Relaxed Archway Guide
Relaxed rules, return moves, benchmark notes, and history
Archway Patience Relaxed Archway keeps the Archway board fully visible but adds a recovery move that lets tableau cards return to their matching reserve piles. Use the guide below to learn the easier ruleset, understand why it benchmarks so differently, and decide when to play this friendlier variant instead of classic Archway.
Win Rate
Published descriptions of classic Archway usually treat it as a brutally difficult game, with estimates putting the true win rate at less than 1% of deals.
Relaxed Archway is easier because it lets you move a tableau card back to its matching reserve pile.
In the first MinistryofSolitaire.com audited benchmark, the selected best-first beam search heuristic won 2,000 of 2,000 sampled Relaxed Archway deals (100%).
On the same 2,000 deterministic deals, the simpler greedy heuristic won 1,959 deals (97.95%). The published Relaxed figure therefore uses the stronger beam-search result rather than a weaker single-path run.
To audit legality, Ministry of Solitaire replayed the first 5 beam-search wins move by move. All 5 replays were valid wins, including 30-36 legal non-top reserve moves per audited deal.
- Sample size
- 2,000 deals
- Wins
- 2,000
- Losses
- 0
- Audited rate
- 100%
- Replay audit
- 5 wins replayed
- Average moves
- 112.1
- First run
- 2026-03-24
Run Snapshot
PS Documents\projects\ministryofsolitaire> npm run benchmark:archway
> [email protected] benchmark:archway
> node scripts/benchmark-archway.js
MinistryofSolitaire.com first run: 2026-03-24
classic strategy=beam sample=500 wins=0 losses=500 rate=0% avgMoves=29.4
relaxed strategy=beam sample=2000 wins=2000 losses=0 rate=100% avgMoves=112.1
relaxed audit inspected=5 valid=true
Methodology
The benchmark uses a deterministic internal solver and reports its outcomes in a repeatable way. For general benchmark-comparison background, see the NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook Chapter 7: Compare.
- Relaxed Archway uses 2,000 deterministic seeds, from 1 through 2000. Classic Archway uses 500 deterministic seeds, from 1 through 500, in a smaller but deeper search run.
- Each benchmark compares two deterministic solvers on the same seed set: a greedy reveal heuristic and the selected beam-search heuristic. On Relaxed Archway, beam search improved from 97.95% to 100% on the same 2,000 deals.
- The algorithm is Best-first beam search heuristic: Runs multiple deterministic solver strategies across the same seed ranges, publishes the best-first beam-search summary, and audits recorded wins by replaying every move with reserve-access and state-integrity checks.
- Relaxed Archway audit replays the first 5 beam-search wins from scratch and checks every recorded move against the live rules engine. All 5 audited wins replayed legally.
- Each deal stops when the solver wins, reaches its move limit, hits its search limit, repeats a seen state, or has no legal progress. The current limits are 5,000 moves and 40,000 search expansions for Classic, and 5,000 moves and 25,000 search expansions for Relaxed.
- Relaxed Archway adds one rule only: a tableau top card may return to its matching reserve pile, and the replay audit verifies non-top reserve extraction still stays legal under that ruleset.
What Makes Relaxed Archway Different?
Relaxed Archway keeps the same open-information board as classic Archway, but it adds one forgiving release valve: a tableau top card can return to its matching reserve pile.
That single rule changes the tone of the game. Instead of feeling like a narrow puzzle with very few recoveries, Relaxed Archway becomes a cleaner planning exercise with more room to repair a position.
Why Relaxed Archway Plays Faster
The return-to-reserve move reduces dead ends because you can reopen buried tableau cards without spending every empty column as emergency storage.
It still rewards observation, but the easier route means more deals stay alive long enough for sequencing skill to matter.
Relaxed Strategy
Treat the reserve arch as a reset lane. When a tableau top card can move back to its rank group without clogging future play, that move often creates a better foundation chain a turn later.
The strongest Relaxed lines usually balance three things at once: keeping tableau columns mobile, avoiding unnecessary reserve congestion, and pushing both foundation directions together.
History
Classic Archway is David Parlett's facelift of Lady of the Manor, a more open descendant of the older La Chatelaine family. Relaxed Archway is a modern house variant built on top of that Parlett structure.
The easier ruleset is useful for players who want the look and rhythm of Archway without the near-impossible finish rate attached to the strict original.
How To Play Relaxed Archway
- Start by identifying which tableau tops can safely go home and which ones should be recycled back into the reserve arch first. Relaxed Archway rewards timing more than raw speed.
- Use the return move to re-sort pressure points. When a tableau top card matches an open reserve pile, sending it back can uncover a better sequence underneath.
- Keep empty tableau columns available for rescue work. They still matter, but in Relaxed Archway they work alongside reserve returns instead of carrying the full burden alone.
- Try to finish a burst of reserve clean-up before pushing foundations too aggressively. The easier variant still punishes careless locking.
Rules
- Relaxed Archway still uses two standard 52-card decks for a total of 104 cards.
- Four foundations begin with aces and build upward by suit from Ace to King.
- Four foundations begin with kings and build downward by suit from King to Ace.
- Only the top card of each tableau column can leave the tableau.
- Reserve piles stay grouped by rank in a 13-pile arch from ace on the left to king on the right.
- A tableau top card may return to its matching reserve pile when that move is legal for the rank group.
- Any single card may move into an empty tableau column, and the deal is won when all cards reach the eight suit foundations.
Related Games
Want the stricter original rules? Play Archway Solitaire for the classic version.
For the historical parent game, visit Lady of the Manor to see how Archway grew out of that earlier design.