Learn Solitaire: Interactive Klondike Tutorial
Klondike is the game most people mean by solitaire. In seven steps on a real table, you build the columns, work through the stock and send cards up to the foundations, then learn which pile to dig into first.
Step 1 of 7
The layout
The goal is to move all 52 cards up to the four foundations, marked with stars at the top right: one pile per suit, from the ace up to the king.
Below them are seven columns. The first is dealt one card and the last seven, and only the front card of each column is face up. The other 24 cards make the stock, at the top left. Each click on it turns a card over onto the waste beside it. You'll do that in step 4.
Build down in alternating colours
In the columns, cards go down one rank at a time, alternating colours: a red card on a black card one rank higher, or a black card on a red one. To move a card, click it and then where it goes, or drag it.
The 6♥ on top of the waste can go on a black 7. It can't go on the 7♦, which is red like the 6♥.
Your move
Put the 6♥ from the waste on a black 7.
Move a run
Cards in order move together as a run: pick up the card at the back of the run, and the cards in front of it come too. When a move uncovers a face-down card, it turns over by itself.
In the sixth column, the 9♠, 8♥ and 7♣ run down in alternating colours, on top of four face-down cards. The 10♦ in the third column can take the 9♠.
Your move
Move the whole run onto the 10♦.
The stock and the waste
When the columns run out of moves, turn to the stock. In Draw 1, the mode you're playing, each click turns one card onto the waste, and only the top card of the waste can be played. When the stock is empty, click its place to turn the whole waste back over and go through it again, as often as you like. In Draw 3, three cards turn over at a time, and only the top one can be played.
Here the stock has one card left. On the waste you can see only the J♥. Under it are the 10♣ and, at the bottom, the 9♦ you need. It goes on the 10♠.
Your move
Find the 9♦ and play it on the 10♠.
Up to the foundations
Each foundation takes one suit, in order: the ace first, then the 2, the 3 and so on up to the king. A card goes up from the front of a column or the top of the waste, one at a time.
The A♠ and the A♥ are at the front of two columns, and the 2♠ is on top of the waste.
Your move
Put three cards up on the foundations.
Kings to empty columns
An empty column takes only a king, or a run headed by one. Choose the king whose move frees something. The K♥ in the first column has nothing under it. The K♣ in the last column, with the Q♦ and J♠ on it, sits on six face-down cards.
Your move
Move a king into the empty column so that a face-down card turns over.
Dig where the pile is biggest
You win at Klondike by turning face-down cards over. When two moves would each turn one over, it usually pays to start with the column that has more face-down cards: those cards are the hardest to reach, and a short pile can wait. The exception is a short column you can clear completely, to make room for a king.
The 7♥ in the fourth column can take one black 6. The 6♣ in the second column sits on one face-down card, and the 6♠ in the sixth column on five.
Your move
Put the black 6 from the bigger pile on the 7♥.
What you learned
- Move all 52 cards up to the foundations, one suit each, from ace to king.
- In the columns, build down in alternating colours. A run moves as one.
- A face-down card turns over when the card in front of it moves away.
- When you're stuck, draw from the stock, and turn the waste over when the stock runs out.
- Only a king goes in an empty column.
- When you have a choice, usually dig into the column with the most face-down cards, unless a short one can be cleared for a king.
Take it to the table.
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