Maze

Written by Matthew Wilcox

3.52.1. Setup

Type of Deck 48 cards: Standard Deck without the kings
Tableau Fifty-four spaces in six rows of nine each. Deal cards into spaces one to eight. Leave space nine blank. Deal cards into spaces ten to seventeen. Leave space eighteen blank. Deal the remaining cards similarly. Then remove all the kings (which play no further part in the game), so that six empty spaces remain in total. Any card can be moved into a space to the left of another card of the same suit and face value one higher. Any card can be moved into a space to the right of another card of the same suit and face value one lower. An ace may be moved to the right of a queen or in the top left space. A queen may be moved to the left of an ace or in the bottom right space.

3.52.2. Goal

Put each suit of cards into ascending order, with an ace in the top left corner, to create a run of cards: Ace to Queen of one suit, Ace to Queen of another, Ace to Queen of the third, Ace to Queen of the fourth.

3.52.3. Rules

Cards are moved singly. Any card can be moved into a space to the left of another card of face value one higher in the same suit. Any card can be moved into a space to the right of another card of face value one lower in the same suit. An ace may be moved to the right of a queen or in the top left space. A queen may be moved to the left of an ace or in the bottom right space.

3.52.4. Scoring

Each card placed next to another card of the same suit in the correct order scores one point.

Maximum possible score: 48

3.52.5. Strategy

Multiple adjacent spaces enable you to generate long sequences of cards. Beware of getting trapped into a situation where you move one card endlessly between two points.