Solitaire

Klondike Solitaire Rules

You play Klondike Solitaire with a standard 52-card deck (no Jokers). After shuffling, a tableau is set up with seven columns of cards. From left to right, each column contains one more card, so the first one contains just one card, the second one - two cards and so on. In each pile, all of the cards are placed face down except for the last one which is upturned. The remaining cards are placed in the stock at the upper left of the layout (face down).

Your goal is to build the four foundations (in the rectangles in the upper right part). Foundations are built up by suit, starting from Ace, then Two, Three and up to King. Contrary to that the tableau piles are built down by alternate colors. You can move a single card, a part or any pile or a complete pile on top of any other pile, but according to this rule - alternate colors and downwards order.

Once you emptied one of the piles completely you can start or move a new pile (or single card) here, starting with a King card. So the aim of the Klondike Solitaire game is to eventually take apart all the tableau piles (and empty the stock) by transferring all cards into four stacks (called foundations) in the upper right part, each of the one suit, starting with Aces and ending with Kings. At that moment you win the game.

Spider Solitaire Rules

You can play Spider Solitaire with two standard 52-card deck (no Jokers). This is called Four Suits Spider solitaire and it's the most difficult variation. You can only play One Suit Spider solitaire - also 104 cards but only one suit (e.g. the Spades) is used. There's also Two Suits Spider solitaire where two suits (e.g. Spades and Hearts) are used. Both are much simpler that Four Suits. After shuffling, a tableau is set up of a total of 54 cards, placed into ten columns. In each column, all of the cards are placed face down except for the last one which is upturned. The remaining cards are placed in the stock at the lower right of the layout (face down).

Your goal is to build stacks of card on the tableau forming descending suit sequences (from King to Ace). If a whole sequence is formed in one of the columns it is removed from the tableau completely. When all 104 cards are removed (as separate King to Ace sequences), you win the game.

You can move an exposed card to another column in the tableau if the movement creates a new continuous descending sequence (regardless of suit). You can also move a packed descending sequence of the same suit (they are highlighted for your convenience) as a group. That's why it's always better to form sequences of the same suit if possible. In case you already have some emptied columns on the tableau you can also move any exposed card or same-suit descending sequence there.

If you find yourself out of constructive moves you can click on the stock in the lower-right corner and deal a new card to every column on the tableau. But for you to be able to do this there must be no empty columns (you can move any card of sequence to fill an empty column).

Freecell Solitaire Rules

FreeCell Solitaire is played with one standard 52-card deck (no Joker). After shuffling, a tableau is set up of a total of 52 cards, placed into eight columns row by row, so at the end first for rows contain seven cards and the last four contain six cards each.

There are four cells called Foundations in the upper-right part of the board. Your goal is to build these four Foundations up in ascending sequence (one suit in each), starting from Aces to kings. So, once you have an ace available for moving you need to move it to the one of the Foundations to start building up.

An exposed card at the end of each column is available for moving. You can move it: 1. To the Foundation if it fits into the ascending sequence of its suit, 2. To the end of another tableau column but only if it is of alternate color and forming a descending sequence (just like in Klondike), 3. To the one of the Free Cells in the upper-left part of the board; but choose a moment wisely because Free Cells are very valuable. A card moved to the Free Cell can later me moved in the same way - to the one of the Foundations of to the end of a tableau column.

When one of the tableau columns becomes empty you can place any cards there (or many cards in the same way of alternating colors, descending sequence). But again, choose the one to put there wisely.

While the rules allow moving only one card at a time you can actually move a sequence of arranged cards from one column to another. E.g. in case you have one empty Free Cell you can use it as a temporary storage to hold one card and so move a sequence of two cards. And if you have all four Free Cells available you can move a sequence of five cards!

Sounds complicated? Don't worry, TheSolitaire.com makes it just this easy: drag a sequence to another column and if you have enough Free Cells available the game will do all the work.

You can do even more if you have an empty column in the tableau: using this as a temporary holding area you can drag a sequence twice the size! That's why empty columns and Free Cells are so valuable. Once again you don't need to do this card-by-card: just drag a long arranged sequence to another column and the game will use empty columns and Free Cells to do the trick.

Cool features on TheSolitaire.com

• You can try different ways of dealing cards from the stock to the waste: turning one card at a time to the waste (easier) or turning three cards at once (harder). You can switch it using the "Choose Game" button at the bottom.
• Instead of dealing with only one deck you can choose a solitaire of two or even three decks! The number of piles and foundations will be doubled or tripled. You can enable this using the same button.
• Select the deck design, card back and tableau background to your liking by clicking the gear button on the left - sometimes it helps a lot!
• And don't hesitate to use helpful TheSolitaire.com features such as Undo and Hint by clicking buttons on the right edge of the field.