What you need
A standard 52-card deck without jokers, a table or floor space about four cards deep, and one player. This is the game Windows made famous as plain “Solitaire”; in Britain it is simply “Patience”. Older American books call it Canfield, a name now used for a different game.
Cards rank from king (high) down to ace (low).
Setup
Deal seven piles in a row, left to right. The first pile has one card, the second two, and so on up to seven cards in the last pile. Only the top card of each pile is face up; the rest are face down. This row is the tableau, and it uses 28 cards.
The remaining 24 cards form the stock, face down above the tableau. Leave space for four foundation piles (one per suit) and for the waste pile next to the stock.
How to play
The goal is to move all 52 cards to the foundations, each built up in a single suit from ace to king.
You may make these moves, in any order and as often as you like:
- Tableau to tableau. Move a face-up card onto a tableau card of the opposite colour and one rank higher: a red 9 onto a black 10. You may move a whole face-up sequence as a unit, as long as the bottom card of the sequence obeys the rule.
- Turn a card. When the face-down card on top of a pile is exposed, turn it face up.
- To the foundations. Aces start the foundations. Then play the 2 of that suit, the 3, and so on up to the king. Cards may come from the tableau or the waste.
- From the stock. Turn cards from the stock onto the waste. Only the top waste card can be played. When the stock is empty, turn the waste over to make a new stock.
- Empty piles. Only a king, or a sequence starting with a king, may be placed in an empty tableau space.
You may also move a card from a foundation back to the tableau if it helps (computer versions allow it; some purists do not).
Draw one or draw three
Wikipedia lists five ways to go through the stock. The two common ones:
- Draw one, unlimited passes. The easiest version. Turn one card at a time and recycle the waste as often as you like.
- Draw three, unlimited passes. Turn three cards at a time; only the top one is available. Harder, and the version most computer games use by default.
Stricter rules allow only three passes, or a single pass with one card at a time (the “Las Vegas” rule).
Scoring and winning
You win when all four foundations run from ace to king. There is no score in the physical game. The Windows version awards points per move (10 for a card to the foundation, 5 for turning a tableau card, minus 15 for moving a card back off a foundation); keep that system if you enjoy it.
Realistic win rates are low: skilled players win roughly 40 per cent of draw-one games and far fewer draw-three games. Losing is normal; if no useful move remains, gather the cards and deal again.
Common variants
- Thoughtful Klondike. Deal everything face up so every card’s position is known. It turns the game into a pure puzzle, winnable about four times out of five.
- Double Solitaire. Two players each play their own deal and share the foundations; the first to play all 52 cards wins.
- Easthaven. Twenty-one cards in seven piles of three; when stuck, deal seven more cards across the tableau.
- Westcliff. Thirty cards in ten piles; any card may fill a space.
- Agnes and Whitehead. Build by colour instead of alternating colours, with different stock handling.
Tips for first games
- Turn over face-down cards whenever you can. Information wins more games than any other move.
- Play from the pile with the most face-down cards when you have a choice.
- Do not rush aces and 2s to the foundations if you still need them to move cards in the tableau; low cards are useful bridges.
- Do not fill an empty space with a king unless it uncovers something or you have the queen of the other colour ready.
- Check the waste pile before turning more stock; in draw-three, note which cards will reappear on the next pass.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards are in each pile in Solitaire? One to seven, left to right, 28 cards in all, with the top card of each pile face up. The other 24 cards are the stock.
Can you move a card off the foundation? Yes in most rule sets, including the Windows version, at a cost in score. Some players forbid it.
Do I have to draw three cards? No. Draw one is a legitimate and much easier version. Pick the one you prefer before dealing.
What goes in an empty column? Only a king, or a run of cards headed by a king.
Is every game of Klondike winnable? No. Many deals are impossible even with perfect play, and in a real game you cannot see the face-down cards, so expect to lose more than half of your games.
