Klondike Solitaire Strategy Guide

Why the principles on the rules page work, and how to reason about them with numbers. Everything assumes this site's rules: draw one, unlimited passes, Kings only in empty columns, undo and foundation take-backs allowed.

September 23, 2026 · 9-minute read

How to read a deal under these rules

Here the real goal is to turn over all 21 face-down cards, tracked by the "face down" counter in the header. At zero the deal is as good as won: each column is one alternating-colour run with its lowest card on top, and the whole stock is in reach, so the lowest card left is always available — and with the lower cards of its suit already home, it can go straight up. Repeat until done.

The stock is not a threat. With one card at a time and unlimited passes, it is a 24-slot reserve that costs only clicks. Draw three is different: take nothing and only every third card — 8 of the 24 — is playable in a pass, so a new deal offers just 15 reachable cards, and about 0.25% of draw-three deals have no legal move at all (a 2014 Leiden University thesis). Its tricks, such as taking a non-multiple of three to reshuffle the groups, are useless here. With every card known, 90.480% of deals are winnable with draw one and 81.945% with draw three.

Face-down cards sit 0 to 6 deep from left to right; turning over the rightmost column's six means clearing its face-up cards six separate times. The long columns are the bottleneck.

Choosing between moves

When several moves are available, look at them in this order. Items 1–3 and 6 follow James Yates's rules (BVS Solitaire's guide agrees on 1–3); 4 and 5 are added for this site's unlimited stock.

1. Play Aces and Twos at once. The game auto-plays those on top of columns, but not the top card of the waste pile — tap that one yourself.
2. Turn over a face-down card. If several moves do, choose the column with the most face-down cards.
3. Empty a column, when a King is ready to go into it.
4. Play a waste card onto the tableau when a run can then move onto it and uncover a card.
5. Turn the stock.
6. Play a 3 or higher to a foundation — only to free a face-down card or make room for a King.

Shuffling face-up cards between columns without uncovering anything is not on the list; do it only to make room for a waste card or to free a card that goes straight up. This site's solver learned that the hard way: allowed to move any part of a run, it left 30 of 100 test deals undecided, going in circles. Allowing part-run moves only when the uncovered card could go straight up, and adding a second search method, solved 83 of the 100.

Freeing the 21 face-down cards

When two moves are otherwise equal, free the card in the column with more face-down cards. The heuristic in Yan et al.'s paper gives a move that turns a card over priority "face-down cards in that column + 1".

When digging a long column, work out where its covering cards will go — each needs a card one rank higher in the other colour. Note them on your first pass through the stock ("black 10 near the front: ♥9 has a home") and later pull only what you need.

Kings and empty columns

Only a King can fill an empty column. Blake and Gent's rule-by-rule measurements (all cards known, draw three) show how much that matters: let any card in and winnable deals jump from 81.945% to 94.959%; forbid refilling empty columns and they fall to 2.168%. An empty column is the most valuable space in the game, and only four cards can use it.

A King first, then the empty column

Yates's rule: don't clear a spot unless a King is immediately waiting. Otherwise the space sits idle, and the cards moved to clear it take spots on other columns that other cards could have used.

Which King?

With more than one King waiting, pick the colour that frees what you need. BVS Solitaire's example: if a red Jack is blocking face-down cards, play a red King, so a black Queen and then the red Jack can follow. A black King would take a red Queen, leaving the red Jack stranded.

Between a King in a column and one on the waste, the column King is usually better: moving it off face-down cards turns one over; the waste King uncovers nothing. Yates, too, plays only Kings that help the columns with the most face-down cards.

Foundations: up and back down

The game auto-plays by the same rule as FreeCell: Aces and Twos always, anything higher only when both suits of the opposite colour are up to one rank below it. For ♥6, both ♣5 and ♠5 must be home — then no black 5 can still need the ♥6 to sit on.

Everything else is up to you. Yates builds past the Twos only to free a face-down card or make room for a waiting King; Arkadium's help pages warn against running one suit far ahead, which leaves the other colour short of places to sit.

Taking a card back down

Here you can move the top card of a foundation back onto a column. Picture this:

• ♣4 tops a column, with a face-down card under it.
• Of the red fives, ♦5 is on its foundation and ♥5 is on top of the waste.
• Of the black sixes, ♠6 tops its foundation and ♣6 is still face down.
• ♦7 tops another column.

Move ♠6 down onto ♦7, ♥5 onto ♠6, and ♣4 onto ♥5: three moves, one card turned over. The ♠6 won't auto-play straight back up: ♥5 isn't home, so hearts are at 4 or lower and ♠6 fails the rule above. That holds in general — if you need a card as a base, a lower card of the other colour is still out, so the auto-play leaves it alone.

The stock: not a secret, just a cost

When the stock runs out, one more click turns the waste back over, and the cards come round in the same order, so what you saw on one pass lets you plan the next. But every click is a move, including the one that turns the pile over.

So to save moves, play a card as it goes past. To simply solve the deal, do the opposite: every stock card comes round again, so don't force a doubtful card onto the tableau, where it changes what that column can accept.

Common mistakes

• Tapping waste cards out of habit. A tap tries the foundations first, so drag a card you want on the tableau. Send ♦4 up and a black 3 loses a place to go.
• Moves that uncover nothing. Shuttling a run between columns only adds moves.
• Emptying a column with no King, or playing whichever King fits. See above.
• Draw-three habits. "Take it now or lose it" urgency doesn't apply here.
• Starting a new deal when stuck. Every deal here is solvable, so a choice went wrong somewhere — undo back to it. The game tells you when no useful move is left.

Playing for the rankings

Each deal number has two rankings. "Time" ranks by elapsed time, with fewer moves breaking ties; "Moves" ranks by move count, with the faster time breaking ties. Your best on each is kept separately, so you can go for moves in one game and time in another.

Fewest moves

The count includes auto-played cards and every stock click; undone moves are removed. Work out the floor: all 52 cards must reach a foundation once (52 moves), and each of the 24 stock cards must be turned at least once (24). Turning over a face-down card is not a move. So no deal can be finished in fewer than 76 moves, and whatever you use above 76 — moves between columns, waste cards sent to the tableau, extra passes — is the part you can cut.

Since undone moves vanish from the record, you can click through the stock to see its order and undo back to the start at no cost in moves — though not in time. Solving a number once and replaying it works even better.

Fastest time

The clock runs from the moment the deal opens, pausing only while the window is out of focus or help is open. Space turns the stock and Z undoes, but neither works while cards are moving (a tap cuts the animation short), so set Card speed to "Instant". Tapping beats dragging: a tapped card tries a foundation, then columns with cards from the left, then an empty column.

Practising with deal numbers

One number, one deal, so you can replay a deal as often as you like. Deals #1–#5,000 are open; pick one with "# Deal" in the menu.

1. Solve. Finish a number using undo freely. Note where you got stuck.
2. Trim. Replay it with fewer moves. Subtract 76 and count your passes.
3. Speed up. Set Card speed to "Instant" and play it again, without undo.
4. Compare. Check the "By deal" ranking for that number. A record with far fewer moves means a route you haven't seen.
5. Branch out. Use "Try it" on strong records in "All deals", or play ten numbers in a row, say #101–#110.

With 30 minutes a day, take two new numbers through steps 1–2 and yesterday's number through step 3.

Sources

1. Solitaire Strategy Guide — James Yates, Chess and Poker Dot Com
2. Klondike Solitaire — Winning Strategy — BVS Solitaire
3. Klondike / Classic Solitaire: How to play, Tips, Scoring — Arkadium
4. Solitaire: Man Versus Machine — Yan, Diaconis, Rusmevichientong, Van Roy, 2004
5. The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games — Blake, Gent
6. Strategies for Klondike Solitaire — Marieke Kortsmit, Leiden University, 2014
7. Turn 3 Solitaire Strategy — Solitaired

Keep reading: How to Play Klondike Solitaire · Klondike: History, Records and Competitions · How to Play FreeCell · Solitaire Glossary