How to Play Solitaire
Solitaire, properly Klondike, is played with one 52-card deck. Deal seven columns of one to seven cards, top card face up. Build four foundations up from Ace to King by suit. Build the tableau down in alternating colours. Only Kings fill empty columns. Turn the stock for new cards when you run out of moves.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal seven columnsDeal 28 cards into seven columns of one to seven cards. Turn the last card of each column face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock.
- 2Build the tableau down in alternating coloursMove a face-up card onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. A red six goes on a black seven. You may move a whole properly ordered sequence at once.
- 3Turn face-down cards as you free themWhen a move exposes a face-down card, turn it up. Uncovering hidden cards is the whole game — a move that reveals nothing rarely helps.
- 4Fill empty columns with KingsOnly a King, or a sequence headed by a King, may go into an empty column.
- 5Turn the stock when you are stuckClick the stock to draw one card (or three, on draw three) to the waste pile. When the stock runs out, the waste turns over and becomes the stock again.
- 6Build the foundations from Ace to KingFoundations start with an Ace and build up in the same suit. Move all 52 cards there to win.
Try it — the rules above, running
Draw 1. One card off the stock per click, so every card in the deck is reachable however you play. The forgiving version, and the one to learn on.
Your statistics · Draw 1
- 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 Klondike Solitaire today gets deal #2470499591. 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
- Space
- Turn the stock
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
What do you need to play solitaire?
One standard 52-card deck and a table. Nothing else — no jokers, no second deck. The board below deals for you, but the rules are identical to the physical game.
How do you set up the board?
- 1Deal the tableauDeal one card face up, then six face down in a row beside it. Deal a card face up on the second pile and face down on the rest. Repeat until the seventh pile has seven cards. You have seven columns of one to seven cards, each with one card face up.
- 2Set the stock asideThe 24 cards left over form the stock, face down. Space beside it becomes the waste pile.
- 3Leave room for four foundationsFour empty spaces above the tableau will hold the Ace-to-King piles, one per suit.
What are the moves?
| From | To | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Tableau or waste | Foundation | Ace on an empty foundation, then same suit ascending |
| Tableau or waste | Tableau | One rank lower, opposite colour |
| Tableau or waste | Empty column | King only, or a sequence headed by a King |
| Tableau sequence | Tableau | The whole run must already be in order, alternating colours |
| Foundation | Tableau | Allowed — sometimes you need a card back |
| Stock | Waste | One card, or three at a time on draw three |
When have you won?
When all 52 cards sit on the foundations, Ace through King in each of the four suits. Once no face-down cards remain and the stock is empty, the finish is automatic — the board here plays it out for you.
How do you win more often?
- Always turn a face-down card if you canA move that reveals a hidden card gives you new information and a new option. A move that only shuffles face-up cards between columns usually gives you neither.
- Do not empty a column without a King readyAn empty column is only useful if you can fill it. Emptying one while every King is buried wastes the only flexible space on the board.
- Hold back high cards from the foundationsOnce a Seven goes up, the Sixes of the other colour have nowhere to land. Bank Aces and Twos freely; think twice about anything above a Five while the tableau is still crowded.
- Play the stock first on draw threeOn draw three, cycling the stock changes which cards are reachable. Making tableau moves before you cycle can lock the stock into an order that never offers the card you need.
Common questions about solitaire
- Can you move more than one card at a time in solitaire?
- Yes, as long as the cards already form a correct sequence — descending rank, alternating colours. The whole run moves as a unit onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour.
- Can you take a card back off a foundation?
- Yes. Standard Klondike allows you to move a foundation card back down to the tableau, and occasionally you must — usually to unblock a column.
- How many times can you go through the stock?
- In the version played here, as many times as you like. Some house rules limit draw one to three passes; tournament draw three is usually unlimited.
Ready to stop reading? Play solitaire on the full board, with statistics, deal numbers and unlimited undo.