How to play
The goal is to move all 52 cards onto the four foundations at the top right, one pile per suit, from Ace up to King.
The game starts with seven columns. The first column has one card, the second has two, and so on up to seven. Only the top card of each column is face up. The remaining 24 cards sit in the stock at the top left.
- Building columns. You can place a card on a column if it is one rank lower and the opposite color: a black 6 goes on a red 7, a red Jack goes on a black Queen.
- Moving groups. A face-up run that is already in order can be moved together, as long as its first card fits where you put it.
- Empty columns. Only a King, or a run that starts with a King, can go into an empty column.
- Face-down cards. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the card under it turns over automatically.
- The stock. Tap the stock to turn cards over. In Draw 1 you get one card at a time; in Draw 3 you get three and can only play the top one. When the stock runs out, tap the empty spot to turn the waste pile back over.
- Foundations. You can also take a card back down from a foundation onto a column if it helps.
Tap any face-up card and it moves to the best place it can go: a foundation first, then a column. If it has nowhere to go, it shakes.
Strategy
Turn over face-down cards first. The hidden cards in the right-hand columns are what usually block a game. When you have a choice between two moves, pick the one that reveals a new card.
Don’t rush cards to the foundations. Putting a low card up early is almost always safe. Putting up a 7 or an 8 can strand a card of the other color that needed it as a landing spot. If two moves look equal, keep the card on the table a little longer.
Think before you empty a column. An empty column is only useful if you have a King ready to fill it. Emptying one just because you can often leaves you with nowhere to go later.
Play from the columns before the stock. Cards in the stock come around again. Cards buried in the columns don’t, unless you dig them out.
Draw 3 is a different game. Because you can only reach every third card, the order of the stock matters much more. Count how many cards are left before you commit to a move that changes which card will be on top next pass.
Try a variation. If you like Klondike, Spider Solitaire plays with two decks and rewards building runs in one suit, and in FreeCell every card is face up from the start, so it is all about planning.
If you enjoy Klondike Solitaire, try Konken or Koz Maça next.
