Solitaire rules

Solitaire is a card game for one player, played with a single deck of 52 cards. The version almost everyone means by the word is Klondike, and that is the one here. The aim is to move every card onto four foundations, one for each suit, built up in order from the ace to the king.

Everything you need to play is below: the layout, which card may go on which, drawing from the stock, and how the game is won. At the end there is how to race friends on the same deal.

The layout

Shuffle the deck and deal seven columns, left to right: one card in the first, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the last. Only the top card of each column lies face up; the rest lie face down under it.

The 24 cards left over go face down in a pile, the stock. Next to it is the waste, where cards drawn from the stock land face up. Across the top are the four foundations, empty at the start.

A fresh deal: seven columns with one card face up on each, the stock beside the waste, and four empty foundations.

Building the columns

A card goes on a column one rank lower and of the other colour: a red card on a black one, a black card on a red one. A red nine goes on a black ten; a black six goes on a red seven. Suits do not matter in the columns, only the colour.

The nine of hearts goes on the ten of spades: one rank lower, the other colour.

The nine of clubs does not: black on black.

The rank order is K, Q, J, 10, 9 … 2, A. An ace is the lowest card, so nothing goes on it in a column.

Moving a run

The face-up cards of a column that lie in order, each one lower and of the other colour, form a run. You may move the whole run, or any part of it from a card down to the end, onto another column, as long as its top card fits there.

The eight of hearts carries the seven and six with it onto the nine of clubs.

Cards turn over by themselves

When the last face-up card leaves a column, the card under it turns face up at once. Turning cards over is the heart of the game: most of the 52 start face down, and you win only by getting to all of them.

Empty columns take only a king

When a column is empty, only a king may go in it, alone or at the head of a run. No other card can start a column, however useful that would be. So emptying a column is worth most when there is a king ready to move in.

A king, with the queen on it, moves into the empty column; the card under the king will turn over.

The foundations

Each foundation holds one suit, built upwards from the ace: A, 2, 3, and on to the king. An ace goes up as soon as you can reach it; after that, only the next card of the same suit.

The two of spades is up, so the three of spades goes on it. The ace of hearts will start a foundation of its own.

A card goes up one at a time, from the top of a column or from the waste. You may also take the top card of a foundation back down onto a column, by the same rule as any other card (a rank lower and the other colour), when you need it there to hold something else.

The stock and the waste

When you run out of moves on the table, draw from the stock. The cards land face up on the waste, and only the top card of the waste can be played, onto a column or a foundation.

Draw one: one card at a time. Every card of the stock comes round to the top of the waste in turn. This is the easier game.
Draw three: three cards at a time, fanned out on the waste, and only the last of the three can be played. The cards under it wait until the ones on top have gone.

Draw one: the four of clubs is on top of the waste and can be played.

Draw three: only the king of hearts plays. The nine of diamonds is next, once the king has gone.

When the stock is empty, tap it: the waste turns back over into the stock, in the same order, and you go through it again. Here you may go through the stock as many times as you like. You choose one or three before the first move of a game.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. The game shows your time and your number of moves, and keeps your best time and fewest moves for draw one and for draw three in your browser.

Once every card is face up and the stock and the waste are empty, the game is as good as won. A Finish button appears and puts the rest up for you, card by card.

Every deal here can be won

In Klondike some deals cannot be won at all, whatever you do: the cards you need lie under the cards that need them. Here, before a deal is ever shown to you, a solver plays it out knowing where every card is, and only a deal it can finish is dealt.

That does not mean you cannot lose. The solver sees under the face-down cards and you do not, so a wrong turn early can still leave you stuck. What it promises is that a way through was always there.

Controls

Tap and tap: tap a card to pick it up (and every card on it), then tap where it goes. Tap it again to put it back down. This is the easiest way on a phone.
Drag: press on a card and drag it to its place with the mouse or a finger.
Hints are off to begin with, so you work out the moves yourself. When you play alone you can turn them on in the panel, and the places a card you pick up can go are ringed in red. A race has no hints.
Tap the stock to draw.
Undo takes back your last move, as many times as you like. A card a move turned over stays face up when the move is taken back: undo is for mistakes, not for peeking.

A game in progress is kept in your browser, so a reload does not lose it. New deal starts another game; Replay this deal starts the same one over.

Racing friends

Open a table with Race a friend and send the link to up to three friends. Two, three or four of you play the same deal, at the same time, each at your own table. There are no turns.

You see only your own cards. The others' cards are your cards too, so seeing theirs would show you what lies under yours. Of each of them you see how many cards they have up, how many they have turned over and how many moves they have made. Every table is laid open when the race ends.
Ready and Start. Before the start every friend who has sat down presses Ready, and whoever opened the table sees it and presses Start (at least one friend has to be seated). The race is dealt for everyone seated at that moment; anyone who arrives later watches. The cards turn over for all of you at the same moment.

Whoever opened the table chooses draw one or draw three, and the race:

Race	How it is won
To the last card	The first to put all 52 cards up wins.
Against the clock	5, 10 or 15 minutes. When the time is up, the most cards on the foundations wins; with the same number, the most cards turned over in the columns; with that the same too at the top, it is a draw. Putting all 52 up before the time is up wins at once.

When someone wins, the race ends there for everyone, and everyone else loses.

In a race against the clock the time starts with the race, runs without stopping, and ends it by itself; it does not wait for someone who has lost their connection.

A racer who is stuck can offer a draw: it is a draw only when everyone still racing agrees, and declining it, or playing on before agreeing, turns it down. A racer can also resign, which puts them out and loses them the race; the others race on, and whoever is left alone in the race wins. Someone who loses their connection has 60 seconds to come back; after that the others can race on without them, as if they had resigned. There is no undo in a race.

After a race, Play again deals a new game with the same settings for the same players straight away, everyone moving one seat round, and keeps the score. Whoever opened the table can press Change settings instead to choose again first, and someone new can sit down then; the score is kept then too.

Ready? Play solitaire, or read how to win at solitaire first. For other games on your own, try 2048 and minesweeper.