Guide
How to Play Klondike Solitaire
Klondike Solitaire is a game of order and patience. Deal seven columns, turn the stock, build the tableau down in alternating colours, and lift every suit to its foundation from Ace to King.
Play Klondike SolitaireThe objective
Move all 52 cards to the foundations
Klondike Solitaire is played with one standard 52-card deck. Four foundation piles sit above a seven-column tableau. You win when every card has been moved to the foundations, each built up in a single suit from Ace to King.
Between the deal and the win, the work is keeping the tableau ordered — descending ranks in alternating colours — while turning the stock to feed cards you cannot yet reach. There is no timer forcing your hand; the challenge is the order you do things in.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open the board when you want to play; use this guide for the rules, the two draw modes, and the habits that win more games.
The deal
Seven columns, one stock, four empty foundations
The first tableau column gets one card, the second gets two, and so on to seven in the last column — 28 cards in all. Only the bottom card of each column is face up. The remaining 24 cards form the face-down stock in the top-left, with the waste pile beside it and the four foundations to the right.
Every deal here is a fresh shuffle. Some are comfortably winnable and some are not, and you cannot always tell which is which — that uncertainty is part of the game.
Controls
Drag, tap, or use the keyboard
Every method moves the same cards. Pick whichever fits the device in your hand.
Everywhere
Drag or tap-to-move
Drag a card or an ordered run onto its destination, or tap once to pick it up and tap the target pile to drop it. The board highlights the run you have grabbed so a multi-card move is never a guess.
Fast foundations
Double-click / double-tap
Double-click any playable card to send it straight to its foundation if the move is legal. It is the quickest way to clear Aces and low cards without dragging across the board.
Desktop
Keyboard
Space turns the stock. U undoes, H asks for a hint, A runs auto-complete, N deals a new game, and M mutes the sound. Every on-screen button also has a visible focus ring for keyboard navigation.
The loop
Four moves you repeat all game
Reading the board, then choosing between these four is the whole game.
- 1
Read the deal
Twenty-eight cards go into seven tableau columns — one in the first, two in the second, up to seven in the last — with only the bottom card of each column face up. The remaining 24 cards form the face-down stock. Four empty foundations sit above the tableau.
- 2
Build the tableau down
On the tableau, place a card on one that is one rank higher and the opposite colour: a red six goes on a black seven. You can move a whole ordered run of face-up cards at once. Only a King (or a run headed by a King) can move into an empty column.
- 3
Turn the stock
Click the stock to turn cards to the waste pile — one at a time in Turn 1, three at a time in Turn 3, where only the top card is in play. When the stock runs out, click the empty space to turn the waste back over and go again. Passes are unlimited here.
- 4
Send suits to the foundations
Move each Ace up to a foundation, then build that pile in suit from Ace to King — Ace, two, three, and so on. A card on a foundation can still come back down to the tableau if you need it. Clear all 52 cards to the foundations to win.
Rules & scoring
Every rule that decides a move
The objective
Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, each built up in a single suit from Ace to King. The game is won the moment the last King lands.
Tableau building
Tableau columns are built downward in alternating colours. A face-up card or a correctly ordered run of face-up cards can move onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. Empty columns accept only a King or a King-headed run.
The stock and waste
Turning the stock moves cards to the waste — one in Turn 1, three in Turn 3. Only the top waste card is playable. When the stock is empty, recycling the waste starts another pass; this version allows unlimited passes.
Scoring
Score follows the familiar desktop scheme: +10 for a card to a foundation, +5 for a waste card played to the tableau, +5 for revealing a face-down tableau card, and −15 for pulling a card back off a foundation. The score never drops below zero.
Winning and getting stuck
Not every deal can be won — especially in Turn 3. When no legal move remains, deal a new game. Undo is unlimited, so a dead end is only final once you choose to move on.
Draw modes
Turn 1 versus Turn 3
The only setting in Klondike is how many cards the stock turns at once. Pick it on the deal screen; stats are kept separately for each.
- 01 · Draw one — the friendlier game
Turn 1
Each click of the stock turns a single card to the waste, so every card in the deck is reachable in order. Most well-shuffled Turn 1 deals are winnable with careful play, which makes it the better mode for learning the game or chasing a long win streak.
- 02 · Draw three — the classic challenge
Turn 3
The stock turns three cards at a time and only the top one is playable, so reaching a specific buried card takes planning and repeated passes. Roughly one in nine Turn 3 deals works out, and a win feels earned. Passes through the stock are still unlimited.
Common mistakes
Why winnable games get lost
Flooding the foundations early
Sending every low card up as soon as it is legal strips the tableau of the cards you need to keep runs alternating. Past Aces and 2s, only promote a card when you are sure you will not want it below.
Opening a column with no King
Clearing a tableau column feels like progress, but an empty space you cannot fill just removes a landing spot. Line up the King move first, then empty the column.
Turning the stock on autopilot
In Turn 3 especially, clicking through the stock without tracking what lands on the waste wastes passes. Slow down, read each triplet, and know what you are hoping to reach.
Ignoring undo
Undo here is unlimited and free. Treat a questionable move as an experiment: make it, see what it opens, and roll it back if the board did not improve.
- Play Aces and 2s to the foundations the moment they appear — they are never useful in the tableau.
- Otherwise, do not rush cards to the foundations. A 7 you send up may be the card you needed to park an opposite-colour 6.
- Always take the move that flips a face-down tableau card over one that does not.
- Work your longest face-down columns down first; the shortest ones can wait.
- Empty a column only when you have a King ready to fill it — an empty space with no King is dead weight.
- In Turn 3, count the waste. Knowing which card of each triplet you can reach tells you when a pass is worth it.
- Use undo to test a line. If turning the stock or making a move opens nothing, take it back and try another order.
Where you can play
Same game on phone and desktop
klondikesolitaire.app runs in any modern browser with no app to install. Progress stays on the device you played on.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. Drag cards with the mouse, double-click to send a card to its foundation, or use the keyboard shortcuts for the stock, undo, hint, and auto-complete.
Phones and tablets
The layout is touch-first. Tap a card to pick it up and tap a pile to drop it, or drag directly. The seven columns and four foundations stay on one screen in portrait, and restart is instant.
Progress on this device
Best score, best time, best move count, games played, and win streak for Turn 1 and Turn 3 live in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still stuck on a rule? Read the Klondike Solitaire FAQ or jump in and play.
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