Klondike Solitaire

The layout

Deal seven piles left to right: one card in the first, two in the second, up to seven in the last. Only the top card of each pile is face up. That is the tableau.

The remaining 24 cards are the stock. Above the tableau there is room for four foundations, one per suit, which start empty.

Goal

Build all four foundations from ace up to king, one suit each. Move all 52 cards there and you have won.

What you can move

• Onto the tableau: a card goes on one that is one higher and the opposite colour. A red six goes on a black seven.
• Onto a foundation: ace first, then the same suit in order upward.
• An empty column takes a king, and nothing else.
• A run of face-up cards already in sequence moves as one block.
• Turning over a face-down card is always free, and always do it when you can.

Turning the stock

Turn one: flip one card at a time, unlimited passes. This is the forgiving version and wins far more often.

Turn three: flip three at a time and only the top one is playable. The order within each three never changes, so if a card is stuck in the middle it stays stuck. Some rules limit you to three passes through the stock.

What to do first

• Play aces and twos to the foundations at once. Everything else, think first.
• Prefer moves that turn over a face-down card, and take them from the largest pile.
• Do not empty a column unless you have a king to put in it.
• Sending a card to the foundation too early can strand a card in the tableau that needed it. Keep low cards back when they are still useful.

Why some deals cannot be won

Not every deal is solvable. With turn one and perfect play, roughly eight deals in ten can be won. Turn three is much harsher.

So a lost game is not necessarily a badly played one. If the last few face-down cards will not come out whatever you do, the deal was decided before you started.

Questions