Beleaguered Castle is a single-deck patience with a striking layout: the four Aces sit in a column down the centre as the foundation starters, and eight tableau columns of six cards each spread out from them — four to the left, four to the right. All 48 tableau cards are face-up from the start. There are no free cells, no stock, no reserve. You build the tableau down regardless of suit, but only one card at a time. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.
Goal: build all four foundations from Ace to King by suit.
Both have full open information. The difference is whether you have any reserve space.
| Aspect | FreeCell | Beleaguered Castle |
|---|---|---|
| Tableau columns | 8 | 8 |
| Free cells / reserves | 4 | 0 |
| Foundations at start | Empty | Seeded with Aces |
| Tableau building | Down by alternating color | Down regardless of suit |
| Group moves | Yes (with empty cells/columns) | One card at a time only |
| Solver: winnable deals | about 99.999% (Blake & Gent, 2026) | about 68% (Blake & Gent, 2026) |
The seeded Aces and build-anywhere rule are the easier parts of Beleaguered Castle. The lack of reserves and the strict single-card move are what give it real difficulty. Players coming from FreeCell often miss the four free cells immediately.
Beleaguered Castle is a 19th-century single-deck patience, also published under the names Laying Siege and Sham Battle. The military theme reflects the visual layout — Aces in a centre column with tableau "forces" spread out flanking them. The game is a fixture of the standard patience literature — Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith's Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games (1949) and David Parlett's Penguin Book of Patience (1979) both describe it under this name — and it lends its name to the whole "castle" family of open packers, including Streets and Alleys and Fortress. It has remained niche but well-known among patience scholars for the elegant centre-out layout.
This Beleaguered Castle runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day.
It's a setup convention specific to Beleaguered Castle and a few related variants. Starting with the Aces in place means the player's first task is to free the 2s, then 3s, and so on — the foundation-building phase begins immediately rather than waiting for an Ace to appear.
No. Beleaguered Castle has no free cells, no stock, no reserve. Every card is in the tableau or on a foundation. Mobility comes only from build-down moves and empty columns.
No. One card at a time, every time. The single-card-move rule combined with the lack of reserves is what gives the game its difficulty. Players coming from FreeCell often miss the four free cells immediately.
No. A solver study found about 68% of Beleaguered Castle deals winnable (Blake & Gent, 2026). That is a ceiling for perfect play, not a rate for people: the strict single-card-move rule and lack of reserves leave many deals where critical cards get stranded behind unliftable groups.
The name describes the visual layout — the Aces sit in a centre column like a castle, with the tableau "forces" spread out flanking them. The variant has also been published as Laying Siege and Sham Battle, reflecting the same military metaphor.