How is Superior Canfield different from Canfield?

Two rules change. The thirteen-card reserve is dealt face up and spread so you can read every card in it, and an emptied tableau column is not automatically refilled from the reserve. Every other rule — the turned base rank, the wrapping foundations, the alternating-colour build, the three-card turn and the unlimited redeals — is exactly Canfield's.

Why does a foundation start on a random rank?

One card is turned before the deal and its rank becomes the base for all four foundations. That single card decides the whole arithmetic of the board, which is the Canfield family's signature. Because the foundations wrap past the King back to the Ace, every foundation still holds thirteen cards whatever the base turns out to be.

Can I really keep an empty column empty?

Yes, and you should. This is the second of the two deltas. In Canfield the reserve claims a space the instant one opens, so spaces are worthless. Here a space survives until you choose to fill it, and any card may go into it, which makes it the most useful thing on the board.

Does seeing the reserve make the game easy?

It makes it fairer, not easy. You still cannot reorder the reserve — the cards come out in one fixed order, top first — so knowing what is buried mostly tells you how expensive a plan will be. Many deals are still unwinnable; you simply find out sooner.

What does unlimited redeals actually give me?

The stock can be recycled as often as you like, but turning three at a time means most cards stay unreachable unless the phase shifts. Playing one card off the waste changes which cards sit on top of each group of three. If a whole pass yields no playable card, the game is over — the same cards will surface again in the same order.

Is a King allowed on an Ace?

Yes. The tableau wraps in this family, so a King may be packed onto an Ace, and an Ace onto a 2, in alternating colours. It is one of the most commonly missed moves in Canfield games and often the only way to clear a column.

Superior Canfield - Play Online & 100% Free

Play Superior Canfield — Canfield With Nothing Hidden

Canfield is famous for being unfair in two particular ways. Its thirteen-card reserve sits face down under a single top card, so you spend the game guessing at what you are digging towards; and the moment you empty a column, the reserve takes the space before you can use it. Superior Canfield removes both. The reserve is dealt face up and spread, so every one of the thirteen cards is in front of you from the first click, and an emptied column stays empty until you decide what belongs there. Everything else is untouched: a turned card sets the base rank, the foundations wrap past the King, and the stock turns three at a time forever. Free in your browser, no sign-up.

How Do You Play Superior Canfield?

Goal: move all 52 cards to the four foundations.

Setup

Deck: one standard 52-card deck.
Reserve: thirteen cards, all face up and spread. Only the top one is playable, but you can read every card underneath it.
Foundations: one card is turned before the deal, and its rank is the base for all four.
Tableau: four columns of a single card each.
Stock: the remaining 34 cards, turned three at a time to a waste, with unlimited redeals.

Rules

Foundations build up in suit from the base rank and wrap: a foundation started at the 9 runs 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2, and on to the 8.
Tableau columns build down in alternating colours, and wrap the same way — a King packs onto an Ace.
A packed run moves as a unit.
An emptied column is not refilled. It is a space, it is yours, and any card may go into it.
Only the top card of the reserve may be played, to a foundation or onto a column.
Nothing is ever played back onto the reserve or off a foundation.

Superior Canfield Strategy

The two concessions change what kind of game this is. Canfield is a gamble you manage; Superior Canfield is a plan you execute, and the plan starts before your first move.

Read the whole reserve first. All thirteen cards are visible, so you know exactly which ranks are locked behind which. If the Ace you need is eleventh from the top, you know from the start that eleven reserve plays stand between you and it, and you can decide whether the board can absorb them.
Count the reserve against the base rank. The turned card decides the arithmetic. A base of 2 means the reserve's Kings are nearly worthless for a long time; a base of Queen means they are gold. You can settle that question before you touch anything.
Spend the reserve, but not blindly. Reserve cards leave in one order only, so every one you play is a card you cannot recover. Play from the reserve when it unlocks something below it or banks a foundation card, not merely because it fits.
Hoard the spaces. This is the delta with real teeth. In Canfield a space is instantly swallowed; here it is a parking bay you can hold empty as long as you like. Keep at least one open where you can, and use it to break a badly ordered column apart rather than to dump a card you had nowhere else to put.
Remember the wrap in both directions. A King on an Ace looks wrong and is legal, and it is often the only move that empties a column. New players leave that move on the table for whole games.
Unlimited redeals are not infinite chances. Turning three at a time means the same two cards of every three stay buried unless the count shifts. Playing a single card off the waste re-phases the whole stock, so a card you could not reach on one pass becomes reachable on the next. If a pass produces nothing at all, nothing on the next pass will change either.

What Makes It "Superior"?

The name is a claim about fairness, not difficulty, and it is a fair claim. Both changes give information or freedom back to the player, and neither loosens a single build rule. The board is identical, the arithmetic is identical, and the win still needs all 52 cards banked. What changes is that a loss is now clearly yours: you could see the reserve, you could keep the space, and you still could not find the line. Players coming from Klondike usually find Superior Canfield the friendliest way into the Canfield family, because the visible reserve makes the base-rank arithmetic something you can practise deliberately instead of something you absorb by losing.

It also rewards patience differently. Because a space survives, a slow game of shuffling cards between columns to reach one buried card is a real strategy here, where in Canfield the reserve would keep eating your work. Take the extra moves.