What Is Kings Corner?
Kings Corner is a multi-player solitaire-style card game where all players share the same tableau. You take turns playing cards from your hand onto shared piles in the center, building them downward in alternating colors — exactly like Klondike solitaire. The twist: Kings open brand new corner piles and entire stacks can be moved onto each other. The first player to empty their hand wins.
What You Need
- One standard deck of 52 playing cards
- Two to four players
Understanding Alternating Colors
In Kings Corner, cards are built in descending order with alternating colors. Red and black alternate going down. So a Black 8 can be placed on a Red 9. A Red Jack can be placed on a Black Queen. You cannot place a Red 8 on a Red 9 or a Black 8 on a Black 9 — the colors must alternate.
Setting Up the Game
- Shuffle all 52 cards.
- Deal seven cards to each player face-down. Players look at their cards.
- Place the remaining cards face-down in the center as the stock pile.
- Deal one card face-up to the North, South, East, and West positions around the stock pile — four starting foundation piles arranged like compass points.
- Leave the four corner spaces (between the compass points — Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest) empty. These are where Kings will go.
How to Play — Step by Step
The player to the left of the dealer goes first. Play moves clockwise.
- On your turn, you may make as many legal moves as you want before ending your turn.
- Legal Move 1 — Play a card from your hand onto a foundation pile: The card you play must be one rank lower than the top card of the pile AND the opposite color. Example: play a Red 6 onto a Black 7.
- Legal Move 2 — Move an entire pile onto another pile: You may pick up a complete foundation pile and place it on top of another pile if the bottom card of the pile you are moving is one rank lower and opposite color than the top card of the destination pile. Example: a pile with Red 8 on top can receive a pile whose bottom card is a Black 7.
- Legal Move 3 — Play a King to a corner: If you have a King in your hand, you may place it in any empty corner space. This opens a new pile that other cards can be built onto (Black on Red King, then alternating down from there).
- Legal Move 4 — Play from hand onto a King in a corner: Once a King is in a corner, you can build downward on it just like any other pile.
- After making all desired moves, draw one card from the stock pile to end your turn.
Empty Foundation Spots
If all cards are moved off a North, South, East, or West foundation spot, that spot is empty. Any card from your hand can be placed there to start a new pile.
Winning
The first player to play their last card from their hand wins. They do not need to empty the center piles — only their own hand.
Tips for New Players
- Always look for pile-on-pile moves first — moving an entire stack opens up spots and can clear the way for several hand cards at once.
- Save Kings to open corners strategically — a new corner is most valuable when you have several cards to immediately build on it.
- Pay attention to what other players need — sometimes you can block their plays by moving a pile they were targeting.