How to play Yukon Solitaire
To play Yukon Solitaire, move all 52 cards onto four suit piles, each built from the Ace up to the King, as in Klondike. The difference: there is no stock, every card is dealt into seven columns, and any face-up card can be moved, together with all the cards on top of it, even when those cards are not in order. It only has to land on a card one higher and of the other colour. The full rules, with tips.
- The deal. Seven columns: one card in the first, then 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. The front five cards of each column are face up; the first column's single card is face up too.
- Moving cards. Pick any face-up card and everything on it moves with it. The card you pick must go on a card one rank higher of the other colour: a red 6 on a black 7.
- Hidden cards turn over when the cards in front of them have gone.
- Empty columns take only a King, with any cards on it.
- The suit piles start with an Ace and take the 2, 3 and so on of the same suit, one card at a time.
Controls
Tap or click a face-up card and it goes, with the cards on it, to the best place for it: up to its suit pile when it is a front card that fits there, otherwise onto a column. You can also drag it where you want it. With a keyboard, Tab moves between the face-up cards and Enter moves one. H asks for a hint, U undoes and N starts a new deal. Once every card is face up and the columns are in order, the rest go up by themselves.
Every deal can be won
Some Yukon deals cannot be won however well you play. Here, every deal is played through by the computer before you see it, and only deals it has won are dealt. If you get stuck, undo a few moves and try another way, or press Hint, which looks ahead and tells you what to do next and why.
Yukon or Klondike?
Yukon looks like Klondike, but it plays very differently. With every card dealt there is no luck in the stock: everything you need is on the table from the start, and the game is in seeing how to reach it. Being able to move a card with a jumble on top of it makes long, clever moves possible, so Yukon is the one to try when Klondike starts to feel easy.
A few tips
- Turn over hidden cards first, starting with the longest columns: the last column hides six.
- You can reach deep into a column: the card you need may be four cards back, and it can still move today.
- Get the Aces and 2s up early; they are often buried.
- Keep an empty column for a King that has useful cards under it.
For other patience games, try Golf Solitaire and TriPeaks, played up or down onto one pile, or FreeCell, where every card is face up from the start.