Pyramid Solitaire

Pyramid Solitaire is the shortest rule in the whole family of patience games: two cards that add up to thirteen leave the table together. An ace counts one, a jack eleven, a queen twelve, and a king is thirteen all by himself. Twenty-eight cards are laid out in seven rows on a sandstone slab, each one pinned down by the two beneath it, and the pyramid can only come apart from the base up. What is left of the deck sits beside it as the stock, turning up one card at a time to help you reach the pairs the slab will not give you.

Every table has a number, so you can replay the one that beat you or type in a new one. Turn on winnable deals and the built-in solver checks a number before it is dealt, so you only ever sit down to a pyramid that can actually be cleared. There is a daily table too — the same seven rows for everyone who plays that day — and a par for each deal, worked out by the same solver, to measure your run against. Choose one pass through the stock for a hard game, three for the classic, or endless for a quiet one.

Tap two cards or drag one onto the other; the arrow keys walk a cursor over the slab if you would rather not touch the screen at all. Undo goes back as far as you like, Hint lights up a pair worth taking, and kings can be set to clear themselves. When the ordinary pyramid feels tight, Tut's Tomb lays two spare cards at its feet and deals three at a time. Sand drifts across the stone whenever a pair lifts away, a gong rolls out over the dunes when the last card goes, and your clears, streak and best time are kept in your browser.