FreeCell Strategy Guide

The rules page gives the rules of thumb — empty a column first, use free cells last. This guide puts numbers on them, then covers reading a deal, common mistakes, and going after this site's fewest-moves and fastest-time rankings.

September 23, 2026 · 8-minute read

Supermoves in numbers

The most cards you can move at once is (empty free cells + 1) × 2^{empty columns}. Where people slip is the exception: when you move into an empty column, that column doesn't count. You can't park cards in the very column you're moving into.

With 2 empty free cells and 1 empty column, you can move (2+1)×2 = 6 cards onto another column. Under the hood, three cards go into the empty column via the two free cells, the next three go to the destination the same way, and the parked three follow. The empty column works as a three-card waiting room. Move the same run into the empty column itself and the limit is (2+1)×1 = 3.

Read the table backwards to count what you need. To move a seven-card run with 3 empty free cells and no empty column, you're capped at 4. Freeing one more cell only gets you to 5; on empty spaces alone, only emptying a column gets you to 8. Michael Keller says the most useful everyday supermove is four cards with one free cell and one empty column.

The formula only counts empty spaces; another column that can take part of the run lets you beat it. Say you want to move ♠9 down to ♣3 (seven cards) onto the ♥10 but can move only four at a time. If another column ends in the ♠7, send ♦6–♣3 onto it, move ♠9–♣7 onto the ♥10, then bring the four back onto the ♣7. When the game says you can't move that many, look for a split like this.

What one empty space is worth

Games that start with fewer free cells show what one is worth. Charlie Blake and Ian Gent estimated by computer how many deals are winnable:

The drop is gentle down to three cells and steep after that. Keeping two cells blocked through the middle game isn't quite starting with two, but it pushes you that way. So before a card goes into a free cell, know how it will get out.

Empty columns are worth even more. With 2 empty free cells and no empty column you can move 3 cards; free another cell and it's 4, but empty a column and it's 6. So parking a single card in an empty column is usually a waste. With 3 free cells and 1 empty column (8 cards) and one card to put somewhere, a free cell leaves you 2 cells and 1 column, good for 6; the empty column leaves 3 cells and none, good for 4.

Before your first move

All 52 cards are visible, so reading the deal first is time well spent. FreeCell's creator Paul Alfille said long streaks take "a lot of concentration and persistence", and admitted his own weakness: he would "get frustrated and just make a move rather than think it through." Look at these, in order:

1. How deeply the aces and twos are buried. Freeing them is the first goal, and BVS Solitaire's guide says to start with the deepest.
2. Which column you can empty soonest. The four right-hand columns start with 6 cards, not 7. Discount the cards that can move to other columns, and you know how many cells clearing it will cost.
3. Where the order runs backwards. Cards already in an alternating-colour run move as one block, so they aren't the problem; a high card covering a low one is.
4. Where the four kings are. A king can only go into an empty column, so one at the very back of a column (the first card dealt there) is already home. A king mid-column must go to an empty column, or sit in a free cell for a long time, before you can reach what's under it.

Keller's beginner tutorial sums up the early game as freeing aces and starting to clear columns "without using up too many of the freecells." Say four cards cover the ♣A and two can go to other columns: park the other two in free cells and the ace is out. First check that cards to take them back — one rank higher, opposite colour — will soon be uncovered.

Middle-game priorities

With several moves open, this order usually works:

1. Column-to-column moves that uncover a card or empty a column. They open up the board without spending space.
2. Fixing reversed order. Where a queen is buried under the very king it belongs on, unpick it and rebuild. Keller says this is usually sound strategy.
3. Consolidating columns. Gathering scattered runs into one column creates an empty column, or brings one closer. Don't fear long runs: with enough space they move as a whole.
4. Filling an empty column with a long run headed by a king. A king-led run never has to move again. A lone king throws away the doubling an empty column gives; move it there when that uncovers something useful or a run can follow.
5. Free cells last. Know the way out before a card goes in.

When to send cards home

This site sends aces and twos home at once, and any other card only after both suits of the opposite colour are built to one rank below it. The ♥7 goes up by itself only once the ♣6 and ♠6 are both home; until then a black 6 might need the ♥7 to land on. Cards in the free cells go up automatically too.

Keller goes one step further. He counts the ♦7 as safe once both black 5s and the ♥4 are home: a black 6 can then go home the moment it's uncovered, and so can any red 5 that might sit on it (the ♦5 is already up), so nothing will ever need the ♦7. This site waits until the black 6s are actually home, so some cards that don't move up by themselves are still safe to send. Send those by hand to clear space.

Rushing cards home unchecked is the opposite risk: build one suit high and the opposite-colour cards that should sit on it lose their homes, and here only undo brings a foundation card back. The move count doesn't care either way: automatic moves count too, so each card costs one move whenever it goes up.

Common mistakes

• Filling all four free cells. With no empty column, you can then move one card at a time.
• Parking a single card in an empty column. As worked out above, a free cell leaves you more room.
• Miscounting a move into an empty column. Even with 4 free cells and 1 empty column, the limit into that column is 5.
• Rushing one suit home. The opposite-colour cards lose their landing spots.
• Staring at a dead game. The screen tells you when no moves are left; if something feels off sooner, undo back to the fork.

Practising with deal numbers

Your best practice tool is that the same number is always the same deal. One caution: this site's numbers are not Microsoft's. Keller's easy deals for beginners (7, 8, 11, 26, 30 and 33) and #1941, his pick for the hardest solvable deal of the 32,000, are Microsoft numbers; here the same numbers are different layouts. A routine that works:

1. Pick five numbers and write them down. Random ones are fine.
2. Play each once without undo. Keller rates winning 90% of deals on the first try as good and 98% as top-notch.
3. For the ones you lose, undo back to the fork. Name the mistake: cells filled too early, an empty column wasted on one card.
4. Replay the ones you win to cut the move count. Same deal, so the results compare directly.
5. Measure yourself against others. In the rankings, the "All deals" view lists the best records; press "Try it" to open that deal knowing how many moves the leader needed.

If supermoves are hard to picture, play a few games at the "Slow" card speed and watch each run travel card by card.

Chasing the rankings

Each number has two leaderboards, fewest moves and fastest time, and your best in each is kept separately. First, how moves are counted:

• A supermove is one move, however many cards it carries. The result screen also shows "Cards moved", but rankings use the supermove count.
• Every card that goes up automatically counts as one move.
• Undone moves vanish from the record. The move count drops, but the clock keeps running.

Fewest moves

Cards go to the foundations one at a time, so no deal can be finished in fewer than 52 moves. Subtract 52 from a result and what's left is what you spent rearranging; the fewest-moves race is about shrinking that.

• Make supermoves big. Six cards in one go is one move; two batches of three is two.
• Cut round trips through the free cells. A card parked in a cell and then sent home costs two moves; waiting until it can go home straight from its column costs one.
• Solve first, then trim. Win once to learn the route, then reopen the number and cut the slack. Undone moves aren't counted, so test lines freely. Ties go to the faster time, so play the final run briskly.

Fastest time

The clock starts when the deal opens, so reading the board counts too. Fastest time is really about playing a deal you already know, quickly. Ties go to fewer moves.

• Don't wait for animations. Touch the next card while cards are still flying and the animation jumps to its end. Or set the card speed to "Fast" or "Instant".
• Tap when the target is obvious. A tapped card goes to the first legal spot: foundation, occupied columns from the left, empty columns, free cells. Tapping again moves it to the next option, but that is another move, so drag when you want a later one.
• Undo costs time, not moves.

Sources

1. FreeCell FAQ — Michael Keller, Solitaire Laboratory
2. FreeCell Tutorial — Michael Keller, Solitaire Laboratory
3. Freecell Solitaire — Winning Strategy — BVS Solitaire
4. Interview with Paul Alfille — Denny Cronin, freecell.net, 2000
5. The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games — Charlie Blake, Ian P. Gent, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2026

Keep reading — How to Play FreeCell — Rules and Tips · FreeCell: History, Records and Competitions · Baker's Game Strategy Guide · Solitaire Glossary