How to play Solitaire: Klondike rules and strategy

Klondike is the game most people mean when they say Solitaire. Luck decides some deals, but good decisions win many games that careless play would lose. Here are the full rules, then the habits that raise your win rate.

The layout

Klondike uses one standard deck of 52 cards. The table has three areas:

• The tableau: seven columns of cards. The first column has one card, the second two, and so on up to seven in the last. Only the top card of each column starts face up. That’s 28 cards in all.
• The stock: the remaining 24 cards, face down. You turn them over onto a waste pile when you need more cards.
• The foundations: four empty spaces, one for each suit. This is where you’re trying to get every card.

The rules

1. Build the foundations up by suit. Each foundation starts with an Ace, then the 2 of the same suit, then the 3, all the way to the King.
2. Build the tableau down in alternating colours. You can place a card on a tableau card that’s one rank higher and the opposite colour. A red 9 can go on a black 10; a black 4 on a red 5.
3. Move runs together. Any sequence of face-up cards that follows the rule above can move together to another column, as long as its top card fits there.
4. Reveal hidden cards. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the face-down card underneath turns over.
5. Only Kings fill empty columns. When a column is empty, you can move a King into it, either on its own or with the run of cards stacked on it.
6. Draw from the stock. Turn cards from the stock onto the waste. The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or a foundation. When the stock is empty, turn the waste back over and go through it again. On BoardGameSite you can go through the deck as many times as you like.
7. Win by moving all 52 cards to the foundations.

Draw 1 and Draw 3

In Draw 1, you turn over one card at a time, so you can reach every card in the stock. In Draw 3, you turn over three at a time and only the top one can be played. If you don’t play any of them, the same groups of three come up again on the next pass, so some cards can stay out of reach. Draw 3 is the traditional game and is much harder. Draw 1 wins far more often.

Strategy: what to do first

At the start of every game, and whenever you’re unsure, work through this order:

1. Play any Aces and Twos to the foundations. They can’t help you anywhere else.
2. Make moves that turn over a face-down card. Revealing cards is the single most important thing you can do. Every hidden card is a possible problem until you can see it.
3. Prefer the column with the most face-down cards. The seventh column hides six cards. Getting into the big columns early keeps the game open.
4. Only then draw from the stock. Look at what’s on the table before you reach for new cards.

Strategy: when to hold back

Don’t empty a column you can’t fill. An empty column is valuable only when you have a King ready to move into it. If there isn’t one, it may be better to leave a card there for now.

Choose your King carefully. If you have a choice of Kings for an empty column, think about the Queens. If a red Queen is waiting to be moved, a black King gives it somewhere to go.

Don’t rush cards to the foundations. Moving a 5 or 6 up to a foundation can feel like progress, but in the tableau that card might be the only place to put a 4 or 5 of the other colour. Keep the foundations growing roughly evenly, and hold back middle cards while they’re still useful.

Pick the right card to move. When two cards could go on the same spot, such as both black 7s fitting on a red 8, choose the one that turns over a face-down card or frees up a more useful column.

Strategy: Draw 3 tips

In Draw 3, the order of the stock matters. Playing a card from the waste changes which cards come up on the next pass, because everything behind it shifts by one. If a card you need is stuck in the middle of a group of three, playing a card from the waste earlier in the pass can bring it to the top next time round. Use this deliberately.

Use undo to learn

BoardGameSite has unlimited undo. Use it to look ahead: try a line of play, see what card turns over, and back up if it doesn’t work. It’s a great way to learn which decisions matter. And remember that some deals can’t be won at all, however well you play. If you’re truly stuck after going through the deck, start a fresh game.

Common beginner mistakes

• Drawing from the stock before checking the tableau for moves.
• Emptying a column with no King ready to fill it.
• Sending every card to the foundations as soon as possible.
• Ignoring the big columns on the right, where most face-down cards are.
• Playing the first legal move instead of the one that reveals a card.

Solitaire words to know

• Tableau: the seven main columns.
• Foundation: the four piles, one per suit, built from Ace to King.
• Stock: the face-down pile you draw from.
• Waste: the face-up pile of cards drawn from the stock.
• Run: a sequence of face-up cards in descending, alternating-colour order.