The World of Solitaire

While usually referring to single-player card games, solitaire is a catch-all term for one-player games that generally involve organizing stacks of like-suited cards in ascending or descending order depending on the rules of the individual solitaire variant. These cards are often pulled from existing piles of cards dealt out during game setup.

Many solitaire variants also involve drawing from a deck of flipped cards into a discard pile and playing them into the game's tableau. There are over 300 variants of solitaire and even some multiplayer variants of the game. Many solitaire games aren't guaranteed to be solvable due to their random setup. In these cases, many people aim to achieve as perfect of a game as possible with the cards dealt.

While the true origin of solitaire is unknown, it has its roots in Europe during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Solitaire was sometimes known as patience card games. Over the years, the game has evolved and changed formats, with some solitaire games being played with pegboards or mahjong tiles.

With the advent of personal computers in the 1980s and 90s, tablets, and smartphones in the 2000s, solitaire has surged in popularity. This has given solitaire a reputation for being played by bored office workers, retirees, and AARP members. However, solitaire is more popular than ever, and people of all ages and interests play solitaire games to relax and have fun solving complex puzzles.

Many people now choose to forgo the hassle of dealing with physical playing cards and playing free online solitaire games, where the browser can interact with a web service that handles the dealing of the cards for them. Playing solitaire online provides several additional benefits, such as undoing moves, quick-playing of cards, context-sensitive hints, and ensuring that a given solitaire deck is solvable.

Klondike Solitaire

In the wide world of solitaire variants, Klondike is considered by many players to be classic solitaire and the most beginner-friendly variant of the game. Klondike is easy to pick up and learn with its simple goals and quick setup. The ultimate goal is to end up with four foundational stacks of cards, one for each card suit, rising in order from low to high. This is the solitaire variant that many people learned to play as children. As such, if you google solitaire, you're very likely to land on a web version of your classic greenfelt klondike solitaire.

How To Play Solitaire

Klondike Solitaire Setup Klondike solitaire is easy to learn and set up. Start with a regular deck of playing cards and remove the jokers. Shuffle the deck.

Winning At Solitaire

The object of Klondike Solitaire is to move all of the cards in the deck from the tableau, or play area, to four foundation decks. Each foundation deck should consist of a single suit of cards (i.e., all hearts or all clubs). Cards in each foundation should be placed in order starting with aces low and completing with kings.

The Tableau

The tableau is the primary play area of the game. It consists of seven piles of cards.

From your shuffled deck, deal seven piles into a tableau. The first pile starts with one card face up, and each deck increases its starting card value by one. Only the last dealt card in each tableau pile is face-up. The cards below that should be played face down.

Once the tableau is set up with seven piles, place the remainder of the deck face down above the tableau. This is your stockpile. When no moves are available on the tableau, you'll be able to draw a card from the stockpile face up into a waste pile. You may always draw another card from the stockpile and place it on the top of the waste pile. You can only ever play the topmost card on the waste pile. When the stockpile is out of cards, flip the waste pile over, and it becomes a new stockpile. However, you should be careful to preserve the order of the cards when flipping the deck and not shuffle the cards.

Note: For a more challenging variant of Klondike solitaire, you can instead play three cards from the stock at a time. However, you may only play the drawn cards in order.

Playing Klondike solitaire

Play often begins by surveying the state of the initial tableau. Begin by placing any aces you may have face up into their foundational decks.

From there, the primary play involves organizing the tableau. Face-up cards on the tableau or cards drawn from the stockpile are played onto existing face-up cards.

To do this, the card being played must be one rank lower and an opposite color of the current face-up card on a tableau pile. For example, if an 8 of clubs is the face-up card on a pile, you may only play a red 7 of diamonds or hearts on it.

When a face-up card is moved off a tableau pile onto another face-up card, you flip over the next face-down card, which can then be played. This is the main challenge of all solitaire games! Without knowing what the face-down cards are, you need to strategically form piles of cards that will allow you to begin filling up your foundation decks. The primary strategy is to flip over all face-down cards by organizing your piles into lines of alternating, descending cards and then playing them into complete foundations.

If you find yourself with an empty tableau pile, a new face-up pile can be started by playing a king onto it.

With a bit of luck and some strategic thinking, you'll be able to complete all of the foundation piles and win the game. If you can't beat the game your first time, don't worry too much! Not all games of randomized Klondike solitaire are winnable. Just reshuffle and try again!