How to Play Solitaire: Klondike Rules for Beginners (Free)

To play Solitaire, you sort a shuffled deck into four piles, one per suit, from ace up to king. Cards are laid out in seven columns; you build those columns downward in alternating colours (a red 6 on a black 7) to uncover hidden cards, and turn cards from a spare pile when you run out of moves. Move all 52 cards to the four suit piles and you win. You can learn as you go with the free Solitaire game, which plays classic Klondike with draw-one and draw-three modes.

The game most people call "Solitaire" is properly named Klondike. Spider and FreeCell use different layouts and rules; this guide covers Klondike only.

The layout

A Klondike table has four areas:

Area	Where	What it holds at the start
Tableau	Seven columns across the middle	28 cards: 1 in the first column, 2 in the second, up to 7 in the last. Only the bottom card of each column is face up.
Stock	Top left	The other 24 cards, face down
Waste	Next to the stock	Empty. Cards you turn from the stock land here.
Foundations	Four spaces at the top right	Empty. One pile per suit, built from ace to king.

The face-down cards in the tableau are the real puzzle. Most of the game is about turning them face up.

How to play Solitaire: the moves

There are only a handful of legal moves.

1. Build down in alternating colours. You can place a card on a tableau card one rank higher and of the opposite colour. A black 9 can go on a red 10; a red queen can go on a black king.
2. Move stacks, not just single cards. A run of face-up cards that's already in order (say, red 8, black 7, red 6) can be moved together onto a matching card, here a black 9.
3. Turn up hidden cards. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the face-down card underneath turns over. In our game this happens automatically.
4. Fill empty columns with kings. Only a king, or a run that starts with a king, can go into an empty column.
5. Send cards to the foundations. An ace starts a foundation pile. After that, each pile grows by suit, one rank at a time: ace, 2, 3 and so on up to king.
6. Draw from the stock. When you're stuck, turn cards from the stock onto the waste. The top card of the waste can be played onto the tableau or a foundation.

Aces count low, so an ace is the only card that can start a foundation, and a king is the top of every pile.

The stock and waste, and draw one vs draw three

The stock is where the luck comes in. How you draw from it changes the difficulty a lot.

• Draw one turns one card at a time. Every card in the stock becomes playable on each pass, so more games can be won.
• Draw three turns three cards at once, fanned on the waste. Only the top one of the three can be played. Cards buried in the middle of a group may stay out of reach until something above them is used.

When the stock runs out, tap the empty stock space (it shows a circular arrow) and the waste turns back over to become the stock again, in the same order. In the free Solitaire game you can go through the stock as many times as you like in both modes. Some versions limit the number of passes, so if you play elsewhere, check the rules on screen.

Can cards come back off the foundations?

Yes. In our game you can drag or tap the top card of a foundation pile and move it back onto the tableau if it fits there. It's rarely needed, but sometimes a 5 back in the tableau gives a 4 of the other colour somewhere to go.

How you win

You win when all four foundations hold a complete suit, ace to king. Once the stock and waste are empty and every tableau card is face up, the rest is a formality: the game shows All cards are showing with a Finish for me button that moves everything home for you.

Not every deal can be won: sometimes the card you need is buried under one you can't move. That's why Undo is there (it remembers your last 200 moves).

Scoring: moves and time

Older computer versions used point systems. Ours keeps it simple and tracks:

• Moves: every card move and every turn of the stock counts as one.
• Time: the clock starts on your first move.
• Best: your fastest win, saved separately for draw-one and draw-three, in this browser only.

How to play Solitaire online in our game

1. Open the free Solitaire game. A new deal is ready.
2. Choose Draw: 1 card or 3 cards above the table. Changing it deals a new game.
3. Tap a card to send it to the best legal place: a foundation if it fits there, otherwise a tableau column. Or drag it exactly where you want it.
4. Tap the stock to turn cards over.
5. Use Undo to step back (the last 200 moves are kept), Hint to have a possible move highlighted, and New game for a fresh deal.

If a card you tap can't move anywhere, the table gives a little shake. Once the stock and waste are used up and no move remains, a No moves left banner appears.

When you know the rules, the next step is strategy. Our tips for winning Solitaire cover what to do first, when to use the stock, and why rushing cards to the foundations can backfire. If you like to know where the game came from, read the history of Solitaire.

Other solitaire games to try

• Spider Solitaire uses two decks and ten columns. See how to play Spider Solitaire.
• FreeCell deals every card face up, so it's almost all skill. See the FreeCell rules.

Deal a game now

The quickest way to learn Klondike is to play a few hands with draw one, using Hint when you're unsure. The free Solitaire game runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no download and no account.