Play Bear River Solitaire Online — Fans Round the Corner

Bear River is a Fan game where the deal chooses the base. One deck is dealt face up into fifteen fans of three and three fans of two, and the fifty-second card goes to a foundation: its rank is the base of all four. Foundations build up in suit from that rank, turning the corner from king to ace. Fans build up or down in suit, also round the corner, one card at a time, and a fan never holds more than three cards. An empty fan takes nothing — except the three fans that were dealt two, which take any card. No stock, no redeal. Bank all 52 to win.

Setup

Deal three rows of six fans. In each row the first five fans get three cards and the sixth gets two, all face up. The one card left over is turned up onto its suit's foundation; the empty foundations show its rank so you know where every suit starts. On this site the three short fans are the sixth, twelfth and eighteenth.

Rules

• Foundations build up in suit from the dealt rank, turning the corner: if the base is a nine, the pile runs nine, ten, jack, queen, king, ace, two and on to the eight.
• Fans build up or down in suit, one rank at a time, round the corner: an ace goes on a king and a king on an ace.
• Only the exposed card of a fan is in play: the last card dealt to it, on top of the spread.
• One card at a time. A sequence never moves as a unit.
• A fan holds at most three. A card cannot be built onto a fan that already has three.
• Spaces: the fifteen full fans take nothing when empty; the three short fans take any card.
• No redeal. The game ends when no move remains.
• Win when all four foundations hold thirteen cards.

Strategy

The dealt base turns the deck into a circle. Every suit wants the same rank next, then the same rank after that, so the board is read by distance from the base rather than by high and low. The cap of three keeps every fan cramped, and the three open spaces are the only room you will ever have.

• Find the base rank in every suit. The four cards of the dealt rank are the first the foundations want. Each one is either exposed, buried, or already banked; know which before you build.
• Count round the corner. With a base of ten, the queen is two away and the ace is four away. A jack is a closer card than a two; do not read the board by face value.
• Guard the three spaces. Only the short fans accept a card once empty, so they are your reserve cells. Fill one only with a card you cannot bank soon and cannot host anywhere else.
• Respect the cap. A fan of three is closed to building. If a card you need is under a fan of two, that fan can still take one more card on top and then you are digging through three.
• Reversible builds are shelves. Up-or-down building lets you lift a card onto its neighbour and back. Use that to reach the card beneath, then restore the fan.
• Bank in order, all four suits. Once every foundation has passed a rank, that rank is dead on the board; keep the four piles moving together so no suit falls behind and blocks its own low cards.

Where It Sits in the Fan Family

Bear River is the Fan line's dealt-base member: the only fan game on this site whose foundations start somewhere other than the ace or the king, and the only one whose building turns the corner. Its cap of three is Shamrocks' rule; its short fans are its own.

Other Games to Try

• Shamrocks — up or down in any suit, fans capped at three
• Chessboard — the base rank chosen by your first foundation play
• Clover Leaf — up or down in suit with split foundations
• La Belle Lucie — the classic Fan with reshuffles

About This Online Version

Bear River 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.