Maria is the alternating-colour branch of the Forty Thieves family dealt one column narrower than Streets: nine tableau columns of four cards, all face up, over a sixty-eight card stock. A red seven takes either black eight, which roughly doubles the hosts available to every card — but with only nine columns and no redeal, the board fills faster than it frees, and that tension is the game.
Nine columns is tighter than it sounds. One fewer column than Streets means one fewer place to put things, and with sixty-eight cards arriving from the stock the board congests quickly. Open a column while the stock is still deep; a space made late is worth far less.
Chains are debts. Every card you place in a mixed-colour chain is a card you must move individually later. Build only what serves a foundation.
Watch the suits, not the colours. The colour rule governs where cards may sit; the foundations govern where they must eventually go. A board that looks beautifully organised in red-black order can be hopeless in club order.
Play the board out before each deal. No redeal means the waste is one-way traffic.
The family's alternating-colour branch has three well-known members, and they are separated by very little. Streets is the branch at full width — the classic ten columns of four. Maria is the same rules one column narrower, which sounds trivial and is not: a two-deck board with sixty-eight cards still to come needs every space it can get. Number Ten keeps the colour rule, hides two rows, and lets packed runs move as a unit, which is what makes it the family's easiest member. Emperor and Rank and File take the same build into fully hidden boards. Maria sits at the demanding end of the branch: forgiving to place cards, unforgiving about where they end up.
Maria runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer and it works offline. You get unlimited undo, a hint button that names a legal move, statistics that track your wins and times, and seeded deals: every game has a seed you can replay, so a board you enjoyed (or lost) can be played again exactly.