How to Play Klondike Solitaire
Klondike Solitaire is the card game most people simply call "Solitaire." If you have ever had a computer running Windows, you have almost certainly played it — the Microsoft version shipped with every copy of Windows from 3.0 in 1990 until Windows 8, accumulating billions of hours of play. It is the single most-played card game in human history, and for good reason: the rules are simple, a game lasts anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, and there is just enough luck to make every deal feel fresh.
Despite its reputation as a simple game, Klondike rewards deliberate play. Most people who grew up clicking through it never learned the strategies that separate a 20% win rate from a 50% win rate. This guide covers everything — rules, setup, strategies, and how to get the most out of playing on Cards4.net.
What You Need
A standard 52-card deck. No jokers. That is the entire equipment list. In a physical game you also need a flat surface and some patience with shuffling; on Cards4.net the deck is shuffled by a cryptographically seeded random number generator whose output you can inspect on the fairness page.
The Layout
When you start a game of Klondike Solitaire, 28 cards are dealt into seven columns called the tableau. The columns have increasing lengths:
- Column 1: 1 card (face-up)
- Column 2: 2 cards (1 face-down, 1 face-up)
- Column 3: 3 cards (2 face-down, 1 face-up)
- Column 4: 4 cards (3 face-down, 1 face-up)
- Column 5: 5 cards (4 face-down, 1 face-up)
- Column 6: 6 cards (5 face-down, 1 face-up)
- Column 7: 7 cards (6 face-down, 1 face-up)
The remaining 24 cards form the stock pile, placed face-down in the upper-left corner. When you draw from the stock, cards move to the waste pile next to it, and you can use the top card of the waste pile in your moves.
In the upper-right corner are four empty spaces called foundations — one for each suit. These start empty and are where you ultimately move all 52 cards to win the game.
The Objective
Simple: move every card to the four foundations. Each foundation is built for one suit, starting with the Ace and working upward — A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K. The game is won when all four foundations are complete.
Moving Cards on the Tableau
The tableau is where most of the action happens. Face-up cards in the tableau can be moved according to two rules:
Rule 1: Alternating colors. A card can be placed on top of any card of the opposite color. A red card goes on a black card; a black card goes on a red card.
Rule 2: Descending rank. A card can only be placed on a card that is exactly one rank higher. A 7 goes on an 8. A Jack goes on a Queen.
Together: a red 7 can go on a black 8. A black Jack can go on a red Queen.
Moving sequences: If you have a face-up run of alternating-color, descending-rank cards — say, red 9, black 8, red 7 — you can move all three of them together onto a black 10 in another column. This is crucial and frequently overlooked: you are not limited to moving one card at a time.
Empty columns: When a tableau column becomes completely empty, only a King can be placed there (or a sequence starting with a King). This is an important strategic resource.
Flipping hidden cards: When you move a face-up card (or sequence) from the top of a column, the card beneath it, previously face-down, flips face-up. This is how you gradually reveal the hidden cards and gain information and options.
Building the Foundations
The Ace of each suit must be placed in a foundation before anything else can follow it. Once an Ace is in the foundation, you build up: 2 of the same suit on the Ace, then 3, and so on up to the King.
You can move cards to the foundations at any time, but be careful: moving a card to the foundation removes it from play. If you need that card to facilitate tableau moves, you cannot get it back. In the early game, it is often wise to leave cards on the tableau for a few more moves, even after they become eligible for the foundation.
Drawing from the Stock Pile
When you have made every tableau move you can see, draw from the stock pile. In Turn 1, you draw one card at a time. The drawn card goes face-up on the waste pile, and you can use it immediately. If you exhaust the stock pile, you can flip the waste pile over and draw through it again — as many times as you like in Turn 1.
In Turn 3, you draw three cards at once, but only the top card of the waste pile is available to play. This is more restrictive: cards you need may be buried under two others, unavailable until you either play the cards above them or cycle through the deck again.
Turn 1 is more forgiving; Turn 3 is the traditional, harder variant. Both are available on Cards4.net.
When You Are Stuck
You are stuck when no legal move remains in the tableau and the stock pile is either exhausted or cycling through it offers nothing useful. At this point you either accept a loss, use Undo to backtrack, or — in some cases — realize you missed a move and look again.
Before declaring defeat, scan carefully. It is common to overlook a valid tableau move, especially when multiple columns have face-up runs. Ask the Hint button if you want a prompt.
Not every Klondike deal is winnable. Statistically, about 79% of Turn 1 deals have a winning path. Some deals are simply unwinnable regardless of play — the initial card arrangement puts certain cards in positions where they can never be freed. If you want to guarantee a solvable deal, turn on Solvable Mode in the settings, which restricts deals to those with a known winning sequence.
Five Strategies That Improve Your Win Rate
1. Uncover hidden cards as your top priority.
The face-down cards are your biggest uncertainty. Every time you flip a hidden card, you gain information and potentially unlock new moves. When you have a choice between two moves, prefer the one that reveals a face-down card. Long columns with many hidden cards are time bombs — the sooner you start exposing them, the better.
2. Never empty a column without a plan.
An empty column is a powerful resource: it can hold any King, and a King can anchor a long run that helps unblock everything else. The temptation is to fill an empty column immediately just because you can. Resist this. Sit with the empty column and think about which King — and which sequence behind it — would do the most good. A misplaced King can deadlock you.
3. Keep your foundations balanced.
It sounds counterintuitive, but racing one suit's foundation far ahead of the others can backfire. If you send all your red 7s, 8s, and 9s to the foundations while the black ones lag behind, you will run out of places to put black 6s in the tableau, because the red 7s they would normally go under are gone. Try to keep all four foundations within a rank or two of each other.
4. Look for hidden aces before drawing.
Before tapping the stock pile, take a full pass through the tableau. Are there face-down cards at the bottom of columns that you could uncover with two or three moves? Is there a sequence somewhere that can be reorganized to open up a move you missed? The stock pile gives you new options, but it does not fix the tableau — that work is up to you.
5. Use Undo without guilt.
Every game of solitaire is, in theory, a path-finding problem. You are searching for the sequence of moves that wins. Undo is not cheating — it is the equivalent of picking up a card you accidentally placed wrong and reconsidering. In Turn 1 particularly, using Undo to explore alternative sequences can transform a loss into a win. Cards4.net offers unlimited undo.
Using Cards4.net's Features
Hint: Tap the lightbulb icon to highlight one valid move. The hint engine does not plan ahead — it shows a legal move, not necessarily the best one — but it is useful when you are scanning and missing something.
Undo: Reverses the last move. You can chain undos to go back as many steps as you need.
Autocomplete: When only foundation moves remain — that is, when every face-down card has been revealed and there are no more tableau decisions to make — the Autocomplete button finishes the game automatically. This saves you the tedious work of individually dragging each card to its foundation when the outcome is already determined.
Solvable Mode: Restricts your deals to ones that have been computationally verified to have at least one winning path. In this mode you will never face an inherently unwinnable deal. Whether solvable mode makes the game easier depends on you: knowing a path exists does not tell you what that path is.
Daily Challenge: Every day, Cards4.net publishes one specific deal shared by all players worldwide. Your time and move count are compared against others on the daily leaderboard. The daily deal is always the same for everyone — it is a genuine competition.
FAQ
What is the goal of Klondike Solitaire?
Move all 52 cards to four foundation piles, one per suit, ordered Ace through King.
How many cards are dealt to the tableau?
Seven columns: 1 card in column 1, 2 in column 2, up to 7 in column 7. Only the top card of each column starts face-up.
Can you move multiple cards at once?
Yes. You can move a sequence of face-up cards that are in alternating colors and descending order together as a unit.
What does 'Turn 1' vs 'Turn 3' mean?
Turn 1 draws one card from the stock pile at a time. Turn 3 draws three at once and cycles through the waste pile, making the game harder.
Is Klondike Solitaire always winnable?
No. Approximately 79% of Klondike Turn 1 deals are theoretically winnable, though human players typically win far fewer. Cards4.net offers a 'solvable mode' that only deals hands with a known winning path.