Kings in the Corner, the classic Kings Corner card game, in your browser.
Play Kings Corner online free — seven cards each, a cross of four side piles, and four corner spots only kings may claim. Face an AI with three skill levels, no signup required, and find the complete rules, strategy, and house-rule variations right below the table.
Kings in the Corner — shortened at most tables to Kings Corner or Kings Corners — is the rare shedding game that looks like solitaire and plays like a duel. Eight piles frame the action: four face-up side piles form a cross in the middle of the table, and four empty corner spots sit diagonally between them, reserved for kings and nothing but kings. That reservation is the whole personality of the game, and it is where the name comes from.
The deal is quick and identical every time. Each player receives seven cards from a standard 52-card deck, four cards go face up to start the side piles, and whatever remains becomes the stock. If a king happens to land in the starting layout, this version slides it straight into a corner and deals a replacement card, so the cross always opens with four buildable piles.
Turns run on a strict one-card rhythm. You draw a single card from the stock to open your turn — required here whenever the stock still has cards — and then unload as much as the layout allows: kings into open corners, everything else onto piles exactly one rank down and one color over. A black queen wants a red king, a red jack wants a black queen, and the ladder runs all the way from king down to ace with no wrap-around.
You decide when your turn ends, and that choice matters more than beginners expect. Chaining three plays feels great, but every card you place is also a rung your opponent can build from, and that tension — shed now or starve the table — is the real game. The AI understands it too: on easy it fumbles roughly forty percent of its choices, while on hard it errs closer to two percent and times its kings with unsettling patience.
None of this requires homework before your first hand, because the app refuses illegal placements on contact and tracks your record between visits. When you do want the fine print, the complete rules with worked examples, blocked-turn and empty-stock edge cases, a strategy guide on king timing, and a page of house-rule variations all live just below the playable table.
Table layout
8 piles
Four side piles form the central cross, and four corner spots — openable only by kings — give the game its name.
Opening hand
7 cards
Seven per player from a 52-card deck with no jokers; whatever the deal leaves over becomes the stock.
Draw per turn
1 card
Every turn begins with exactly one draw from the stock while it lasts, followed by as many legal plays as you care to make.
A king is worthless in your hand and priceless on the table — the trick is choosing the moment. Opening a corner only counts as progress when you can follow it with your own queen or jack; otherwise you have handed the next player a fresh pile to dump on.
Legal builds descend one rank at a time and swap colors on every step, so suits matter only for whether they are red or black. Getting stuck usually means your hand went heavy in one color — worth checking before you commit your flexible middle cards.
Illegal placements bounce, kings dealt into the opening layout relocate to corners automatically, your win record persists between visits, and three AI difficulty levels let the same table serve a seven-year-old and a shark.
Tabletop groups play this game a dozen different ways — bigger deals, whole-pile sliding, king penalties worth twenty-five points. The variations page sorts the common house rules and flags which ones this app supports versus which need a physical deck.
Want a rules-first reference for teaching the table? Read the companion guide at Kings in the Corner rules on Card Game Rules, or keep the full in-site guide handy while you play.
Kings in the Corner RulesMatch rank or suit, use wild eights, and shed your hand before the AI.
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