How to Play Klondike Solitaire — Rules and Tips
The game most people simply call "Solitaire". It builds the same way as FreeCell, but many of the cards start face down, and instead of four free cells there is a stock.
Play Klondike nowRules
- Seven columns are dealt 1, 2, … 7 cards, with only the top card of each face up. The other 24 cards form the stock.
- Columns build down in alternating colours, one rank at a time: only a red 8 goes on ♠9.
- Any number of face-up cards moves in one go — there is no FreeCell-style limit.
- Only a King can go into an empty column, alone or at the head of a run.
- When the last face-up cards leave a column, the face-down card beneath turns over by itself.
- The stock turns one card at a time. When it runs out, click once more to start again — as many times as you like.
- Foundations build up by suit from Ace to King. You can also move a card back down from a foundation.
- Undo is available.
How it differs from FreeCell
| FreeCell | Klondike | |
|---|---|---|
| Cards | All 52 face up | 21 face down |
| Parking space | Four free cells | None — a 24-card stock instead |
| Empty column | Any card | Kings only |
| Moving runs | (free cells+1)×2^(empty columns) | No limit |
| Luck | None | Some — but the same for every player of a deal |
FreeCell shows every card, so it is a pure puzzle. Klondike hides cards, so luck comes into it — but the same deal number hides the same cards. Everyone who plays a given number gets the same luck, which is what makes per-deal rankings fair.
Why draw one?
Turning three cards at a time is also common. This app turns one. With one card at a time and unlimited passes, any stock card can be reached whenever you want it, so a deal that a solver with full knowledge of the cards calls solvable is one a person can solve too. With draw three, the order of the stock decides the game, and the same number can easily play out differently for different people.
What winners do
Turn face-down cards over first
When two moves look equally good, make the one that turns over a face-down card. Every hidden card you uncover opens up the board a little more — especially in the long columns on the right.
Don't rush to the foundations
Send a low card up too early and you lose a place to put the next card down. The game plays cards that can never be needed again automatically; keep the rest on the tableau where they're useful. You can bring a card back down if you have to.
Empty a column only when a King is ready
An empty column takes only a King. Clear one with no King to put there and the space just sits idle. Empty it when you can move a King in, and check first where the opposite-colour Queens are that would go on that King.
Go through the stock once to read it
Your first pass is for seeing what's where. Stock clicks count toward the "fewest moves" ranking, so once you know where things are, use later passes to pull out only the cards you need.
Only verified deals
A solver that knows every card has checked 5,000 deals. Numbers that turned out unsolvable, or that couldn't be decided within the search budget, were given a different layout, so every deal you get can be solved. Turn cards over, think, and use undo.