Classic Games Club

Monte Carlo Solitaire

Remove all 52 cards in matching-rank pairs.

How to play

Remove all 52 cards in matching-rank pairs.

  • Deal 25 cards into a five-by-five grid and keep the remaining 27 in stock.
  • Remove two cards of equal rank when their cells touch horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
  • When no pair remains, compact survivors toward the top-left and refill from stock; clear the final grid to win.

Strategy tips

  • Diagonal adjacency counts, so inspect every card's eight surrounding cells.
  • Choose pairs that bring future equal ranks together after compaction.
  • Before compacting, verify that no removable pair remains because the layout change is only available afterward.

Complete guide

Rules, scoring, and strategy

Monte Carlo deals a five-by-five face-up grid and removes neighbouring cards of equal rank. Once no pair remains, surviving cards compact toward the top-left in reading order and stock cards refill the open cells.

All eight neighbouring directions count

Two equal ranks may be removed when their cells touch along an edge or a corner. The grid boundary limits neighbours, so cards in the middle have more possible partners than cards at the corners.

Pair order changes the survivors

Removing one equal-rank pair can break another adjacency or create a gap between potential partners. Compare all current pairs before choosing which two cells to clear.

Compaction preserves reading order

When no removable pair remains, the survivors slide into consecutive cells from the top-left without changing their order. Stock cards then occupy the remaining cells up to a full 25-card grid.

The final grid has no refill

After the 27-card stock is exhausted, later compactions only close the surviving cards together. Winning requires pairing every final rank; a nonempty layout with no equal neighbours is stuck.

Questions players ask

Do diagonal cards count as neighbours?

Yes. Equal ranks touching at a corner form a legal pair.

When can I compact the grid?

Only after every currently available equal-rank neighbouring pair is gone.

Does compaction shuffle the survivors?

No. It keeps their reading order while closing all gaps toward the top-left.

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