Strategy tips
- Draw one means each card is a one-time opportunity — think before you move.
- Any-suit building is flexible, but keep an eye on the reserve to maximize plays.
- Read the Rainbow section of the Chameleon and Rainbow guide.
Canfield family · The Heights
Rainbow Solitaire
Rainbow has four tableau columns, a thirteen-card reserve, and a shared foundation base rank. Draw one card at a time with no redeal. Tableau cards build downward by rank regardless of suit or color.
Seed188045
Moves0
Timer00:00
StatusIn progress
Streak0
Click the stock to draw a card, or select a card to move it.
How Rainbow compares
- Canfield — draw three, unlimited redeals, alternating colors
- Chameleon — 3 columns, draw one, no redeals
- Selective Canfield — you choose the base rank
What is Rainbow?
Rainbow Solitaire is a Canfield variant with stricter stock rules and a relaxed tableau building rule. Where standard Canfield draws three cards at a time and allows unlimited waste recycling, Rainbow draws one card at a time and allows no recycling at all — each stock card is seen exactly once. Where Canfield requires alternating-color tableau sequences, Rainbow allows any suit to be placed on any card one rank higher.
These two changes move in opposite directions: any-suit building creates more legal moves, but the single-pass stock with no recycling means every unused opportunity is permanently lost.
How the single-pass stock changes everything
In Canfield, passing on a stock card is low-cost because the waste recycles. In Rainbow, a stock card you decline to play is gone. This makes the draw-one stock in Rainbow fundamentally different from draw-one Klondike (which recycles freely): every deal in Rainbow is a one-time decision.
The any-suit tableau building partially compensates — each drawn card has more legal tableau destinations than in Canfield. But the no-recycle rule means the benefit of extra destinations must be evaluated immediately, not deferred to a future pass.
How Rainbow compares
- Canfield — draw three, unlimited redeals, alternating-color build rule
- Selective Canfield — player chooses base rank before dealing
- Superior Canfield — full reserve visible from the start
- Chameleon — three tableau columns, draw one, no redeals
Related games
Rainbow is part of The Heights · Canfield family and is a variant of Canfield.
More Canfield family games
- Canfield — Compact reserve patience with wrap-around foundations.
- American Toad — Two-deck patience with a 20-card reserve.
- Chameleon — Canfield variant: 3 columns, any-suit, no redeals.
- Selective Canfield — You choose the foundation base rank.
- Superior Canfield — Visible reserve, unlimited redeals.
- Thirteen Up — Canfield with 2s as base, same-suit building.
Also try
- Baroness — Discard pairs summing to 13.
- Golf — Play cards one above or below the waste top.
- Ninety-One — Move top cards among thirteen piles until their values add to 91.