Play Klondike Solitaire online

Klondike uses one 52-card deck. Twenty-eight cards are dealt into seven tableau columns, from one card in the first column to seven in the last, with only the top card of each column face up. The other 24 cards form the stock.

The goal is to move every card to the four foundations, one for each suit, building each from ace up to king. You get there by rearranging the tableau, turning face-down cards over, and drawing from the stock when the tableau runs out of useful moves.

Every move follows a handful of rules. Once they are familiar, the challenge becomes choosing the order of your moves.

• Tableau: place a card on the next-higher card of the opposite color, such as a red 6 on a black 7.
• Runs: a face-up run in the right order can move together as one unit.
• Empty columns: only a king, or a run that starts with a king, can fill an empty column.
• Foundations: start each one with an ace and build up in the same suit to the king.
• Stock and waste: turn cards from the stock onto the waste. Only the top waste card can be played.
• Recycling: when the stock runs out, turn the waste back over and go through it again, as many times as you like.

Draw 1 turns one card at a time, so every stock card is reachable on every pass. It is the more forgiving way to play. Draw 3 turns three cards at a time and only the top one is playable, which hides cards behind others and makes each pass through the stock a puzzle of its own.

Every GameCamp deal comes from a pool of shuffles a solver has already won in the same draw mode, so no deal is hopeless from the start. Difficulty chooses from that pool by how long and demanding the winning route is.

• Easy: shorter routes with less stock cycling and rearranging.
• Standard: balanced routes from the middle of the pool.
• Hard: longer routes with more stock cycling and rearranging.

Drag a card or run to where it should go, or select it and then select the destination pile. Double-click a card to send it to its foundation, or to the first column that accepts it.

Undo and Redo step back and forth through your moves, and Hint finds a move on a winning path from your current position. Restart replays the same deal, and New game lets you change the draw mode or difficulty.

A good Klondike move usually does one of three jobs: it reveals a face-down card, it frees a card you need, or it prepares a space for a king. If a legal move does none of these, look again before you make it.

• Turn over face-down cards first. They hide the cards you need, and every reveal creates new choices.
• Work on the longest columns early, because they hide the most cards.
• Do not empty a column unless a king is ready to fill it.
• Aces and twos can always go up. Hold higher cards back while the tableau still needs them to build on.
• In Draw 3, playing one card from the waste changes which cards come up on the next pass.
• When you are stuck, try Hint, or undo a few moves and follow a different line.