King Albert is a
patience
(or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when faced ...
or
card solitaire
Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are inte ...
using a deck of 52
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
s of the
open packer
Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are inte ...
type. It is a conventional building game,
["King Albert" (p.46) in ''The Little Book of Solitaire'', Running Press, 2002. ] and is said to be named after
Albert I of Belgium
Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934.
Born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-S ...
and is a variant of Somerset. It is the best known of the three games that are each called Idiot's Delight because of the low chance of winning the game (the other two are
Aces Up
Aces Up is a quick and simple, one-pack, patience or solitaire card game.
One advantage of Aces Up is its minimal use of space: it requires only four piles of cards, and a place to discard cards to. Winning chances with good play are about 1 i ...
and
Perpetual Motion
Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible, a ...
).
Rules
The aim, as in most patience or solitaire games, is to release the aces to the
foundations
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
and
build
Build may refer to:
* Engineering something
* Construction
* Physical body stature, especially muscle size; usually of the human body
* Build (game engine), a 1995 first-person shooter engine
* "Build" (song), a 1987 song by The Housemartins
* ...
each of them up by suit to Kings.
First, the cards are dealt into nine
columns
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
in such a way that the first column contains nine cards, the second having eight cards, the third seven, and so on until the ninth column has a single card. The seven left over cards form the
reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
, sometimes known as "the Belgian Reserve."
Building on the tableau is down by
alternating colors and only one card can be moved at a time. Only the
top card
''Top Card'' is a game show that aired on TNN and produced by Reid-Land Productions, replacing TNN's original game show ''Fandango''. The show aired from April 3, 1989 to March 26, 1993 and was based on the card game Blackjack.
Jim Caldwell was ...
of each column and all cards in the reserve are available for play as well as the top cards in the foundation. Furthermore, an empty column can be filled with any
available
In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings:
* The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at a ...
card.
Once an ace is released, it can be built upon immediately.
The
game is out
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in de ...
when all cards end up in the foundations.
Variants
Raglan is a popular variant of King Albert, and makes the game easier and achievable by starting with the Aces on the foundations. Other variant games include Somerset, Bath, Usk, and Morehead, the latter being named after
Albert H. Morehead.
See also
*
List of patiences and solitaires
This is a list of patiences, which are card games that are also referred to as solitaires or as card solitaire.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but only includes games that have met the usual Wikipedia requirements (e.g. notability ...
*
Glossary of patience and solitaire terms
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in de ...
References
Bibliography
* Arnold, Peter (2011). ''Card Games for One''. 2nd edn. London: Chambers.
*
{{Solitaire
Open packers
Single-deck patience card games