How to Play Royal Parade Solitaire

Royal Parade solitaire is an unusual and highly challenging variation of the classic card game.

Number of Cards: 104 (2 Decks)

Difficulty: Hard

Family: Fan Solitaire

Type: Half-open builder

How to Play Royal Parade Solitaire

This 2-deck solitaire game is a great challenge for the seasoned solitaire player. It has almost no resemblance to classic solitaire games like Klondike or Yukon. Instead of packing tableau piles to build up foundations from ace to king, you’ll build 21 mini foundations in multiples of 3.

Types of Piles

Fans: Small piles of cards.

Foundation piles: You’ll build foundation piles beginning with base cards of 2, 3, and 4.

Reserve piles: The reserve piles for Royal Parade are piles of face-up cards.

Stock pile: This pile is the remainder of the deck that hasn’t gone into the tableau piles.

Setup

1. Place a 2, a 3, and a 4 at the start of each row.

2. Deal 7 more cards into each row. You’ll end up with 3 rows of 8 cards.

3. Beneath these rows, you’ll have room for 8 reserve piles.

4. You’ll also need space for your ace foundation pile — essentially a waste pile.

Object

If you’re used to playing classic Klondike solitaire, Royal Parade solitaire will be a fun change of pace. The object of the game is to build up fans of cards by multiples of 3.

The top row of fans should be in a sequence of 2-5-8-J.

The second row of fans should be 3-6-9-Q.

The bottom row of fans should be 4-7-10-K.

Rules

If playing Royal Parade solitaire online, the rules are automatically applied — you won’t be allowed to make any illegal moves.

If you’re old-school and using a physical card deck, you’ll need to know the game rules to play…

• Fans must be built-up in suit. Your sequences of cards will always match, e.g., a sequence of 2 of hearts, 5 of hearts, 8 of hearts, Jack of hearts.

• You can only build onto a 2, 3, or 4 when it is in its foundation row. If you have a 4 on the top row, you can’t build onto it until you move it to the bottom row.

• You can’t pre-build anything. You have to start with the foundation card every time. For instance, if you have a 7 and a 10, you can stack them until there’s an open 4 to start that pile.

• You can only place the appropriate base card in empty spaces. When a spot opens on the first row, you can only move a 2 there.

• Reserve cards are drawn 8 at a time. When you draw reserve cards, you’ll place them in a reserve row. Next time you draw from the reserve, the new cards will be placed on top of the reserve piles, covering the previous open cards.

• Aces are space holders. You’ll deal all of your aces during gameplay, but when you’re ready to make moves, just put them all in a foundation pile.

What is a good strategy for Royal Parade Solitaire?

Royal Parade is tricky, so you’ll want to take your time and build up some personal strategies. Here are some tips to get you started.

Look for aces first.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but with so many variants of solitaire depending on aces to win, it can be tricky to remember they don’t matter in Royal Parade. Pick those aces up as soon as possible to get them out of your way!

Be careful with your reserve cards.

One of the challenges of Royal Parade is burying all your reserve cards. Try to remember what you have under there, so you can play the right top cards when you have options.

FAQs

Are there alternate rules for Royal Parade Solitaire?

People are constantly developing new gameplay regulations and techniques to make solitaire games more fun. Virginia Reel is a variation of Royal Parade. The main difference between the two games is that in Virginia Reel, any card you move from a row must immediately be replaced by an appropriate base card.

What is a solitaire card game?

A solitaire card game, or “patience,” is a card game that is meant to be played alone.

What are some 2-deck solitaire games?

There are several 2-deck games, including:

• Royal Cotillion

• Miss Milligan

• Crescent

• Mount Olympus

• La Belle Lucie

There are also 2-deck variants of several traditionally single-deck games. We recommend:

• Freecell Duplex

• Double Klondike

• Double Pyramid

What are some other challenging solitaire games?

If you love a challenge, we recommend Canfield, Forty Thieves, or Scorpion solitaire.

Check out our full solitaire collection with games for every skill level!