Klondike solitaire is the solitaire — the patience game that shipped with every copy of Windows and taught a generation to drag a red six onto a black seven. A single deck is dealt into seven tableau columns, and your job is to build four foundation piles from Ace to King, one per suit. This version is completely free, runs in any browser with nothing to install, and gives you unlimited undo, on-demand hints, and full-screen play. Deal a fresh game whenever you like and settle in — this is the classic, done properly.
How to play Klondike solitaire
The deal is exact: seven tableau columns holding one, two, three, four, five, six and seven cards, with only the top card of each column face-up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock in the corner. Play proceeds in two directions at once. In the tableau you build downward in alternating colours — a red six accepts a black five, a black five accepts a red four — and you may move a correctly ordered group of cards as a single unit. Whenever you uncover a face-down card, flip it. An empty column is precious and can be filled only by a King (or a King-led run). Meanwhile you feed the four foundations upward by suit, starting with each Ace and ending with each King. Cards you cannot place go from the stock to the waste pile; the top of the waste is always live. When the stock runs out, recycle the waste and go again. You win the moment all fifty-two cards reach the foundations. Fancy a heavier board? Jump to Spider or the all-skill FreeCell.
Klondike solitaire strategy & tips
The single biggest lever in Klondike is face-down cards: every hidden card is information you don't yet have, so prioritise moves that flip them over columns that are already exposed. Draw from the stock early and often to survey your options before committing. Resist the reflex to rush Aces and twos to the foundation — a low card left in the tableau can be a useful landing spot for building sequences, and once it's on the foundation you can't get it back. Work to empty a column, but hold that gap until you have a King (ideally one with a tidy run beneath it) ready to move in, or you'll simply trade one dead space for another. Keep colours balanced so you don't strand a run for want of the right alternating card, and use Undo to test a line before you're sure. When you're genuinely stuck, Hint will surface a legal move you missed.
Klondike Turn 1 vs Turn 3
Klondike comes in two draw modes, and the difference is enormous. In Turn 1 you flip a single card from the stock each time, so every card in the deck is reachable and roughly 80–90% of deals can be won with clean play — it's the friendlier, faster game. In Turn 3 you flip three cards at once and can only play the top of each group of three, which hides two-thirds of the stock behind the cards in front of them. That constraint drops the winnable rate toward the 30–40% range and rewards careful counting: you learn to track which cards sit in the 'skipped' positions and to cycle the stock deliberately so a needed card rotates to the top. Turn 3 with no redeal limit is the purist's benchmark. If you're learning, start on Turn 1 to internalise the flow, then step up to Turn 3 when you want the deals to fight back.