About FreeCell Solitaire
FreeCell is the solitaire of planning rather than luck. Every card is dealt face up into eight columns, and four free cells give you room to work, so almost every deal can be won if you find the line. Each game here is a numbered deal, the same boards Windows made famous.
How to play FreeCell
All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns: seven cards in each of the first four, six in the rest. Above them sit four free cells and four foundations. You win by building each foundation up by suit, from Ace to King.
- Move one card at a time: onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour, into an empty free cell, or onto its foundation.
- A free cell holds one card. Any card can wait there, and play out of it later.
- Any card can go into an empty column.
- Ordered runs can move together, as many cards as your free cells and empty columns would let you move one by one.
- Cards that nothing on the table can still need go to their foundation by themselves.
How many cards can you move at once?
Officially FreeCell moves one card at a time, but moving a run through the free cells by hand is only busywork, so the game does it for you. You can move (free cells + 1) cards, doubled for every empty column. With two free cells and one empty column, that is six cards. Moving into an empty column, that column does not count.
Numbered deals
Every game is one of the 32,000 deals numbered by the original Windows FreeCell, and Deal #1 here is the same board as Game #1 there. The number is shown in the toolbar, so you can tell a friend which deal you beat. Of those 32,000 deals, only #11982 has no solution.
Scoring
| Part | Points |
|---|---|
| Time bonus | 4,000 - 4 per second |
| Move bonus | 2,000 - 10 per move |
Nothing is scored until the deal is won, so the leaderboard rewards a quick, tidy win rather than a long one.
Controls
- Drag a card or an ordered run to move it.
- Tap or click a card to send it to the best place: home, onto a column, into an empty column, then into a free cell.
- H — show a hint.
- U or Ctrl+Z — undo.
Tips
- Free cells are precious: fill one only when it frees a card you need.
- An empty column is worth two free cells — keep it empty as long as you can.
- Look for the Aces and twos first and work out what is lying on them.
- Plan a few moves ahead before you start: every card is in view, so the whole game is on the table.
