Grandfather’s Clock

Grandfather’s Clock is easy to win and fun to look at. A won game shows the twelve tableaus laid out like a clock face, and numbered 1 through 12 with the Ace at 1 o’clock and the Jack and Queen at 11 o’clock and Noon.

Layout Size: Small screens will have to do some vertical scrolling.

Difficulty: Grandfather’s Clock requires a little thought, but nothing deep. Wins are frequent.

Rules: Separate the following cards from the deck, and lay them out in a clock-face circle, starting at 1 o’clock and progressing clockwise to Noon: 10H, JS, QD, KC, 2H, 3S, 4D, 5C, 6H, 7S, 8D, 9C. These twelve cards are the foundations. Shuffle the remaining cards and lay them out in 8 tableau piles of 5 cards each, face up and fanned down.

Top cards of tableaus are available. Tableaus build down, regardless of suit or color. Empty tableaus may be filled with any available card. Foundations build up in suit. Building is circular: on tableaus, King may be played on Ace, while on foundations Ace may be played on King.

The goal is to build each foundation up to its appropriate number on the clock face. (This means that the foundations at 1, 2, 3, and 4 o’clock will finish with five cards each, while the rest will finish with four.)

(See picture: Grandfather’s Clock. The QS may be moved to the JS at the 2 o’clock position, and the 5D can be moved to the 4D at 7 o’clock. In the tableaus, either 10 may be moved onto the JC, and so on.)

On the Screen: The clock face is short and wide on screen, to reduce the need for scrolling. On a big table with real cards, you should lay out the clock face in a true circle, and orient the cards so that they all fan outwards from the center.