FreeCell rules
FreeCell is a solitaire card game for one player with one deck, in which every card is face up from the start. The aim is to move all 52 cards up to four foundations, one for each suit, from the ace to the king.
It looks like Klondike, but there is no stock and nothing hidden: the whole game is in front of you, and almost every deal can be won. What helps you win it is a row of free cells, places to put a card aside while you rearrange the columns. Below are the rules, how many cards you may move at once, the famous deal numbers, and how to race friends on the same deal.
The layout
The cards are dealt face up into eight columns: seven cards in each of the first four and six in each of the other four. Above them, on the left, are the free cells, four in the classic game, and on the right the four foundations, empty at first.
Only the card on top of each column (the lowest one in the picture) can be played. The others wait until the cards on them have moved.
Building the columns
A card goes on a column one rank lower than the card on top of it and of the other colour: red on black, black on red. A red seven goes on a black eight, a black jack on a red queen. The rank order is K, Q, J, 10, 9 … 2, A, so nothing goes on an ace.
Free cells
A free cell holds one card, any card. Move the top card of a column into an empty cell to get it out of the way, and play it back onto a column, or up to its foundation, when it fits. The card in a cell is always free to play.
Free cells are what make FreeCell winnable, and they fill up fast. A cell with a card in it is a cell you cannot use: see the strategy guide on keeping them free.
Empty columns take any card
When a column is empty, any card may go in it, not only a king as in Klondike. An empty column is worth even more than a free cell, because it can hold a whole run in order, not just one card.
The foundations
Each foundation takes one suit, built up from the ace to the king: the ace first, then the two of the same suit, then the three, and so on. Aces and twos can always go up as soon as they are free.
Cards on the foundations stay there. Once a card is up, it cannot come back down to a column, as in the FreeCell that came with Windows. Nothing goes up by itself either: you put every card up yourself.
Moving several cards at once
Strictly, you move one card at a time. But a run of cards in order (each one rank lower than the one before, colours alternating) can be moved card by card through the free cells and empty columns, so the game lets you move it in one go, as long as there is room for it to be done card by card. This is often called a supermove.
The most cards you may move together is:
(free cells + 1) × 2 for every empty column
| Free cells | Empty columns | Most cards at once |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 4 | 2 | 20 |
If the run is going into an empty column, that column does not count: it is where the run is going, not somewhere to put cards on the way.
A run moves only if every card in it is in order. A stack with one card out of place in it cannot be picked up above that card.
Winning, and being stuck
You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. The game shows your time and number of moves, and keeps your best time and fewest moves in your browser, for each number of free cells.
When the cards left in the columns lie so that none is on a lower card, the game is as good as won: a Finish button puts them all up for you, lowest first.
If you have no move at all (every cell full, no column empty, and nothing fits anywhere), the game is lost. Playing alone you can still undo your way back. Usually, though, you can still shuffle cards back and forth long after the game is really lost, and no game can tell you that for certain; if you are out of ideas, start the deal over or take a new one.
Deal numbers
The deals are numbered from 1 to 1,000,000, and they are the same deals, card for card, as the FreeCell that came with Windows: deal #1 here is deal #1 there. Playing alone you can type in a number to play that deal, one a friend told you about, or one you want another go at.
A deal dealt at random here has always been played out first by a solver, with the number of free cells you chose, and only one it could finish is dealt. So every random deal can be won. A number you type in yourself is dealt as it is, whatever it is.
Almost every deal can be won with four free cells. Of the first million, exactly eight cannot: #11982, #146692, #186216, #455889, #495505, #512118, #517776 and #781948. The first, #11982, is the most famous deal in solitaire. Try it, if you like: you cannot win it.
Three or two free cells
For a harder game, play with three or two free cells. Everything else stays the same, but runs get shorter (with two free cells and no empty column, three cards at most) and every card you put aside counts for more. With two cells, about four deals in five can still be won; the random deals are always ones that can.
Controls
- Tap and tap: tap a card to pick it up, and the cards in order on it come along if there is room to move them; then tap where it goes: a column, a free cell or a foundation. Tap it again to put it back down.
- Drag: press on a card and drag it where it goes, 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.
- Undo takes back your last move, as many times as you like, when you play alone.
A game in progress is kept in your browser, so a reload does not lose it. New deal starts another game, Replay this deal 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 table. Everyone has the same cards, so seeing someone else's table would show you the way through yours. Of the others you see how many cards they have up and how many moves they have made. The deal number is kept hidden until the race ends, so nobody can look it up; then every table and the number are shown, and you can play that deal again on your own.
- Ready and Start. Before the start every friend who has sat down presses Ready, and whoever opened the table presses Start once at least one friend is seated. The race is dealt for everyone seated at that moment; anyone who comes later watches. The cards appear for all of you at the same moment.
Whoever opened the table chooses the number of free cells, 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 up wins; with the same number, the most cards lying in order from the bottom of their 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: there are no places.
A racer left with no move at all is out of a race to the last card, and the others race on. In a race against the clock their cards up stand until the time is up.
A racer 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; 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. There is no undo and no Finish button in a race.
After a race, Play again deals a new game with the same settings for the same players straight away, and keeps the score. Whoever opened the table can press Change settings instead to choose again first, and someone new can sit down then.
Playing on your own
Alone, there is no clock and nobody to beat but yourself: take as long as you like, undo as often as you want, turn the hints on, and choose the deal and the number of free cells.
Ready? Play FreeCell, or read how to win at FreeCell first. For a game with hidden cards and a stock, try Klondike or Spider.