Solitaire

How to Play Klondike Solitaire

Klondike deals a standard 52-card deck into seven tableau columns; only the top card of each column starts face-up, and the rest of the deck forms the stock. Your goal is to move all 52 cards onto the four foundations, building each suit from ace up to king. In the tableau you build downward in alternating colors - a red six goes on a black seven - and you can drag whole face-up sequences together. Only a king (or a stack led by one) may fill an empty column. When you move a card off a face-down one, it flips over and earns you points.

Click the stock to deal cards to the waste - three at a time by default, or switch to draw-1 for an easier game. Run out of moves? Recycle the waste back into the stock and keep digging. Undo is unlimited, and an auto-complete button finishes the game for you once every card is face-up.

Strategy Tips

• Always flip face-down cards first - when you can choose between moves, prefer the one that turns over a hidden card. Uncovering the tableau is how games get won; foundation points can wait.
• Don't rush aces and twos to the foundation blindly, but everything else can wait - low cards should go up quickly, yet sending a five or six up too early can strand a red four you'll need as a landing spot later.
• Empty columns are for kings you can actually use - before you clear a column, make sure a useful king (ideally one with a matching queen available) is ready to take it, or you've just wasted your most powerful resource.
• In draw-3, count your stock cycles - only every third card is reachable, so a single tableau play can shift which cards surface on the next pass. Sometimes it pays to delay a move purely to change the deal rhythm.
• Keep color balance in mind - if both black sevens are buried, your red sixes have nowhere to go. Track the colors you'll need two ranks ahead before you bury a card under a long stack.