Klondike Solitaire

How to play Klondike

Klondike is the classic solitaire — in Britain it is often just called patience. The goal is to move all 52 cards to the four foundations at the top right, one pile per suit, building up from the Ace to the King.

Seven columns are dealt at the start. Only the top card of each column is face up. You can put a card on a column when it is one rank lower and the opposite color: a red Seven on a black Eight, a black Queen on a red King. A run of cards in order moves together. When you clear a face-down card, it turns over by itself. Only a King (with any run on it) may fill an empty column.

When you run out of moves, turn cards from the stock in the top left corner onto the waste pile and play its top card. You can go through the stock as many times as you like here.

Tap or click a card and it jumps to the best place it can go; drag it if you want it somewhere else. Undo has no limit, and Hint points at a useful move.

Turn 1 or turn 3?

In turn 1 you take one card from the stock at a time, so every card in it is within reach — a relaxed game that most deals let you finish. In turn 3 three cards come over at once and only the top one is playable, so the cards underneath stay locked until the order shifts. It is slower, trickier patience and the version many people grew up with. Switch between them at the top of the table; each mode keeps its own game.

Tips

• Turn over face-down cards first, starting with the longest column.
• Don't empty a column unless you have a King ready to move into it.
• Keep moving low cards — Aces and Twos — to the foundations, but think twice before sending up a Five or Six that could still hold a red or black Four.
• In turn 3, play a card from the waste when you can: it changes which cards come up next time through.
• The Daily deal is the same for everybody and has been checked to be solvable. Other deals are random, and not every deal can be solved — if you are stuck, undo a few moves or start a new one.