🂱 Solitaire

About this game

Klondike is the solitaire that shipped with every office computer for two decades, and the version most people mean when they say the word. Seven tableau columns, a stock to draw from, and four foundations to build up by suit from ace to king. Win by getting all fifty-two cards onto the foundations.

The tension in Klondike comes from the face-down cards. Every column hides cards you cannot see, and the only way to reach them is to clear what sits on top. Every move you make is really a choice about which hidden card you most want to expose next, and that is where good play separates from lucky play.

Controls

Tips & strategy

Always prefer the move that flips a face-down card over the move that merely tidies the tableau. Exposed cards are the resource the whole game runs on, and a move that reveals nothing has usually cost you a tempo you will want later. Between two flips, take the one from the longest hidden column.

Do not rush aces and twos to the foundations, but do not hoard low cards either. Once a card goes up to a foundation it cannot come back down to help you build a sequence, so a two you sent up early can leave a three stranded. Send cards up when they are no longer useful as building blocks.

Empty columns are the most valuable asset in the game, and only a king can fill one. Before you clear a column completely, make sure you actually have a king available to occupy it, otherwise you have converted a useful column into dead space that blocks the rest of your layout.

When you draw from the stock, track what you have passed. The order of the deck does not change between cycles, so a card you skipped will come around again in the same position. Knowing that a needed card is two draws away often changes which tableau move is correct right now.