How to Play Russian Solitaire
Deal Yukon's shape — one face-up card in column one, five face-up cards on a growing pile of face-down cards in the rest. Pick up any face-up card with everything on it and drop it on a card one rank higher in the same suit. Only a King fills an empty column. Win by banking all 52 cards, Ace to King by suit.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal Yukon's shapeColumn one gets a single face-up card. Each of the other six columns gets a growing number of face-down cards topped with five face-up cards.
- 2Pick up any face-up card and its stackLift a face-up card together with every card resting on it, in whatever order it happens to be in — the stack does not need to already be a valid run.
- 3Build down in the same suitA card may only be placed on a card one rank higher of its own suit.
- 4Only a King fills an empty columnA King, or a same-suit run headed by one, is the only thing an empty column will accept.
- 5Bank Ace to King by suitFour foundations, one per suit, build up from Ace to King. There is no stock to draw from — every legal move comes from the tableau.
- 6Win with all 52 cards on the foundationsThe deal is over the moment every card is banked, or the moment no legal move remains.
Try it — the rules above, running
New game deals a fresh shuffle, Hint highlights a legal move, and the three-dot menu at the end of the bar holds redo, auto-finish, today’s deal, the keyboard shortcuts and the rule set.
Your statistics
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
Kept in this browser, on this device only. Abandoning a deal in progress counts as a loss, so the win rate means something.
Today’s deal
Everyone playing Russian Solitaire today gets deal #1249968370. It changes at midnight UTC.
Track the month on the daily challenge page.
Replay a deal
Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.
Keyboard
- U / Z
- Undo
- R
- Redo
- H
- Hint
- N
- New deal (asks first)
- F
- Full screen
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
What can you pick up in Russian solitaire?
Any face-up card, along with every card sitting on top of it — the whole group moves together regardless of whether it is already in sequence. Only the bottom card of the group has to be a legal same-suit fit for wherever it lands.
What can that group land on?
| Destination | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Another tableau card | One rank lower, same suit |
| Empty column | A King, or a run headed by one |
| Foundation | Next rank up, same suit, Ace first |
How do you win more often?
- Dig for hidden cards before buildingAs in Yukon, uncovering a face-down card gives you new options; rearranging cards you can already see usually does not. Prioritise moves that expose something new.
- Do not scatter one suit across several columnsBecause building is same-suit only, a suit split across the board is a suit with nowhere to consolidate. Try to keep a run of one suit together rather than trading it piece by piece.
- Save Kings for columns worth emptyingAn empty column is only as useful as the King you can put in it. Do not empty a column you cannot immediately refill — you will simply have traded one blocked column for another.
- Use the free pickup rule to test lines with undoBecause any face-up stack can move regardless of order, it is easy to try a rearrangement, see what it uncovers, and undo it if it does not help. That freedom is the whole compensation for the strict build rule.
Common questions about russian solitaire
- Do Russian solitaire and Yukon use the same deal?
- Yes, exactly the same shape. The only structural difference is the build rule — same suit here, alternating colour in Yukon.
- Is there a stock in Russian solitaire?
- No. All 52 cards are dealt to the tableau at the start, the same as Yukon. Every move for the rest of the game happens within the tableau and the foundations.
Ready to stop reading? Play russian solitaire on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.