About Klondike Solitaire
Klondike is the solitaire most people simply call Solitaire: the patience game with seven columns, a stock pile and four foundations that came free with every Windows PC for decades. The goal is to move all 52 cards onto the foundations, one pile per suit, building each from the ace up to the king. This version plays instantly in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no download and no sign-up.
You can drag cards with a mouse or finger, or simply tap a card and it jumps to the best legal spot: a foundation if it can go there, otherwise a column it fits on. Aces and other cards that can never be needed again move to the foundations by themselves, and once every card is face up and the stock is empty the game finishes itself. Undo is free and unlimited, so you can always step back and try a different line.
Choose Draw 1 for a relaxed game that you will win more often, or Draw 3 for the classic challenge, where only every third card of the stock is reachable on each pass. Your game saves automatically in this browser, so you can close the tab and carry on later, and your statistics (games played, games won, best time and winning streak) are kept for each variant.
How to play Klondike Solitaire
- Seven columns are dealt from left to right: the first has one card, the last has seven, and only the bottom card of each column is face up. The other 24 cards form the stock in the top-left corner.
- Build down in the columns in alternating colours: a red 6 can go on a black 7, and a black 9 on a red 10. You can move a single card or a whole face-up run that is already in order.
- When you move the last face-up card off a column, the face-down card underneath turns over. Uncovering these hidden cards is the key to winning.
- Only a king, or a run that starts with a king, can be placed in an empty column.
- Tap the stock to turn cards onto the waste pile. The top waste card can be played to a column or a foundation. When the stock runs out, tap it again to turn the waste back over and go through it once more.
- Move aces to the four foundations as soon as they appear, then build each foundation up in suit from ace to king. You win when all four foundations are complete.
Rules
Draw 1 turns one card at a time from the stock; Draw 3 turns three, and only the top one of those three can be played. There is no limit on passes through the stock in either mode.
A card on a foundation can be moved back down to a column if you need it to hold a lower card of the opposite colour, at a cost in points.
Hints suggest a useful move: a card to a foundation, a move that turns over a hidden card, or a play from the waste. You get three free hints in every game, and you can watch an optional short ad for three more.
Scoring
This game uses the standard Windows point values. A card from the waste to a column scores 5 points, any card to a foundation scores 10, and turning over a face-down card scores 5. Moving a card back off a foundation costs 15 points.
Turning the waste back into the stock costs 100 points in Draw 1 and 20 points in Draw 3. Win a game in more than 30 seconds and you also earn a time bonus of 700,000 divided by your time in seconds, so quick wins score far more.
Tips
- Turn over hidden cards before anything else. A move that uncovers a face-down card is almost always better than one that does not.
- Play from the column with the most face-down cards first; those are the cards that are hardest to reach.
- Do not empty a column unless you have a king ready to fill it.
- Hold off moving low cards of one colour to the foundations if you might still need them to park cards of the other colour.
- In Draw 3, think about which cards will become playable on the next pass before you take a card off the waste.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same Solitaire that came with Windows?
Yes. Klondike is the game Windows called Solitaire, with the same layout, rules and standard scoring, including the time bonus for fast wins.
What is the difference between Draw 1 and Draw 3?
In Draw 1 you turn one card from the stock at a time and can reach every card. In Draw 3 you turn three at once and can only play the top one, which makes the game much harder. Change it in Settings; each mode keeps its own statistics.
Is every Klondike deal winnable?
No. Most Draw 1 deals can be won with careful play, but some cannot be solved however you play them, and Draw 3 has more of those. If you are stuck, use undo to try another line or start a new game.
Does undo cost anything?
No. Undo is free and unlimited, and it does not affect your statistics.
Is my game saved?
Yes. Your current game and your statistics are saved in this browser on this device, so you can close the page and continue later.
More solitaire games
- Spider Solitaire: two decks and ten columns; build king-to-ace runs with 1, 2 or 4 suits.
- FreeCell Solitaire: every card face up, four free cells and the classic numbered deals.