How to Play FreeCell: Rules and Moving Stacks (Free)

FreeCell is a solitaire card game where all 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns. You win by moving every card to four foundation piles, one per suit, from ace up to king. To help, you get four "free cells", each holding one card, and you can build columns downwards in alternating colours. Because nothing is hidden, almost every deal can be won with careful play. You can play it in the free FreeCell game in your browser.

The layout

Area	Where	What it holds
Columns (tableau)	Main area, 8 columns	All 52 cards at the start: four columns of 7 and four of 6, all face up
Free cells	Top left, 4 slots	One card each, any card
Foundations	Top right, 4 piles	One suit each, built up from ace to king

There's no stock pile and no dealing more cards. That's the big difference from Klondike (the classic solitaire), where cards start face down and you turn them over from a stock. The solitaire rules guide covers Klondike if you want to compare.

The rules

1. Only the bottom card of a column is free to move (the fully visible card at the front of each column). You can also move a correctly built run of cards as a group, within limits explained below.
2. Build columns down in alternating colours. A card can go on a card one rank higher of the opposite colour: a red 9 on a black 10, a black 4 on a red 5.
3. Any card can go in an empty column. Not just kings, as in Klondike. Empty columns are the most valuable spaces in the game.
4. Each free cell holds one card. Park a card there to get it out of the way, and move it back onto a column or a foundation later.
5. Foundations build up by suit, starting with the ace: A, 2, 3 and so on to K of the same suit.
6. You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations.

How many cards can you move at once?

Officially, FreeCell moves one card at a time. Moving a run of, say, four cards is really a shortcut for shuffling them one by one through free cells and empty columns. Our game (like most computer versions) does that shuffling for you as a single move, often called a supermove. The limit depends on how much free space you have:

Cards you can move = (empty free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns)

In words: take the empty free cells plus one, then double it for every empty column.

If you're moving the run into an empty column, that column doesn't count, because it's the destination.

Empty free cells	Empty columns	Max run onto a card	Max run into an empty column
0	0	1	–
3	0	4	–
4	0	5	–
2	1	6	3
4	1	10	5
2	2	12	6

Worked example: with two empty free cells and one empty column, (2 + 1) × 2 = 6 cards can move onto another column. Moving into that empty column, it can't also be a stopover, so the limit is (2 + 1) × 1 = 3.

That is why an empty column is worth more than a free cell: each one doubles what you can move.

Cards that go home on their own

After each move, the game automatically sends "safe" cards to the foundations: aces and 2s always, and any other card once both foundations of the opposite colour have reached one rank below it. For example, a red 5 goes home by itself when both black foundations are at 4 or higher, because no black 4 could still need it to build on. You can always move other cards home yourself.

How to play the free FreeCell game

1. Open the free FreeCell game and press Shuffle a deal.
2. Tap or click a card to send it to the best place automatically: home if it can go, otherwise onto a column, then a free cell, then an empty column. Tap a card higher in a column to move it with the cards below it.
3. Or drag a card or run to exactly where you want it. If a move isn't allowed, the table gives a little shake.
4. Hint highlights a move worth trying. It's a suggestion, not a full solver.
5. Undo steps back one move at a time. Restart replays the same deal from the beginning; New deal deals a different one.
6. The bar above the table shows the game number, moves, time and your best time.

If every free cell is full and no card can move anywhere, a "No moves left" message appears. Use Undo or Restart.

Playing a numbered game

On the first screen (or after A numbered deal on the pause menu), type a number in Play a numbered game and press Deal. The numbers give the same layouts as the classic numbered FreeCell deals, so you can play a game a friend mentions or replay one you lost. Random deals come from games 1 to 32,000; you can type any number up to 1,000,000.

Beginner tips

• Look before your first move. Find the aces and 2s, and see what's on top of them.
• Keep free cells empty as long as you can. Each one you fill shrinks how many cards you can move.
• Empty a column early if one is short. It's the most useful space you can make.
• Don't fill an empty column with a single card unless it starts a long build or frees something important.
• Plan runs to the size you can move. If a 5-card run needs to move and you can only move 4, free a cell first.

Almost every deal can be won. To see which can't, read is every FreeCell game winnable?

Deal a game now

The free FreeCell game runs in your browser with no sign-up. Your best time is saved in that browser only.