How to play solitaire: Klondike rules and setup

The goal

Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, one for each suit. Each foundation starts with an Ace and is built up in that suit, 2, 3 and so on, to the King. When all four are complete, you have won.

How to set up solitaire

You need one deck of 52 cards, without jokers. Shuffle it well and deal 28 cards into seven columns, from one card in the first column to seven in the last. Only the top card of each column is face up.

1. Deal seven cards in a row from left to right: the first face up, the other six face down.
2. Deal the next row starting on the second column: six cards, the first face up and the rest face down.
3. Keep going, one card fewer each row, until the seventh column has seven cards.
4. Put the other 24 cards face down above the columns. This is the stock, or deck.
5. Leave room next to the stock for the waste pile, and for the four foundations, where the Aces will go.

How to move cards

1. In the columns, build down in alternating colors: a red 9 goes on a black 10, then a black 8 on the red 9.
2. Move a face-up card together with every card on top of it, as long as they stay in order.
3. When a face-down card is uncovered, turn it face up: it is now in play.
4. Only a King, or a stack that starts with a King, can go into an empty column.
5. Move a card to its foundation when it is next in its suit: the Ace first, then the 2 of the same suit, and so on up to the King.
6. A card on a foundation can come back to a column when that opens a move.

The stock and the waste

When you run out of moves, turn cards from the stock onto the waste pile and play its top card on a column or a foundation. When the stock is empty, turn the waste over and go through it again, as many times as you like.

In Draw 1 you turn one card at a time from the deck, so every card gets its turn. In Draw 3 you turn three at a time and can only play the top one, which makes planning much more important. Draw 3 is the classic rule and our default; switch any time in the New game menu.

Winning, and when you are stuck

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. Once every card is face up, the rest is only a matter of moving them home, and the game can finish it for you.

If no move helps any more, even after going through the stock, the deal is lost. Not every shuffle can be won, even with perfect play; House blend, Double shot and Triple shot deals are picked to have a solution. Stuck? Ask for a hint. If the deal can no longer be won, you can rewind to the last point where it still could.

Solitaire words

• Tableau: the seven columns, where you build down in alternating colors.
• Foundations: the four piles, one per suit, built up from Ace to King.
• Stock: the face-down cards left after the deal, called the deck in the game.
• Waste: the face-up pile you turn cards onto from the stock, called the pile in the game. Its top card is in play.
• Klondike: the name of this solitaire game, which tells it apart from others such as Spider and FreeCell. In Britain it is often called Patience.