Solitaire is the game I keep coming back to when I want a quiet few minutes with a deck of cards and no opponent to worry about. The version almost everyone means when they say Solitaire is Klondike, the same one that shipped with computers for decades. In this guide I will lay out the setup, the rules, and the order of moves that gets me to a finished game most of the time. Everything runs in the browser, so you can follow along and click as you read.
What Solitaire is
Solitaire is a single player card game played with one standard 52 card deck. The aim is to move every card into four foundation piles, one for each suit, built in order from Ace up to King. When all four foundations are complete, you win. There is no timer pushing you and no rival across the table, which is exactly why it feels so relaxing. You can play Solitaire free here in your browser while you learn the layout.
The setup
The board has four areas, and knowing each one makes the rest of the rules easy to follow.
- The tableau. Seven columns of cards across the middle. The first column has one card, the second has two, and so on up to seven in the last column. Only the top card of each column starts face up.
- The stock. The leftover cards sit in a face down pile you draw from when you run out of moves.
- The waste. Cards you flip off the stock land here face up, and the top one is always playable.
- The foundations. Four empty spots at the top where you build each suit from Ace to King.
The rules in plain English
Once the board is dealt, you start moving cards around using a few simple rules.
- In the tableau, you stack cards in descending order and alternating colors. A red 6 goes on a black 7, a black 5 goes on a red 6, and so on.
- You can move a single card or a whole run of properly ordered cards from one column to another.
- When you uncover a face down card in the tableau, you flip it face up and it becomes playable.
- An empty column can only be filled by a King, or by a run that starts with a King.
- Foundations build upward by suit starting with the Ace, so it goes Ace, 2, 3, all the way to King.
- You draw from the stock when you are stuck, and the flipped cards go to the waste.
How a turn flows
A typical turn for me looks like this. I scan the tableau for any move that flips a face down card, because hidden cards are the ones blocking my progress. If an Ace or a 2 is sitting in the open, I send it straight to the foundations. When the tableau has no useful move left, I draw from the stock and check whether the new waste card unlocks anything. Most Solitaire games are won or lost by how patiently you work through that loop.
Draw one or draw three
Solitaire comes in two main flavors. Draw one flips a single card from the stock each time and is the friendlier version for beginners. Draw three flips three cards at once and only lets you play the top one, which makes planning much harder. If you are just starting out, I would stick with draw one until the rhythm feels natural.
The habits that win more games
When I stopped playing purely by reflex, my win rate climbed. These are the ideas that helped most:
- Free your hidden cards first. A move that flips a face down card is almost always better than one that does not.
- Do not rush cards to the foundations. You sometimes need a lower card in the tableau to receive a different colored card. Sending it up too soon can strand you.
- Empty columns are gold, but spend them wisely. Only an open column lets you reposition a stubborn King.
- Work the stock fully. Cycle through the waste before declaring yourself stuck, because the card you need is often one draw away.
Ready to deal
That is the whole game. Learn the four areas, remember descending and alternating colors in the tableau, and build the foundations from Ace to King. The fastest way to make it stick is to deal a real hand and start moving cards. Open the free Solitaire game and play a round, and if you enjoy a calm solo puzzle you will probably like Sudoku and the steady focus of Minesweeper as well.