Play Rushdike — A Hidden Staircase and a Suit Build

Rushdike is Queenie made hard in two ways at once. The board is the same — seven columns dealt a staircase of one to seven cards, with twenty-four more in a stock — but here every card is dealt face down except the last of each column, and the tableau builds down in suit rather than in alternating colour. The Yukon move rule still applies: any face-up card may be moved with everything on top of it, packed or not. Clicking the stock deals one card to every column at once. Only a king fills an empty column. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Rushdike?

Goal: build all 52 cards onto the four foundations, up in suit from an ace.

Setup

• Columns: seven, dealt a staircase of one to seven cards — 28 in all, all face down but the last of each.
• Stock: 24 cards, dealt a row at a time, face up.
• Foundations: four, up in suit from an ace.
• No waste. The stock deals straight onto the columns.

Rules

• Any face-up card moves with its whole tail, packed or not — the Yukon rule.
• Cards build down in suit: a heart six goes only on a heart seven.
• The staircase is dealt face down; only the last card of each column shows at the start.
• Clicking the stock deals one card to every column, face up.
• There is no waste and no redeal — the stock is dealt out row by row and then gone.
• A deal fills an emptied column too, so a space does not survive one.
• Only a king may be moved into an empty column.
• The foundations build up in suit from an ace.
• You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations.

What's the Best Rushdike Strategy?

• Turning cards over is the whole early game. Twenty-one of the twenty-eight dealt cards are hidden, and a suit build gives you few chances — so prefer any move that exposes a face-down card over one that merely tidies.
• A suit build is four times pickier. Where Queenie lets a red six sit on either black seven, here a heart six needs the heart seven and nothing else. Expect long stretches with only one legal move, and check for it carefully before dealing.
• The stock is your rescue, but it buries. Dealing puts a face-up card on every column, which hides whatever you had just uncovered. Take every board move first.
• The Yukon rule is worth more here than in Queenie. Because you can lift a ragged pile whole, a single buried card of the right suit can be dug out in one move rather than several — often the only way to reach it at all.
• Use undo freely. With most of the board hidden, a line that looked right can dead-end three moves later. Stepping back costs nothing.

A Short History

Rushdike is Queenie with two changes, and the source makes both in one line each: `flip=0` on the staircase, and a parent class of Russian Solitaire rather than Yukon. The first hides twenty-one of the twenty-eight dealt cards; the second replaces the alternating-colour build with a same-suit one. Either alone would make a recognisable variant. Together they change the shape of the game entirely — a suit build offers roughly a quarter as many legal moves, and doing it half-blind means the early game is almost entirely about turning cards over. What keeps it playable is the Yukon move rule, which lets a whole ragged pile travel at once and so reaches buried cards that a Klondike-style game never could. The open-source PySolFC collection, whose rules this version follows, rates it balanced, the same as Queenie, which is generous — most players will find it markedly the harder of the two.

About This Version

This Rushdike runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it 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.

Other Solitaire Games to Try

• Queenie — the same board dealt face up, built in alternating colour
• Russian Solitaire — Yukon built down in suit, with no stock
• Yukon — the original — every card dealt, most face down
• Moosehide — Yukon's board, built down in any suit but the same