The layout
Yukon uses one ordinary pack of 52 cards, with no jokers, and deals them all. There are seven columns: the first holds a single card, and the others hold 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 cards. In every column the front five cards are face up and the rest are face down, so the second column has one hidden card and the seventh has six. The first column's one card is face up.
Above the columns are four empty suit piles, one for each suit. There is no stock and no turned-up pile.
The goal
Move all 52 cards onto the suit piles. Each pile starts with its Ace and takes the 2, the 3 and so on of the same suit, up to the King.
Moving cards in the columns
This is where Yukon differs from Klondike. You may pick up any face-up card in a column, and every card on top of it moves with it. The cards on top do not have to be in order. The card you pick up must land on a card one rank higher and of the other colour: a red 9 on a black 10, a black Jack on a red Queen.
Say a column shows, from the back, the 6 of Hearts, the Queen of Clubs and the 2 of Spades. You can move the 6 of Hearts onto a black 7 elsewhere, and the Queen and the 2 go with it. You could also move the Queen with the 2 onto a red King, or the 2 alone onto a red 3.
Hidden cards and empty columns
When the last face-up card leaves the front of a hidden card, the hidden card turns face up. When a column is empty, only a King can go there, with any cards on top of it.
The suit piles
Only the front card of a column can go up to a suit pile, one card at a time. Once every card is face up and each column runs down in order, the rest can go up by themselves; this site sends them up for you.
How hard is it?
Harder than Klondike for most players, but with no luck in the stock. Many Yukon deals can be won with careful play, though not all, and you cannot tell which from the deal. On this site every deal has been played through and won by the computer before you see it, so a win is always possible.
Tips to win more games
- Uncover the long columns. The seventh column hides six cards and the sixth hides five. Moves that turn over hidden cards there are worth the most.
- Reach deep. In Klondike you can only move a card that is in order with the cards on it; in Yukon you can lift a card from the middle of a column. Look at every face-up card, not just the front ones.
- Free the Aces and 2s early. They are needed first and often sit under several cards.
- Sort as you go. A column that runs down in alternating colours is easy to move later; a jumble is harder to clear at the end.
- Save empty columns for Kings that carry something useful. A King with the cards you need on top of it is worth the space.
Yukon and Klondike
Yukon is a close relative of Klondike, the game most people call Solitaire. Same suit piles, same building down in alternating colours, same rule for empty columns. What changes is the stock, which Yukon does not have, and the freedom to move cards that are not in order. Klondike's rules are in how to play Solitaire.