These are the complete rules of Klondike Solitaire, written as a reference. If you want to learn by playing, the beginner walkthrough is a better start. To play now, open the game on the home page.
Layout and goal
Klondike uses one 52-card deck with no jokers. Twenty-eight cards are dealt into seven tableau columns of 1 to 7 cards, with only the top card of each face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock. There are four foundations, which start empty. The goal is to move all 52 cards to the foundations, each built in one suit from Ace to King.
Legal moves
- Tableau to tableau: a face-up card goes on a card one rank higher of the opposite color. A black 8 goes on a red 9.
- Moving a run: any face-up part of a column can move together, from a chosen card down to the bottom of the column, if the top card of that run fits the target.
- Empty column: only a King, or a run headed by a King, can be placed there.
- Turning over: when a face-down card is left on top of a column, it is turned face up.
- To a foundation: an Ace starts a foundation. After that, the next card of the same suit goes on it, one rank at a time. Cards come from the top of a column or the top of the waste.
- Waste to tableau: the top card of the waste can go onto a column, following the tableau rule.
- Foundation to tableau: the top card of a foundation can come back down onto a column if it fits there. Standard rules allow this.
- Drawing: turn cards from the stock face up onto the waste, one at a time in Turn 1 or three at a time in Turn 3.
- Redealing: when the stock is empty, the waste is turned over, without shuffling, to become the stock again.
Not allowed
- Placing a card on one of the same color, or on a card that is not exactly one rank higher.
- Putting a card other than a King into an empty column.
- Moving a face-down card, or moving part of a run from its middle so the cards below it stay behind.
- Playing a waste card that is not on top. In Turn 3, the two cards under the top card wait until it has been played.
- Starting a foundation with anything but an Ace, or mixing suits on one foundation.
Turn 1 and Turn 3
The draw mode is the main rule people choose before a game. It decides how many stock cards you can reach on each pass. Each has its own page: Turn 1 and Turn 3.
Scoring variants
This site keeps no score and allows unlimited passes through the stock. Windows Solitaire offered two scoring systems.
- Standard: 10 points for each card moved to a foundation, 5 for moving a waste card to the tableau, 5 for turning over a tableau card, minus 15 for moving a card from a foundation back down, and minus 100 for each recycle of the waste in Turn 1. Timed games also get a bonus for finishing quickly.
- Vegas: you pay 52 dollars to start and win 5 dollars per card on the foundations. You get one pass through the stock in Turn 1 and three passes in Turn 3. Eleven cards on the foundations are needed to break even, and a full win is 208 dollars ahead. In cumulative Vegas the balance carries over from game to game.
How FreeCell, Spider, Pyramid and TriPeaks differ
FreeCell deals the whole deck face up into eight columns and has no stock. Four free cells each hold one card. Any card can go into an empty column, and the number of cards you can move at once depends on how many cells and columns are empty. Nearly every deal can be won. Here FreeCell uses the Microsoft deal numbers, and #11982 is the one that cannot be solved.
Spider Solitaire uses two decks in ten columns. Columns are built down regardless of suit, but only a run in a single suit can move together. A full run from King to Ace in one suit leaves the table. Instead of a waste pile, each deal from the stock puts one card on every column. It is played with 1, 2 or 4 suits.
Pyramid Solitaire builds nothing. Twenty-eight cards are dealt face up in a pyramid of seven rows, and you remove uncovered cards in pairs that add up to 13 (a king goes alone). The stock turns one card at a time and can be gone through three times. The game is won when the pyramid is cleared.
TriPeaks Solitaire also builds nothing. Twenty-eight cards form three peaks with only the bottom row face up, and you play them one at a time onto a single waste pile, each one rank above or below the last, in any suit; King and Ace connect. The stock turns one card at a time and is gone through once. The game is won when all three peaks are cleared.
Once the rules are clear, the strategy guide shows how to use them, the Klondike page covers the history and the odds, and the daily deal is the same game for everyone.