About Us
About crescentsolitaire.app
We publish a free, modern browser version of Crescent Solitaire — the two-deck patience game with ascending and descending foundations — with unlimited undo, hints, reshuffles, and a layout that works on any screen.
- Cards, two decks
- 104
- Tableau piles
- 16
- Foundations
- 8
- Reshuffles
- 3
What Crescent Solitaire is
Crescent Solitaire is a two-deck patience game. It is played with 104 cards, sixteen tableau piles, and eight foundations, and it stands apart from Klondike-style solitaire in three ways: every card starts face up, foundations grow in both directions, and the only cards that ever move are single top cards.
The board is named for its shape. Sixteen piles curve around the foundations like a crescent moon around a disc, and the whole game is about turning that ring of open information into two clean sweeps — every suit climbing from Ace and every suit descending from King.
Where it comes from
The exact origin of Crescent is not well documented. It belongs to the family of two-deck patience games with ascending and descending foundations, and became widely familiar to casual players when large game sites put it online as a free daily puzzle. Searches often use variants such as “crescent solitare”, and many people first meet it through their news, retirement, or membership sites’ game sections.
The rules here follow the mainstream online version: two decks, one Ace and one King of each suit pre-placed, sixteen piles of six, same-suit builds one rank apart with Ace and King as neighbours, and a limited number of reshuffles. This site is independent and is not affiliated with AARP, the Washington Post, or any other publisher of a Crescent Solitaire game.
How this version is built
The board is plain HTML and CSS, sized from its own width so all 26 slots stay visible on a phone. The rules engine is a separate, framework-free module, and the React layer only draws state and forwards taps, drags, and keys. That split keeps moves instant and makes a new deal a function call rather than a page load.
Every legal destination lights up when you pick up a card, hints point at a useful move instead of the first legal one, and undo is unlimited. There is no timer forcing your hand: the clock simply records your best time.
Sound effects are synthesized in your browser with the Web Audio API — no audio files — and can be muted with M. Everything else — stats, streak, sound preference — lives in local storage on your device. There are no accounts, no downloads, and no third-party game code.
Accessibility
Every top card is a real button with a spoken label such as “7 of hearts, top of pile 4”, every pile and foundation is a labelled group, and each control announces what it does and how many hints or reshuffles remain. Focus rings are visible, the game is fully playable from the keyboard, colours meet WCAG AA contrast, and animation respects the reduced-motion setting.
What we hold ourselves to
Instant to start
Open the page and a board is already dealt. No account wall, no download, no splash video.
Honest defaults
Unlimited undo, five hints, three reshuffles, and no time limit. Nothing is gated behind a “pro” toggle.
Yours to keep
Best time, fewest moves, most cards home, and win streak live on your device. There is no login to hold them hostage.
Free, for real
No energy meters, no video ads between deals, no paywall. The whole game is free.
New here? Read how to play, browse the FAQ, or write to malam169@gmail.com with a bug report or idea.