Solitaire, the way you remember it
This is Klondike, the card game most people simply call Solitaire: seven columns, a stock of face-down cards, and four suit piles to fill from Ace to King. It is the game that came with every Windows computer for thirty years, and the one many of us first learned with a real pack of cards at the kitchen table. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to install, and your game is saved in this browser if you need to stop.
This page turns one card at a time from the stock, the relaxed way to play. When you want more of a challenge, draw 3 turns three cards at a time, as the old Windows game did by default.
Every deal can be won
With a shuffled pack, some Klondike deals cannot be won however well you play: a key card is buried under the cards it needs. Here, every deal is played through by the computer before you see it, and only deals it has won are dealt. So if you get stuck, the way out is still on the table: undo a few moves and try another path, or press Hint, which looks ahead and tells you, in one plain sentence, what to do next and why.
How to play
Klondike is played with one pack of 52 cards. The goal is to move every card onto four piles at the top, one for each suit, building each from the Ace up to the King. The full rules, with pictures and tips.
- The columns. Seven columns are dealt, from one card to seven, with only the front card face up. In the columns, cards go down in order and alternate colours: a red 6 on a black 7, a black Jack on a red Queen.
- Moving several cards. A face-up card can move with all the cards on top of it, as long as they stay in order.
- Empty columns take only a King, with any cards on it.
- The stock. When you need a new card, tap the stock to turn one card. When the stock runs out, tap it again to turn the pile over and go through it again, as often as you like.
- The suit piles start with an Ace and take the 2, 3 and so on of the same suit. A card can come back down from them if you need it.
Controls
Tap or click a card and it goes to the best place for it: up to its suit pile when it fits there, otherwise onto a column. You can also drag a card, or a run of cards, where you want it. With a keyboard, Tab moves between the face-up cards and Enter moves one. D turns cards from the stock, H asks for a hint, U undoes and N starts a new deal.
Undo takes back any move, as many times as you like. Hint looks ahead and shows a good next move, with a sentence that says why. Once every card is face up and the stock is used, the last cards go up to their piles by themselves.
Large, clear cards
The cards grow to fill your screen, and every card shows its rank and suit in large print in its top corner, so you can read them even when they overlap. Hearts and diamonds are red, spades and clubs are black, and the table is a calm green. If your screen is small, turn it sideways for wider cards, and use Settings to make the text larger or to switch to a darker screen in the evening.
A few tips
- Turn over the hidden cards in the longest columns first: that is where most of the pack is waiting.
- Move an Ace or a 2 up to its pile as soon as you see it. Higher cards can wait until you are sure no column needs them.
- Don’t empty a column unless you have a King ready to go into it.
- When two cards could move, choose the one that turns over a hidden card.
For the full rules and more ways to win, read how to play Solitaire. Fancy something different? Try Spider Solitaire or Mahjong Solitaire.