Lose: No crescent card can move and you have used all three reshuffles.