Game rules
Kings in the Corner: setup, moves, and winning
Kings in the Corner brings solitaire-style building to a shared table. The most useful move is sometimes a pile transfer that frees a space for a card you could not otherwise play. This guide uses end-of-turn drawing; some groups draw first instead.
Make a cross around the stock
Use a standard 52-card deck for two to four players. Deal seven cards each. Place the remaining stock in the middle and turn one card face up on each of its four sides. Leave four diagonal corner spaces.
Build down and alternate colors
Starting left of the dealer, take turns playing cards one rank lower and opposite in color onto exposed pile ends. Aces are low. Kings start empty corners. Move a whole pile if its bottom card fits another pile’s top. Any hand card can fill an empty side space; corners still require Kings.
Finish your turn, or finish the hand
Make your available plays, then draw one card to end your turn. If you cannot play, draw and pass. Once the stock runs out, continue without drawing. You win immediately when you play your last hand card. For a casual game, agree to call a draw if everyone passes with an empty stock.
Reference: Kings in the Corner rules on Wikipedia.
A pile transfer that creates another move
Suppose a side pile contains a black 8 with a red 7 on top. Another pile ends in a red 9. Move the entire 8–7 pile onto the 9: the connecting cards are the black 8 and red 9, so the rank and color conditions fit. The red 7 remains exposed at the end of the combined pile.
You have also opened a side space. If you hold a Queen that fits nowhere else, you can use it to start that empty side pile. You could not do the same in an empty corner, because that position is reserved for a King.
Now a black 6 would fit on the combined pile’s red 7. Follow the sequence all the way through before moving: the first transfer may be valuable because of the second and third plays it enables.
Three habits for a clearer game
If you want a longer match, agree on leftover-card penalties and an ending score before starting. For your first game, individual hands make it easier to learn the moves without also learning a score sheet.
- Fan piles so their whole sequence remains visible. Everyone should be able to identify the bottom card when considering a transfer.
- Look for pile transfers before declaring that your hand is blocked. An apparently unusable hand card may become playable once a side space opens.
- Keep your hand separate from the tableau. Once a card has joined a shared pile, treat it as part of the common position rather than something you can casually take back.