Solitaire Classic

How to play Solitaire

Solitaire is a card game for one player: you sort a shuffled deck into four piles, one for each suit, from Ace up to King. When people say “Solitaire” they usually mean Klondike, the game on this page. It has many relatives, such as FreeCell and Spider, and Klondike itself comes in an easier Turn 1 and a harder Turn 3 version. In Britain the game is still called Patience, which is exactly what a tricky hand asks of you.

Here you can play as many hands as you like for free, right in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install.

Objective

Move all 52 cards onto the four foundations. Each foundation holds a single suit, built up in order from Ace to King. To get there, you free cards from the tableau and the stock and send them up as soon as the card before them in their suit is in place.

Setup

Every hand is dealt into four areas:

• The tableau. Seven columns hold 28 cards. The first column has one card, the second has two, and so on up to seven in the last. Only the bottom card of each column is face up; the rest stay face down until you uncover them.
• The stock. The remaining 24 cards wait face down in the corner. When the tableau runs out of moves, you deal from here.
• The waste. Cards dealt from the stock land face up beside it. The top card of the waste is always ready to play.
• The foundations. Four spaces at the top, one per suit. They start empty, and each one is built from Ace up to King.

Rules

Every move follows a handful of rules:

• Only face-up cards move. A face-down card stays where it is until the cards covering it are gone. Playing the top card of the waste uncovers the one beneath it, which you can then play too.
• Build down in alternating colors. In the tableau, a card goes onto one that is one rank higher and the opposite color: a black 6 onto a red 7, or a red Jack onto a black Queen.
• Move runs together. A sequence that is already in order can move as one, as long as its highest card fits where you drop it.
• Uncovered cards turn over. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the face-down card under it flips over and joins the game.
• Build foundations up by suit. Start each foundation with an Ace, then add the 2, the 3 and so on of the same suit, all the way to the King.
• Only Kings go into empty columns. An empty column takes a King, or a run headed by a King, and nothing else.
• Deal from the stock when you’re stuck. Tap the stock to deal onto the waste. Once the stock is empty, tap it again to turn the waste back over and go through it again. You can go through the stock as many times as you like.

Turn 1 or Turn 3

It comes down to how many cards you deal from the stock at once. In Turn 1 you turn over one card at a time, so every card in the stock is yours to play. In Turn 3 you turn over three at a time and can only play the top one; the cards under it stay out of reach until it moves. That makes Turn 3 the harder game. Turn 1 and Turn 3 above the board open each mode in its own tab, and the game you leave pauses until you come back. Rules and strategy for the harder mode are on the Solitaire Turn 3 page.

How difficult is Solitaire?

Turn 1 Klondike is a relaxed game: most deals can be won with careful play, and Undo forgives mistakes. Turn 3 is a real step up, because many stock cards stay out of reach. Some deals can’t be won at all, however well you play. For a deal that is guaranteed to be solvable, choose Winnable hand in the New game menu, or pick an easy, medium or hard hand under By difficulty.

Strategies to win Solitaire

The deal is down to luck, but these habits will win you more of them:

• Make turning over face-down cards your priority. Every card you uncover opens new moves and tells you more about what is left. When two moves look equally good, pick the one that turns a card.
• Look before you move. At the start of a hand, take in every column and the first card of the stock together. A move that looks obvious can block a better one a couple of moves later.
• Play Aces and 2s straight away. Low cards are never needed in the tableau, so send them up as soon as they appear and get the foundations going.
• Work on the long columns first. The columns on the right hide the most face-down cards. Opening them early gives you the most information and the most room to maneuver.
• Don’t rush other cards to the foundations. A red 5 in the tableau might be the only place for a black 4 you still need to move. Before you send a middle card up, check whether another card still needs it to land on.
• Take a card back from a foundation if it helps. Foundation cards can come back down to the tableau. Sometimes bringing one back gives a stuck card the spot it needs.
• Clear a column with a King in mind. Only a King can fill an empty column, so clear one when a King is waiting to move in, or soon will be. A space with no King to fill it doesn’t help you.
• Choose which King to free. When a red and a black King could both take an empty column, look at the Queens and Jacks you still need to place and pick the color they can build on.
• Lean on Hint and Undo. Hint points out a useful move when you can’t spot one, and Undo takes moves back so you can try another line. Tapping a card sends it straight to the best spot it can go. Truly stuck? Start a new hand, or choose Winnable hand from the New game menu.

Questions and answers

More solitaires

Besides Klondike in Turn 1 and Turn 3, пасьянс.укр has FreeCell, the solitaire where every card is face up and nearly every hand can be won, and Spider in one, two and four suits, played with two decks.