Home / Card / Four Seasons Solitaire
Four Seasons Solitaire, also called Corner Card or Vanishing Cross, is a classic one-deck patience, free to play online in your browser with no download and no sign-up. Five cards are dealt face up in a cross and a sixth goes to the top-left corner. That card sets the base rank for all four corners: the other three cards of its rank start Summer, Autumn and Winter as they turn up, and every corner builds up in its own suit from the base, turning the corner after the King — on a base of 7 that is 7 8 9 10 J Q K A 2 3 4 5 6. The cross builds down in any suit, one card at a time, and wraps too, so a King may go on an Ace. A space in the cross takes any card. The stock is turned one card at a time onto a waste pile, with one pass and no redeal. It is a quick game of a few minutes with real decisions about which cards to park in the cross and which spaces to keep open, and it is tight: knowing the order of the stock, our solver finds a win in 1,620 of the first 2,400 deals within the hint’s search budget, while a careful player who cannot see the stock wins 287, about one deal in eight. Play by drag or tap, let cards with nothing left to do fly home by themselves, undo any move, ask for a hint, replay any deal by its number, or switch to the original 1883 rules, where a whole run in the cross moves as one.
How to play Four Seasons Solitaire
- Five cards are dealt face up in a cross — north, west, centre, east and south — and a sixth goes to the top-left corner, Spring. The other 46 cards wait face down in the stock.
- The Spring card sets the base rank for every corner. When the other three cards of that rank turn up, move them to the empty corners: Summer top right, Autumn bottom right, Winter bottom left. The base plaque shows the rank and the order every corner climbs.
- Each corner builds up in its own suit from the base and turns the corner after the King. On a base of 7, the Hearts corner takes 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Hearts, in that order.
- The cross builds down in any suit, one card at a time: a 6 of any suit goes on a 7, and a King may go on an Ace. Only the top card of a cross pile moves.
- A space in the cross takes any card, from the waste or the top of another cross pile. Spaces are the most useful thing on the table, so fill one only when it frees something.
- Tap the stock (or press D) to turn its top card onto the waste. The waste top can go to a corner or onto the cross. There is one pass through the stock and no redeal.
- Tap a card to send it home when it fits, or onto the cross when it does not; tap a corner to pull in a card that fits it; or drag. A card whose job in the cross is over — every card one place before it already home — flies to its corner by itself. You win with all 52 cards on the corners.
Tips
- Learn the order first. With a base of 9 the corners climb 9 10 J Q K A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, so an 8 is the last card any corner wants and the worst card to have stuck under others.
- Keep a space open as long as you can. An empty spot in the cross is the only way to dig a buried card out, and filling it with a card you could have parked on a pile throws that away.
- Build long runs down in the cross from the cards the corners want last. A run of cards the corners want soon will have to come apart again before it can go home.
- Before turning the stock, look at whether the waste card can go anywhere. Once you turn, it is buried under the next card and only comes back when everything above it has been played.
- Get each new base card into its corner as soon as it appears. A corner that has not started cannot take anything, and the cards for it pile up in the cross meanwhile.
- When a hint is not sure of a winning line it says so — the hint looks at the stock to plan, which you cannot, so treat a "rule of thumb" hint as advice, not a promise.
FAQ
Is Four Seasons Solitaire free to play?
Yes. It plays in your browser for free, with no download, no account and nothing to buy. Your game is saved as you play, so you can close the tab and pick it up later, and your wins and streak are kept in your own browser.
How do you play Four Seasons Solitaire?
Five cards make a cross and a sixth starts the first corner. Its rank is the base for all four corners, which build up in suit from the base, wrapping from King to Ace. The cross builds down in any suit, one card at a time, and a space takes any card. Turn the stock one card at a time onto the waste; there is one pass. Win by getting all 52 cards onto the corners.
What happens after the King?
The corners turn the corner: an Ace follows the King, then a 2, until the corner ends on the card just below the base. The cross wraps the same way, so a King may be placed on an Ace. If the base itself is an Ace, the corners simply run Ace to King.
How often can you win Four Seasons Solitaire?
Not often — it is one of the harder simple patiences. Over the first 2,400 deals, a careful player who never peeks at the stock wins 287, about one in eight, close to the one in ten that Morehead and Mott-Smith give. Knowing the order of the stock, our solver finds a win in 1,620 of them within the hint’s budget, so many deals that look lost were winnable with the right parking in the cross.
What are the 1883 rules?
The earliest printed rules, in Dick’s 1883 book, let a whole run that is built down in the cross move together onto another pile or into a space. The later rules most books print allow one card at a time. Moving runs makes the game far kinder: the same careful player wins 1,823, about three in four, of the 2,400 deals and the solver 2,358.
Why does a card sometimes go to its corner by itself?
A card in the cross is only useful as somewhere to put the card one place before it. Once all four of those are on the corners, it has nothing left to do, so the game sends it home for you. Nothing else moves by itself — base cards and every other card wait for you, because putting them home could cost you a place to park.
Is it the same game as Corner Card or Vanishing Cross?
Yes. Four Seasons, Corner Card, Vanishing Cross and Cross Currents are names for the same patience: a five-card cross and four corner foundations that share one base rank. It is not the same as Grandfather’s Clock, where each foundation has its own fixed start, or Beleaguered Castle, where the Aces start the foundations and there is no stock.
Does Four Seasons work on a phone?
Yes. On an upright phone the cross and corners stand in a tall grid with the stock and base along the top, and every pile fans downward. Tap a card to play it, tap the stock to turn, or drag with one finger. It also works with a keyboard: arrow keys move between piles, Enter plays, D turns the stock.