Klondike Solitaire

Overview

Klondike is the classic patience game most people simply call Solitaire. One standard 52-card deck, seven tableau columns, a stock, a waste pile and four foundations. It rewards careful sequencing: uncover the hidden cards, build orderly runs, and bring every card home.

The rules are easy to learn, but winning takes more than making every available move. You have to decide which cards should stay in the tableau, when to spend a waste card, when to expose a hidden one, and when a card is genuinely better off on its foundation.

Unlike Yukon, where all 52 cards start on the tableau, Klondike holds cards back in the stock. That gives you a stream of new cards throughout the game, but it also means the order in which you work through the stock decides whether a card you need turns up when you can still use it.

The starting layout

Seven tableau columns are dealt with increasing numbers of cards — one in the first column, two in the second, up to seven in the last. That is 28 cards on the table, and only the top card of each column starts face up. The other 21 are face down and must be uncovered as you play.

The remaining 24 cards form the stock. Tapping it turns one card at a time onto the waste, where the top card is available whenever it has a legal destination.

So there are three areas to manage: the tableau, where the rearranging happens; the waste, which is your access to the stock; and the four foundations.

Goal

Move all 52 cards to the four foundations. Each foundation takes one suit and builds upward: Ace, 2, 3, and so on to Queen, King.

Nothing but an Ace can start a foundation. Once it is down, cards of that suit follow in ascending order. Complete all four and you win.

Tableau rules

• Build downward in alternating colours — a red six goes on a black seven, a black Queen on a red King.
• Move a correctly ordered, face-up run as a single group.
• Only a King, or a run led by a King, may be placed into an empty column.
• A face-down card turns face up as soon as it is exposed.

The tableau is where you build temporary sequences to get at what is buried underneath them. Put a red 6 on a black 7, and if that 7 already carries an ordered run, the whole run travels with it. Empty columns are the exception worth planning for: only a King can start one, so clearing a column without a King in mind wastes it.

Stock and waste

Tap the stock to turn cards onto the waste one at a time. The top waste card is always playable when it has a legal destination.

When the stock empties, tapping it turns the waste back over into the stock and you go round again — as many times as you like. There is no limit on passes, and the cards are not reshuffled, so they come back in the same order. That is worth knowing: a card you skip now will return, and you can count the cycle to work out when.

So the stock is not a random drip. Sometimes playing the current waste card immediately is right because of what it uncovers; sometimes it is better left until another move makes it more useful. Managing the waste is one of the central decisions in Klondike.

Foundations and the tableau

A card that can legally go to a foundation is not always best sent there.

A black 7 sitting in the tableau may be the only home for a red 6. Send it up too early and you have removed a destination you needed. Foundation moves earn their place when they uncover a card, free a column, or advance a suit without costing you a useful tableau slot.

The best moves balance immediate progress against keeping options open.

Strategy and tips

• Reveal hidden cards first. The 21 face-down cards are the real obstacle. Given two useful moves, prefer the one that turns one over.
• Use empty columns carefully. Only a King or King-led run can fill one, so know which King is going there before you clear it.
• Do not rush the foundations. A card sent home is a card that can no longer receive another.
• Count the stock cycle. With 24 cards drawn one at a time and no reshuffle, the waste returns in a known order — you can plan for a card two passes away.
• Free the Aces and low cards early. Foundations only grow upward, so nothing starts until the Aces are out.
• A legal move is not automatically a good one. Preserve destinations and avoid burying cards you will want.

Controls and features

• Drag a card or run to a legal destination.
• Tap a card to see its legal destinations.
• Double-tap a card to send it straight to a foundation when the move is legal.
• Use Undo to take back moves while you plan.
• Start a New Game at any time for a fresh deal.

If you liked Klondike

Yukon is the natural next step: the same alternating-colour building and the same King-only empty columns, but every card is dealt to the tableau and there is no stock at all. You also move any face-up card with everything piled on it, ordered or not — far more freedom than Klondike allows.

FreeCell deals all 52 face up, so nothing is hidden and almost every deal is solvable. Spider uses two decks and asks you to assemble eight same-suit runs. And Canfield is the hard one — a thirteen-card reserve, a foundation rank set by the deal, and many hands that simply cannot be won.