Klondike Solitaire — Online, Free, No Sign-Up
This is the classic Klondike version of Solitaire — the one most people just call "Solitaire" — built to play instantly in your browser. Drag and drop, double-click to send a card to its foundation, and use Undo when you need it. There's nothing to download, no account to make, and no ads on the page. Below the game you'll find the full rules, strategy, common variations, and answers to questions players ask us most.
How to play Klondike Solitaire
Klondike has four areas: the tableau (the seven columns where most of the action happens), the foundations (four piles, one per suit, that you're trying to fill from Ace to King), the stock (the face-down draw pile), and the waste (where stock cards go after you flip them).
Setup
Seven columns are dealt left to right. Column one gets one card, column two gets two, all the way to column seven. Only the top card of each column starts face-up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock. The four foundation slots above the tableau start empty.
Goal
Move every card to the foundations. Each foundation holds one suit and is built up from Ace (low) to King (high). When all 52 cards are stacked on the four foundations, you've won.
Legal moves
- Tableau columns build down by alternating colors. A red 6 can land on a black 7. A black 9 can land on a red 10. You can move a single card or a properly-sequenced run together.
- Only Kings (or King-led runs) can fill an empty column.
- Foundations build up by suit. Aces go first. Then 2 of the same suit, then 3, all the way to King.
- You can flip cards from the stock to the waste by clicking the stock pile. The top of the waste is always playable. When the stock empties, click again to recycle the waste back into the stock.
- Foundation cards can come back down to the tableau if you need them — useful when you've moved an Ace up too eagerly and trapped a card you needed.
How to win at Solitaire
Strategy depends on which version of Solitaire you're playing. The advice below is for the standard three-card-draw Klondike with unlimited stock cycles.
- Cycle through the entire draw deck before playing. If you can cycle the stock unlimited times, take a look at what's in there before committing to a move. Knowing where the Aces are and what cards are reachable changes which tableau move makes sense first. (Skip this tip if your version limits stock cycles.)
- Before your first move, flip the first three cards from the stock. You can technically play the board immediately, but seeing all your options first is almost always better.
- Assess the board before playing. Identify Aces (which you'll send to the foundations), Kings (which can block your columns and need empty columns to move into), and any cards already in playable sequence by alternating colors.
- Play Aces and 2s to the foundations immediately. Aces always go up. A 2 also goes up as soon as its Ace is on the foundation — there's no strategic advantage to keeping a 2 in the tableau, since the only card that lands on a 2 is an opposite-color Ace, and that Ace is going to the foundation too.
- Keep the foundations roughly even when you can. Wildly uneven foundations can strand lower cards on the board. You won't always be able to do this, but it's a useful general heuristic.
- Generally play to lower the largest tableau column. Your goal is to reveal as many face-down cards as possible, so attack the largest of the seven tableau piles first. The exception: if a King on top of a column is blocking cards you need.
- Lower the shortest tableau column when a King is blocking. A King sitting on top of a column blocks every face-down card beneath it, and the only place a King can move is to an empty column. So when a King is in the way, attack the shortest column instead — it's the easiest to clear out, which gives you somewhere to send the King.
One-card draw plays differently
If you're playing the easier one-card-draw version (one card from the stock at a time instead of three), your strategy shifts. Because you can always cycle through the entire stock with no penalty, you don't need to clear the waste pile aggressively — focus on the seven tableau columns. You can also peek ahead through the stock at no cost.
If your stock cycles are limited
Some versions limit the number of times you can cycle through the stock and waste. With limits, don't burn cycles just to peek at upcoming cards — every cycle has to do real work.
Common Solitaire variations
Klondike is one of more than 500 Solitaire-family games. A few you'll see referenced often:
- Spider Solitaire. Two decks, eight foundations (one per "spider leg"). Build descending sequences in suit on the tableau; completed sequences are removed. Roughly 1-in-3 win rate.
- FreeCell. Strategic and popular. Most boards can be solved with careful play, which is why it shipped as a default game on so many computers.
- Pyramid Solitaire. Cards arranged in a pyramid. In its strictest form it's one of the hardest Solitaire games to win (about 1 in 50), but with a small rule variation it becomes much more reasonable. Also a good math game for kids.
- Tri Peaks Solitaire. Three peaks of overlapping cards. Roughly 90% of deals are solvable.
- Double Solitaire. A two-deck version of Klondike, played with nine tableau columns instead of seven.
Frequently asked questions
Is Solitaire the same as Klondike?
When most people say "Solitaire" they mean Klondike. Solitaire is technically a broad category of single-player card games (with over 500 known variations), but Klondike is the most popular one — popular enough that the two names are used interchangeably. Microsoft shipped Klondike with the Windows operating system starting in 1990, which cemented it as the default.
How many cards are used in Solitaire?
A standard 52-card deck, no jokers. 28 cards are dealt into the seven tableau columns and the remaining 24 form the stock pile.
What's a "run" in Solitaire?
A run is any number of cards in a tableau column that descend in rank with alternating colors — for example, a red 9, black 8, red 7 stacked together. Runs can be moved as a single unit onto another tableau column, as long as the move follows the descending-alternating-colors rule.
What is the foundation in Solitaire?
The foundation is the goal area of the game. There are four foundation piles, one per suit. Each foundation builds upward starting from the Ace and ending at the King, all in the same suit. The game is won when all 52 cards have been played onto the four foundation piles.
Why is it sometimes called "Patience"?
"Patience" is the older European name for the game and is still common in the UK and parts of Europe. The exact origin of Solitaire is unclear, but written references go back to the 1700s in northern Europe. The Klondike name comes from the late 1800s and is associated with the Klondike region of Canada — possibly originating as a casino game during the gold rush era.
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