How to Play Klondike Solitaire
Klondike Solitaire is played with a standard 52-card deck. Twenty-eight cards are dealt into seven tableau columns — one, two, three, up to seven — with only the last card of each column face up. The remaining twenty-four cards form the stock. Above the tableau sit four foundation piles, one per suit. You win by building every foundation up in suit from Ace to King. This page covers the full rules, the two draw modes, both scoring systems and the strategy that separates a coin-flip from a consistent win.
Step by step
- Build the tableau down. Drag a card (or a whole alternating-colour run) onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. Tap-to-select then tap-the-target also works on touch.
- Draw from the stock. Click the stock to flip cards to the waste — one card in draw-1, three in draw-3. When the stock empties, click it again to recycle the waste.
- Send Aces up first. Move each Ace to a foundation as it appears, then build up by suit to the King. Double-click a card to send it home automatically.
- Clear the board to win. Get all 52 cards onto the four foundations. When only face-up cards remain, hit Auto-complete to cascade the rest home.
Strategy
Lead with the cards that unblock the board, not the cards that score. Turn over face-down tableau cards before you empty the stock, keep at least one column open for a King when you can, and don’t rush an Ace to the foundation if it’s still doing useful work holding a run. In draw-3, count where the card you need sits in the stock before you commit a move you can’t take back. When you’re stuck, the Hint button ranks the most useful legal move; use “Winnable only” if you want a deal that’s guaranteed to have a solution.