Pairing & removal · The Bazaar
52 cards are dealt into eight columns of six, with no two cards of the same rank sharing a column. Four reserve cards sit off to the side. Remove all cards by pairing any two available cards of the same rank — the top card of each column and every reserve card are available. Clear every pair to win.
Click an available card (top of column or reserve) to select it, then click its matching-rank partner to remove the pair.
Nestor Solitaire is a same-rank pairing game. Cards are dealt to eight columns with the constraint that no two cards of the same rank appear in the same column. Four separate reserve cards are also available. The goal is to remove all 52 cards in 26 same-rank pairs. The challenge is access: only the top card of each column and the four reserve cards are available at any time.
The 52-card deck is dealt into eight columns of 6 cards (with the no-same-rank-in-column deal constraint). Four reserve cards are dealt separately — all available immediately.
Legal removal: any two available cards of the same rank are removed together. Available cards are: the top card of each of the eight columns, plus all four reserve cards. Win by removing all 26 same-rank pairs (all 52 cards).
Since only column tops are accessible, the order of removals matters: pairing two column tops reveals the cards below them and may enable further pairs. The reserve cards are always accessible (not blocked by column cards), making them the most flexible resource.
The no-duplicate-rank column constraint prevents a pair from being buried within one column. It does not guarantee that a playable partner will remain exposed. Timing the removals to expose matching ranks is the challenge.
The four reserve cards are available immediately and never blocked. They are best used as pairing partners for column tops when the column-top pair is not available from two different columns yet. Reserve cards should not be “saved” indefinitely — they represent same-rank pairs waiting to be made, and the longer they sit, the fewer pairing opportunities they create as columns are cleared.
Nestor is part of The Bazaar · Pairing & removal.