Introduction
Klondike Solitaire is a classic patience game, played by millions of people every day. Such a stable is Klondike that it's by many the default paitence game, and thus often is simply referred to as "Solitaire". As the name suggests the game is believed to originate in the Klondike region of Canada. The simplicity and blend of skill, luck, and planning makes it a common occurence in both physical and digital form.
The Piles
There are four different types of piles in Solitaire. They are:
- The Stock: The pile of facedown cards in the upper left corner.
- The Waste: The faceup pile next to the Stock in the upper left corner.
- The Foundations: The four piles in the upper right corner.
- The Tableau: The seven piles that make up the main table.
The setup
The Tableau piles are numbered from 1 to 7, pile 1 has 1 card, pile 2 has 2 cards and so on. The top card on each Tableau pile is turned face up, the cards below are turned face down. The cards that are left after setting up the Tableau are placed in the Stock, face down. The Waste and the Foundations start off empty.
The objective
To win Solitaire, you must get all the cards onto the Foundation piles. The Foundations are ordered by suit and rank, each Foundation has one suit and you must put the cards onto them in the correct ascending order: starting off with the Ace and counting up to the King.
Allowed moves
You're allowed to make the following moves:
- Flip cards from the Stock onto the Waste. Typically you'd flip three cards at a time, but for an easier game some people will flip only a single card at a time to increase your options and decrease the odds of getting stuck.
- Move a card from the Waste onto the Foundations. If the top card of the Waste can go onto one of the Foundations then you can drag it there.
- Move a card from the Waste onto the Tableau. You can move the top card of the Waste onto one of the Tableau piles.
- Move a card from a Foundation back onto the Tableau. You can move the top card of a Foundation back onto the Tableau. This isn't allowed in all Solitaire versions, and in most cases if you find yourself in the position of having to move cards back down from the foundation you're likely in a bad spot and delaying the inevitable loss, but some sites (like ours) allow it.
- Move one or more cards from one Tableau pile to another. You can move a face up card on the Tableau onto another Tableau pile, if that pile's top card is one higher than the moved card and in a different color. For example, you could move a red 6 onto a black 7. Or, if you have red 6, black 5, red 4 face up on one tableau, you can move all of them at the same time onto a Tableau with a black 7. If you have an empty Tableau pile then you can only place a king there.
- You can flip a face down Tableau card. Whenever you have moved a card from the top of a tableau and exposed the face-down card beneath it you're allowed to (and generally should) flip that top card face-up.
- You can move a Tableau card onto the Foundations. You can do this manually if you need to clear some space on the Tableau. You can either drag the cards onto the Foundation, or just double click it and then it will go there by itself. When all cards on the Tableau are turned up, and all cards from the stock are finished then the game will automatically move all the Tableau cards onto the Foundations, since at that point you are guaranteed to win the game.
And that's it!
Want to play Klondike and put your newfound skills to the test? Play a game at Cardgames.io.
