How to Play Accordion Solitaire
The rules are short: match a suit or rank, move a pile one or three positions earlier, and compress the sequence into one pile. The challenge is deciding which matching card to cover.
Start with a single deck
Use 52 cards without jokers. Deal face up in order from left to right, continuing on the next row when needed, one card per pile. Open mode lays out the full deck immediately. Deal as you go starts with one card; tap the face-down stock to add each new card after the last pile. There are no foundations or ascending sequences.
Choose an adjacent move or a leap
Only the top cards matter. A source can move onto the pile immediately before it or the third pile before it, if rank or suit matches. A leap passes over two piles without moving them. Hearts and diamonds share a color, but they do not share a suit.
In 7♥, 7♣, K♣, K♥, the last king can slide onto K♣ or leap onto 7♥. Leap onto 7♥ to get K♥, 7♣, K♣. Then move K♣ onto 7♣, and finally K♣ onto K♥. All four cards finish in one pile. Choosing the slide first and then merging the sevens instead leaves 7♣ and K♥, which cannot merge. This is a small teaching puzzle, not a full deal.
Move the whole pile and close the gap
Once a card covers another, the cards move together. A two-card pile topped by K♥ can move onto 7♥ because the suits match, producing a three-card pile topped by K♥. The destination's buried cards stay covered. Remove the empty position before deciding what can move next.
Reading the rows
The board wraps the piles into several rows so more cards fit on screen. Read each row from left to right, then continue at the left of the next row. A row break does not reset the move count: pile 4 can leap onto pile 1 when their top cards match, even on different rows. After a merge, later piles close the gap and may move onto an earlier row. Count occupied piles, not buried cards or screen columns.
Use the controls to explore
Click or tap a source pile, then its destination. Hints is an on/off setting: when on, selecting a pile highlights all its legal destinations. When off, destinations and their counts stay hidden, and you choose the move yourself. The selected pile stays marked in either setting. Your browser remembers your choice. Undo reverses a merge or stock deal back to the start. New Game shuffles a new deal in your current mode. Use arrows to navigate and Enter or Space to select; Escape cancels selection.
Winning and getting stuck
You win when the stock is empty and all 52 cards are in one pile. If the stock is empty and multiple piles cannot merge, this path is stuck. Try undo before abandoning the deal. Your best terminal pile count is stored separately for each mode in this browser; fewer is better. A temporary single pile while cards remain undealt is not a win.
Interesting variations
The two modes above are playable here. These other documented rules are alternatives to explore with real cards or in a future addition; their results should be kept separate.
Accordion's Revenge
Use the normal matching and movement rules, but require a chosen card to finish on top. Accordion Virtuoso chooses targets beyond the first two initial cards. This adds a planning constraint, not a promise that every target is solvable.
Different leap distances
Keep the adjacent move and replace the three-position leap, for example with a four-position leap. Recount occupied piles after every move, and state the chosen distance clearly.
Concertina
A matching source pile may also go underneath its destination. That keeps the destination's top card visible and changes which future matches remain available.
23 Skidoo
Replace the adjacent move with leaps of two or three positions, aiming for two piles rather than one. The changed minimum distance requires a different end condition.
Compulsory play / Idle Year
Older accounts require available moves before another card may be dealt, with some also prioritizing adjacent moves. These are different rule sets from our flexible Deal as you go mode.
Royal Marriage, a related game
Place Q♥ first and K♥ last. Remove one or two cards enclosed by cards of matching rank or suit, aiming to leave only the royal pair. Its discard rule makes it a separate game, not ordinary Accordion.