Solitaire
Solitaire (Klondike) Quick Guide and Game Info
Klondike Solitaire is a single-player card game where the goal is to move all 52 cards onto four foundation piles, building each suit from Ace through King. Our version uses the familiar seven-column Klondike layout with one card draws from the stock. You can cycle through the stock as many times as you need while searching for the cards that will help you open up the tableau.
Your time, number of moves, best time and win streak are tracked as you play, giving you something to aim for beyond simply completing the deal.
About Our Solitaire
Our Solitaire uses a standard 52-card deck and the classic Klondike layout. Twenty-eight cards are dealt across seven tableau columns, with only the top card of each column initially face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock. Cards are drawn from the stock one at a time, and when you reach the end you can cycle through it again without a limit on the number of passes.
The game tracks your time and moves, while your Best Time lets you challenge yourself to complete future games faster.
You’ll also find a Win Streak counter. Complete consecutive games and see how long you can keep your streak going. Made a move you immediately regret? Use Undo and reconsider your approach.
Game Layout and Setup
When you start a new game, the cards are automatically dealt into the familiar Klondike layout.
Tableau — Seven columns make up the main playing area. The first column contains one card, the second contains two and so on until the seventh contains seven. Only the top card of each column begins face up.
Stock — The remaining 24 cards are placed face down in the upper-left corner. Click the stock to draw one card at a time.
Waste — Cards drawn from the stock are placed face up in the waste pile. The top waste card is available to play.
Foundations — Four empty foundation piles sit above the tableau. Each foundation represents one suit and must eventually be built from Ace through King.
Once the cards are dealt, you’re ready to start uncovering the tableau.
How to Play Solitaire
The goal is to move all 52 cards onto the four foundation piles.
Building the Tableau
Cards in the tableau are built downward in alternating colors. For example, a red 8 can be placed on a black 9, followed by a black 7 on the red 8. You can move a single card or an entire correctly ordered sequence between columns. Whenever you uncover a face-down card at the top of a tableau column, turn it face up.
Building the Foundations
Each foundation begins with an Ace. From there, build upward in the same suit:
Ace → 2 → 3 → 4 → all the way to King.
Once all four suits have been completely moved to their foundations, you’ve won the game.
Using the Stock and Waste
Click the stock to draw one card at a time onto the waste pile. Only the top card of the waste is available to play. When you reach the end of the stock, you can cycle through it again. Our version allows unlimited passes, so reaching the final stock card doesn’t mean you’ve lost access to the earlier cards. However, you may still need to change the tableau before some stock cards become useful.
Empty Tableau Columns
Only a King, or a correctly ordered sequence beginning with a King, can be moved into an empty tableau column. Empty columns can be extremely useful because they give you more room to rearrange the tableau and uncover hidden cards.
How to Improve Your Chances in Solitaire
Solitaire (Klondike) is easy to learn, but choosing the order of your moves can make a big difference.
Prioritize Face-Down Cards
One of your main goals should be uncovering the hidden cards in the tableau. Every face-down card you reveal gives you new information and potentially creates new moves. If you have a choice between two otherwise similar moves, consider whether one of them allows you to turn over a hidden card.
Don’t Rush Every Card to the Foundations
Moving cards to the foundations is how you eventually win, but that doesn’t mean every available card should immediately be sent there. Sometimes a card is still useful in the tableau because it allows you to move another sequence or uncover a hidden card. Before sending a card permanently upward, check whether you might still need it below.
Create Empty Columns Carefully
Clearing a tableau column can be extremely useful, but only Kings and King-led sequences can fill an empty space. Before creating an empty column, look at the rest of the board. Do you have a King you can move there? Will doing so uncover another hidden card or free an important sequence? An empty column is most valuable when you already have a plan for using it.
More Solitaire Strategy Tips
Check the Tableau Before Drawing Again
Because our version gives you unlimited passes through the stock, there’s no need to panic about reaching the end. Still, don’t automatically keep cycling through the cards. Before drawing again, check whether anything has changed in the tableau. A move you made since the previous pass may have created a new place for one of the stock cards.
Think About the Order of Your Moves
Sometimes two moves are both legal, but making one first creates more opportunities. For example, moving a card that uncovers a face-down card may be more useful than making a move that simply rearranges cards you can already see. Try to think beyond the immediate move and ask what it will allow you to do next.
Use Undo to Experiment
Not sure whether a move will help? Our Undo button lets you reconsider. If a sequence of moves leaves the board in a worse position, step back and try another route. Experimenting with different choices is also a good way to learn which types of moves tend to open the game up.
Can You Keep the Streak Going?
Completing one Solitaire game is satisfying. Completing several in a row gives you another challenge. Evergreen Arcade tracks your Win Streak, so each consecutive victory adds another game to your run. You can also challenge your Best Time when you want to play for speed. That gives you two different targets: see how quickly you can complete a deal, or see how many games you can finish consecutively before your streak comes to an end.
A Little Bit of Solitaire History
Solitaire isn’t actually one single game. It’s the name commonly used for a large family of single-player card games, also known as Patience.
Patience-style card games became established in Europe around the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with numerous layouts and rule variations developing over time.
Klondike eventually became one of the best-known versions. Its exact origins, including precisely how it acquired the Klondike name, aren’t completely certain, despite the game often being associated with the era of the Klondike Gold Rush.
A major new chapter arrived in 1990, when Microsoft included Solitaire with Windows 3.0. The computer version introduced an enormous audience to Klondike and also gave early Windows users plenty of practice with mouse actions such as clicking and dragging.
Decades later, Klondike remains one of the most recognizable Solitaire games around.
The cards may have moved from physical tables to computer screens and browsers, but the challenge is still the same: uncover the hidden cards, create space and somehow get all 52 cards where they need to go.
Want to Play More Card Games?
Check out more card games below
Gin Rummy
Crazy Eights
FreeCell
WAR
