About Klondike Solitaire
Klondike is the deal almost everyone means by the word solitaire: seven columns, four foundations, and a stock you turn until it gives you something to work with. It runs in your browser with no download and no sign-up, on a laptop or a phone, and it remembers the game you left unfinished.
How to play Klondike solitaire
The board has four areas. The tableau is the seven columns dealt at the start, one card in the first and seven in the last, with only the bottom card of each column face up. The four foundations are the piles you are building toward, one per suit. The stock is the rest of the deck, and the waste is where cards go as you turn it. You win when all four foundations hold thirteen cards, ace through king.
- Foundations are built up by suit, starting with the ace. A foundation that has taken its ace accepts only that suit afterwards.
- Tableau columns are built down in alternating colours: a red seven goes on a black eight.
- An empty column takes a king, and nothing else.
- A run of cards already in sequence and alternating colour moves as one unit.
- Turning over the last face-down card in a column flips it face up automatically.
- When the stock runs out you can recycle the waste back into it and go round again.
Turn 1 and Turn 3
You pick the draw mode when you start a game. Turn 1 deals a single card from the stock each time, which makes almost every card reachable and the deal considerably easier. Turn 3 deals three at once and you can only play the top of them, so the cards underneath stay locked until the order changes on a later pass. Most people learn on Turn 1 and never leave it. Turn 3 is the deal the desktop versions shipped with, and the one most scoreboards assume.
The choice also changes what a trip through the deck costs you. Recycling the waste back into the stock takes 100 points off in Turn 1 and only 20 in Turn 3, which is the scoring admitting that Turn 3 needs more passes to get anywhere. You can switch modes from the win screen without losing your record.
Which one suits you, and how to play each, is in Klondike Turn 1 vs Turn 3.
How scoring works
Scoring follows the classic desktop rules, so the number means what a solitaire player expects it to mean. Points are awarded as you play and never fall below zero.
| What you do | Points |
|---|---|
| Move a card to a foundation | +10 |
| Turn over a face-down tableau card | +5 |
| Move a card from the waste to a column | +5 |
| Take a card back off a foundation | -15 |
| Recycle the waste into the stock (Turn 1) | -100 |
| Recycle the waste into the stock (Turn 3) | -20 |
| Win the game | +1000 |
| Finish quickly | up to +5000, falling by 8 a second |
The speed bonus is the part worth playing for. It starts at 5000 and drops eight points every second, so a win in three minutes is worth well over a thousand points more than the same win in six. Only completed games get it, and the final total is what goes to the leaderboard.
Controls and shortcuts
- Drag a card or a run where you want it, or tap once and let the game find the best move for that card.
- Space turns the stock.
- U or Ctrl+Z steps back through your moves.
- H highlights a move when you cannot find one. It looks for a card that can go to a foundation first.
- When the stock is empty and every column is face up, the game offers to finish the deal for you rather than make you click through it.
- Leave mid-game and Continue game brings the same board back.
Tips for winning more often
- Turn over face-down cards before anything else. A column you cannot see into is a column you cannot plan around.
- Do not send cards to the foundations just because you can. A low card left in the tableau is somewhere for the next one to land.
- Empty a column only when you have a king ready for it. An empty column with no king is a hole you cannot use.
- Undo is free and unlimited. When a deal stalls, step back a few moves rather than starting over.
The reasoning behind each of these, with worked examples, is in How to win more often at Klondike solitaire.
