Yukon Solitaire

Overview

Yukon is an open solitaire with no stock pile. All 52 cards start on the table in seven columns — 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 cards — with the top five of each column face up. That leaves 31 cards visible and 21 face down, so a good deal of the board is yours to plan around from the first move, but not all of it.

Its signature is unusually generous movement: you can pick up any face-up card together with the entire pile resting on top of it, ordered or not, and drop that whole group onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. Nothing has to be tidy before you move it. That freedom is what makes Yukon welcoming to newcomers and deep for veterans — the board is a tangle you are free to rearrange.

The goal is the familiar one: build each suit up from Ace to King on the foundations. The route there is the puzzle. Only a King can occupy an empty column, every move can expose or bury the cards you need, and with no draw pile to bail you out, success rests entirely on planning and reading the board.

Goal

Move every card to the four foundations, building each suit upward from Ace through King: Ace, 2, 3, and so on to Queen, King.

The tableau is arranged downward while the foundations are built upward, so the work is uncovering the hidden cards and reorganising columns until the cards each foundation needs become reachable.

Tableau rules

• Build downward in alternating colours.
• Any face-up card may move together with every card below it — the moved group does not need to be ordered.
• A group can be placed on a card exactly one rank higher and of the opposite colour.
• Only a King, alone or leading a group, may fill an empty column.
• A newly exposed face-down card turns face up automatically.

Moving an unordered group is what sets Yukon apart. Suppose a column shows a face-up 9 of Hearts with a 6 of Clubs, 8 of Diamonds and 4 of Clubs below it. Those cards form no sequence at all, yet you can still take the 9 of Hearts and carry the whole lot onto a 10 of Clubs or 10 of Spades. A legal move can shift an entire section of the tableau, however untidy it is.

Moving groups

Most solitaires make you build a correct sequence before you can move it. Yukon does not. Once a card is face up, you can pick it up along with everything below it.

That freedom is the game. You might move a high card together with several unrelated cards for no reason other than that it exposes something hidden or clears part of a column. The difficulty is choosing which card to move, because a group that solves one problem usually buries something else. Good Yukon play is less about finding a legal move than about seeing what the move does to the rest of the board.

Empty columns

An empty column is among the most useful things you can have, and only a King can fill it.

Clearing a column gives you room to move a large group and reorganise, but opening one with no King available leaves the space unusable. Before you empty a column, check that the move exposes something worth having and that a King can eventually get there. A King moves in alone or with whatever is already attached beneath it, which makes an empty column a place to park a King-led group while you work elsewhere.

How to play

• Drag a playable card or group to another column.
• Move exposed cards to their matching foundations when available.
• Tap a card for an automatic move when there is only one valid destination.
• Use Undo to restore earlier moves, or New Game for a fresh deal.

Because there is no stock, every card is already somewhere on the board. When no move is obvious, look for one that exposes a face-down card rather than shuffling cards around to no purpose — turning a hidden card is usually worth more than tidying a sequence that already works.

Strategy

• Expose hidden cards. Every card turned face up is more information and potentially another move.
• Look beyond neat sequences. Groups do not need to be ordered, so a messy pile may be exactly what you want to move.
• Protect useful cards. A card can serve the tableau as well as a foundation. Sending it up immediately is not always right.
• Plan around Kings. Only Kings fill empty columns, so know where the accessible ones are before clearing a column.
• Create options, not just progress. A move that opens a new destination often beats one that advances a single card.
• Use Undo to explore. Try a line, see what it reveals, take it back. There is no penalty and no timer.

Yukon compared with Klondike

If you know Klondike, two differences stand out.

Yukon has no stock pile — all 52 cards are dealt to the tableau at the start, so no fresh cards arrive as you play. And Yukon lets you move a face-up card together with everything beneath it even when those cards are in no valid sequence, where Klondike only moves properly ordered runs.

The result is a game where the challenge is less about managing a stock and more about reading the relationships between the seven columns and working out how to uncover what is hidden.

If you liked Yukon, try Russian Solitaire

Russian Solitaire is this exact game with one rule changed. Same deal of seven columns, same freedom to move a card with any jumble sitting on top of it, same King-only empty columns, same foundations, same absence of a stock.

The single difference: you build down in the same suit instead of alternating colours. The 7 of Hearts goes only on the 8 of Hearts. That sharply reduces your legal destinations and turns an already demanding tableau puzzle into a much more restrictive solitaire.

If Yukon has started to feel comfortable, Russian is the natural next step — the layout and movement rules are familiar, but most of the easy escape routes disappear.