ColumnsPuzzle·Free to play
Klondike Solitaire
Build all four foundations from Ace to King by dragging cards across the tableau, one honest move at a time.
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Klondike SolitaireScore0
Your best0
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Keyboard & touch controls
Drag & dropMove cards and runsTap deck / SpaceDraw a cardZ / XUndo↑ / ↓Hint / auto-completePPause
How to play Klondike Solitaire
Read the layout
Seven tableau piles build downward in alternating red and black. The four foundations top-right collect each suit upward from Ace. The stock top-left deals into the waste pile beside it.
Drag cards where they belong
Pick up any face-up card (its whole run comes along) and drop it on a tableau pile or foundation. Legal targets glow green. Tap a face-down top card to flip it.
Draw from the stock
Tap the deck (or press Space) to turn one card into the waste. When the stock empties, tapping it recycles the waste for another pass.
Free the buried cards
Every face-down flip is progress and points. Favor moves that unbury columns over moves that merely look tidy.
Send everything home
The game is won when all four foundations run Ace to King. A win pays a big bonus plus extra for speed.
This is our browser edition, adapted from ARCADENOW. Its artwork, tuning and controls may differ from other games with similar rules. Guest personal bests stay in this browser. Signed-in players can also save scores and play history to their private dashboard; there is no global leaderboard. Read about controls and local storage.
Choose a related challenge
Moving a card can reveal a useful card underneath it. Mahjong Solitaire makes access the central matching rule: a pair can be removed only when the tiles are free.
What Klondike Solitaire is like to play
Klondike Solitaire is the most played card game in computing history, and this is the classic Klondike everyone means when they say the word. Twenty-eight cards fan out across seven tableau piles, the rest wait in the stock, and your mission is to walk all fifty-two home onto the four foundations, Ace to King, suit by suit. On the tableau you build downward in alternating colors, prying face-down cards loose one reveal at a time; empty columns crave Kings; and the stock deals one card at a time with unlimited passes, so no deal dies while a line of play remains. Our version keeps the ritual fully hands-on: drag any card or run and drop it where it belongs, with every legal destination glowing green under your fingers. Scoring rewards every reveal and every foundation card, with a time bonus for fast wins, and every deal is shuffled afresh, which keeps a solitary habit honest: the only score to beat is the one you set last time.
Klondike Solitaire at a glance
| Genre | Puzzle Games |
|---|---|
| Challenge | Patience with sharp edges |
| Pace | Your pace, until the deck fights back |
| Original era | 1780s (patience) / 1990 (on every desktop) |
| Players | Single player |
| Controls | Drag & drop, Tap deck / Space, Z / X, ↑ / ↓ |
| Cost | Free, with no account and no download |
Where Klondike Solitaire came from
Patience games surfaced in northern Europe in the late 1700s, possibly as fortune-telling that grew rules, and Klondike itself took its name from the 1890s gold rush, where prospectors allegedly burned long winters flipping cards. But solitaire's true empire arrived in 1990, when a version shipped free with the world's dominant operating system, ostensibly to teach a generation how to drag and drop. It became, by most estimates, the most played video game of all time.
Our Klondike Solitaire honors both centuries: authentic Klondike rules with the reveals, the Kings and the dead deals intact, plus true drag-and-drop built for mouse and touch alike and a scoring system that gives the old game something it never had: a reveal-by-reveal record of how well you played this one.
Ways people play Klondike Solitaire
- Klondike
- The world's default solitaire and the game on this page: seven piles, alternating colors, foundations Ace to King.
- Spider
- Ten piles and eight foundations built in-suit; a heavier meal for players who find Klondike too merciful.
- FreeCell
- Every card dealt face-up plus four free cells: near-total information, near-total responsibility.
- Pyramid and TriPeaks
- Pairing and sequencing variants that trade the tableau for card-shaped geometry; faster, lighter, streak-friendly.
Klondike Solitaire questions and answers
Is this draw-one or draw-three?
Draw-one with unlimited passes through the stock, the friendliest classic ruleset. Even so, some deals are simply harder than others, which is why a run of games tells you more than any single one.
How do I move a whole stack?
Grab the deepest face-up card you want to move and the entire run rides along. Drop it on a legal pile and it settles; drop it anywhere else and it snaps back home.
Can every deal be won?
No. Roughly one Klondike deal in five is unwinnable even with perfect play. The game detects a dead deck after a full fruitless pass and banks your score.
How is the score calculated?
Five points per tableau reveal and waste-to-tableau move, ten per card sent to a foundation, plus a finish bonus and time bonus for wins.
Is every deal winnable?
No. Klondike shuffles honestly, so a deal can run dead. Unlimited passes through the stock mean you will always know when it has.
If you like Klondike Solitaire, try these next
Four games from the same shelf, each with its own pace. The one-line summaries are how their own pages describe them.
| Game | What it is like | Pace | Play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columns | Three gems fall as one - Line up any three that match. | Columns fall faster per level | Play |
| Mahjong Solitaire | A mountain of tiles with exactly one way down. | Meditative, then suddenly tight | Play |
Puzzle games: less guessing, more solving.
Separate deduction, information gathering and board planning before choosing your next move.
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