About Solitaire
Play Klondike Solitaire free online. Drag and drop cards to build foundation piles from Ace to King. Classic card game with smooth controls and undo support.
How to use
- Click the stock pile (top-left corner) to draw new cards to the waste pile. In standard Klondike, cards are drawn one or three at a time depending on the variant. Only the top card of the waste pile is available for play. When the stock pile is exhausted, click the empty stock area to recycle the waste pile back into a new stock and continue drawing.
- Drag cards between the seven tableau columns to expose hidden face-down cards. Build tableau columns downward in strictly alternating colors — a red 6 goes on a black 7, a black Jack goes on a red Queen, and so on. You can move partial or complete sequences of correctly ordered cards as a group. Exposing face-down cards is critical to creating more options and uncovering the Aces and other cards you need.
- Move Aces to the four foundation piles (top-right) as soon as they appear, then build each foundation up by suit from Ace to King. The game is won when all 52 cards have been moved to the foundations. While it is tempting to move every possible card to the foundations immediately, sometimes holding a card in the tableau gives you more flexibility for later moves.
- Plan your moves carefully to avoid getting stuck. Prioritize uncovering face-down cards over moving cards to the foundations. Empty tableau columns are valuable — only Kings (or sequences starting with a King) can be placed in empty columns, so creating an empty column when you have a King ready gives you a powerful new workspace. Use the undo button to experiment with different move sequences without committing.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play Klondike Solitaire?
Klondike Solitaire is the classic single-player card game most people know simply as "Solitaire." The game uses a standard 52-card deck dealt into seven tableau columns (1 card in the first column, 2 in the second, and so on up to 7), with only the top card of each column face-up. The remaining cards form the stock pile. Your goal is to move all 52 cards to four foundation piles, one per suit, building each from Ace up to King. In the tableau, you build columns downward in alternating colors (red on black, black on red) to expose hidden cards and create room to maneuver.
Can I undo moves?
Yes — the undo button lets you reverse your last move, and you can undo multiple times to backtrack through a series of moves. This is invaluable for exploring different strategies without starting over. If you realize that moving a particular card to the foundation too early blocked a needed sequence in the tableau, just undo and try a different approach. Unlimited undo is one of the advantages of playing digitally compared to dealing physical cards.
What percentage of Klondike Solitaire games are winnable?
Studies and computer simulations estimate that approximately 79-82% of randomly dealt Klondike Solitaire games are theoretically winnable with perfect play. However, since you cannot see the face-down cards, you often must make decisions without full information, which means actual win rates for human players are much lower — typically 10-20% for casual players and 30-40% for experienced players. The randomness of the deal is part of what keeps the game interesting: some deals are straightforward, while others present fiendishly difficult puzzles.
What are the best strategies for winning at Solitaire?
Several key strategies significantly improve your win rate. First, always prioritize moves that expose face-down cards — revealing new cards creates more options. Second, do not automatically move every card to the foundations; sometimes a card is more useful in the tableau for building sequences. Third, use empty columns strategically — only Kings can fill empty columns, so do not empty a column unless you have a King ready to place. Fourth, when choosing between two moves that both expose cards, prefer the move that uncovers a card in the longer column, as longer columns have more hidden cards.
What is the difference between Klondike and other Solitaire variants?
Klondike is the most popular variant, but hundreds of solitaire games exist. Spider Solitaire uses two decks and builds tableau columns downward by suit (same color). FreeCell deals all cards face-up with four free cells as temporary storage, making it almost entirely skill-based (over 99% of deals are solvable). Pyramid removes cards in pairs that sum to 13. Yukon is like Klondike but allows moving any face-up card regardless of sequence. Klondike strikes a balance between luck and skill that makes it the most widely played version worldwide.
When was Solitaire invented?
Card solitaire games originated in Northern Europe in the late 18th century, with the earliest written references appearing in Scandinavian and German game manuals around 1780. Klondike Solitaire likely got its name from the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s. The game gained enormous global popularity when Microsoft included it in Windows 3.0 in 1990 — it was originally designed to teach people how to use a mouse through the drag-and-drop mechanic. Microsoft Solitaire has since become one of the most-played computer games in history, with over 500 million games played annually.
Is this game free?
Completely free with no ads, no sign-up, and no downloads. The game runs in your browser on any device — phone, tablet, or desktop. For more classic games, try
Minesweeper,
Chess, or
Backgammon.
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