Alhambra is just hard enough to provide a challenge, but not so hard as to be discouraging (you should win one in every seven games). Luck plays a starring role here, as it does in most Solitaire games. But with two decks of cards and eight foundation piles in play, Alhambra is rarely dull.
HOW TO DEAL Shuffle together two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total). At the start of the hand, promote a random king and ace to the foundations. Deal eight tableau piles below, face down, with four cards per pile and the topmost cards face up. The remaining cards are your stock pile.
WINNING It’s a two-step process. First, promote all kings and aces to the foundations (kings to the left, aces to the right). On kings, you build down in suit (K-Q-J…3-2-A), while on aces you build up in suit (A-2-3…J-Q-K). The goal is to end the game with eight piles of cards, each organized by suit.
HOW TO PLAY After the initial deal, move exposed kings and aces to the foun dations, then build any cards of matching suit to the foundations. There is no other building in Alhambra—either you move a card from the tableau to the foundations or you move nothing at all. After moving a tableau card to the foundations, turn up the next card in that same tableau pile.
If you have no moves on the board, expose the top stock-pile card. You may play stock cards directly onto the foundations or the tableau. If there is no valid play for the stock card, turn it face down in a waste pile and then turn up the next stock card. Shuffle the waste pile and create a new stock pile once you’ve exhausted all stock cards. You are allowed to shuffle the waste pile twice. After that, the game is over.