Rules
Royal Parade Solitaire is played with two decks of 52 cards each.
Three rows of eight cards are dealt to the tableau or “Parade”. These form 24 foundations. When the patience is finished, the top row will be founded on the eight 2s which are built up in suit by threes, e.g. 2♣, 5♣, 8♣, J♣. The base cards of the middle row will be the 3s, again built up in suit by threes, e.g. 3♥, 6♥, 9♥, Q♥ The base cards of the last row are the 4s which are also built up in suit by threes, e.g. 4♠, 7♠, 10♠, K♠.
Then a Reserve rows of eight cards is dealt below.
A 2, 3, and 4 are dealt to the left of each of the tableau rows to give a head start.
After the 24 cards have been dealt to the Parade, building up commences on any 2s in the top row, 3s in the middle row and 4s in the bottom row, any spaces thus created being filled by an appropriate base card (2, 3 or 4).
You can swap two cards as long as both of them will end up in the correct spaces.
If there are no more moves, 8 cards are dealt to the Reserve row from left to right below the Parade to form eight depots. These cards become available for play either as base cards onto any spaces or to build on existing cards as before. When all available cards have been played, another row of 8 cards is dealt onto the depots, overlapping vertically any existing cards.
Aces are removed to create a space for building.
If the patience goes through, there will be no cards on the depots and the top row will contain all of the jacks, the middle row - queens, and the bottom row - kings.
Variants
- Royal Parade (relaxed) — An empty spot in the Reserve can be filled by any card.