Klondike Solitaire

How to play Klondike Solitaire

Klondike is the game most people just call Solitaire. It came with Windows, it was dealt on kitchen tables long before that, and it still has the same goal: get all 52 cards onto the four foundations in the top-right corner, one pile per suit, Ace first and King last.

The table has four parts:

• Tableau. The seven columns across the middle. Column one starts with a single card, column seven with seven. Only the top card of each is face up.
• Stock. The face-down deck in the top-left corner. Tap it to turn cards over.
• Waste. Where the stock cards land. Its top card is always in play.
• Foundations. Four empty spaces, one per suit, built from Ace up to King.

Drag a card to move it, or tap it and it goes to the best legal spot by itself. If you would rather double-tap, switch off tap-to-move in Settings.

Never played before? Our beginner's guide walks through the first moves of a real deal, card by card.

The rules

• On the tableau, build down in alternating colors. A red 6 goes on a black 7. A black Jack goes on a red Queen.
• You can move a whole face-up run at once, as long as it stays in order and keeps alternating colors.
• When you take the last face-up card off a column, the card underneath flips over automatically.
• Only a King, or a run that starts with a King, can go into an empty column.
• Foundations build up by suit: A, 2, 3 and so on to the King. You can drag a card back down from a foundation if you need it.
• When the stock runs out, tap the empty spot to turn the waste over and go again. There is no limit on passes.
• Once every card is face up and the stock and waste are empty, the game plays the rest out for you.

Draw 1 shows you every card on every pass. It is the relaxed game. Draw 3 turns over three at a time and you can only play the top one, so a card you need can sit out of reach for several passes. Draw 3 is the version card-table regulars mean when they say "real" Klondike.

Tips from people who play a lot of it

1. Flip cards before you tidy up. A move that turns over a face-down card is nearly always the best move on the board. Moving a 9 from one 10 to another 10 just shuffles things around.
2. Start with the tall columns. Column seven hides six cards. Column two hides one. When two moves each free a card, take the one in the deeper column.
3. Pick your 8 carefully. Say you have a red 7 and two black 8s showing. Put the 7 on the 8 that sits over fewer hidden cards. The 8 on the deeper column stays a single card, so when a red 9 turns up you can lift it off and keep digging.
4. Don't rush the foundations. Aces and 2s go up at once. After that, a black 5 can be the only place to park a red 4. A card is safe to send up when both cards of the other color one rank lower are already there: the 5♥ is safe once the 4♣ and 4♠ are up.
5. Clear a column only when a King can use it. An empty space that only takes Kings is useless until a King shows up.
6. Choose the King by the Queen. If a red Queen is waiting in the waste, fill the empty column with a black King.
7. In Draw 3, watch the order. Playing one card off the waste shifts every group of three behind it, so the next pass shows you different cards. Sometimes holding a card back keeps a card you need reachable.

There are more in our Klondike strategy guide, with examples for each one.

Stuck? Press Hint (or H). If the solver finds a winning line from where you are, the hint is the first move of it. If it says there is no winning line from here, undo a few moves and try another way.

How often can you win?

Not every shuffle can be beaten. We ran our solver over the first 2,541 Draw 1 deals and the first 2,819 Draw 3 deals. Even though the solver can see every hidden card, it won 79% of Draw 1 deals and 71% of Draw 3 deals within its search budget. A person who cannot see the hidden cards will win fewer. That is why "Winnable deals only" is switched on by default: every new game comes from that list of solved deals. The full numbers and the method are in our solitaire odds guide.

Frequently asked questions