About Klondike Solitaire
Klondike is the solitaire most people picture: seven columns of cards, a deck in the top-left corner, and four empty foundations waiting for aces. The goal is to move all 52 cards onto the foundations, one pile per suit, from Ace up to King.
We drew every card ourselves with shapes built into the page, so the game loads instantly and stays sharp at any size. The layout scales down to a compact phone portrait view (seven columns fit across a 320-pixel-wide screen) and up to large cards on a desktop monitor. Long columns squeeze their spacing automatically so they never run off the table.
What makes our version different is the deals. Plenty of random Klondike shuffles can’t be won no matter how well you play, which can make a long losing streak feel pointless. We ran a solver over nearly a thousand shuffles and kept 500 deals that it proved winnable in both Draw 1 and Draw 3. Every game you start comes from that list. If you get stuck, there’s a way through. It just might need a different order of moves.
How to play
The layout. Seven tableau columns are dealt with 1 to 7 cards each. Only the top card of each column is face up. The other 24 cards form the deck (the stock).
Building. In the tableau, you build down in alternating colors: a red 6 can go on a black 7. You can move a single card or any face-up run that is already in order. Only a King, or a run starting with a King, can go into an empty column. On the foundations, you build up by suit from Ace to King.
Turning cards. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the card underneath flips automatically.
The deck. Tap the deck to draw. In Draw 1 one card turns over at a time. In Draw 3 three cards turn over and only the top one can be played. When the deck runs out, tap the empty deck spot to turn the waste pile back over. You can go through the deck as many times as you like, but it costs points (see below).
Moving cards. There are three ways:
- Drag and drop a card or a run onto any legal pile. If you drop it somewhere illegal, it slides back.
- Tap a card. A single card goes to its foundation if it can. Otherwise it moves to a tableau column that accepts it, preferring a column that already has cards over an empty one. A card that can’t move anywhere gives a little shake.
- Double-click a card to send it straight to its foundation.
Undo has no limit and takes back one move at a time, including deck draws. It counts as a move.
Auto-finish. Once every tableau card is face up, the game checks whether it can finish on its own by moving cards to the foundations and drawing through the deck. If it can, an Auto-finish button appears. Tap it (or press A) and the cards fly home.
When you win, the cards bounce off the foundations in a cascade. Tap to skip it. Your score, time and moves are shown along with your best score and best time for that draw mode.
Scoring
We use the standard Klondike scoring scheme:
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Waste to tableau | +5 |
| Waste to foundation | +10 |
| Tableau to foundation | +10 |
| Turning over a tableau card | +5 |
| Foundation back to tableau | −15 |
| Turning the waste over (Draw 1) | −100 |
| Turning the waste over (Draw 3) | −20 |
| Every 10 seconds of play | −2 |
| Winning in 30 seconds or more | + 700,000 ÷ seconds taken |
The score never drops below zero. The clock starts on your first move, not when the cards are dealt, and it stops when the game is paused or the tab is hidden. Because of the time bonus, a fast win scores far more than a slow one. Winning in 3 minutes (180 seconds) adds a bonus of 3,889 points.
Strategy tips
Turn over face-down cards first
Hidden cards are the whole problem in Klondike. Every face-down card you reveal is worth 5 points and, more importantly, gives you information. When you have a choice between two moves, pick the one that uncovers a card, and prefer the column with the most face-down cards left.
Don’t rush cards to the foundations
Aces and 2s should go up right away. Higher cards are sometimes more useful in the tableau, where a black 5 can hold a red 4 you need to move. A good rule is to send a card up once both foundations of the opposite color have caught up to one rank below it.
Keep an empty column for a King that frees something
Emptying a column feels great, but only a King can fill it. Before you empty one, check that you have a King (ideally one sitting on top of face-down cards) ready to move in.
Think before you draw in Draw 3
In Draw 3, the order of the deck shifts every time you play a card from the waste. If you’re about to go through the deck again, playing even one waste card changes which cards you’ll see next time. Sometimes that is the only way to reach a card stuck in the middle of a group of three.
Watch the recycle penalty
Turning over the deck costs 100 points in Draw 1. If you’re playing for score, make every pass count by playing everything you can before you flip.
Use undo to explore
Undo is unlimited, and every deal is winnable. If a line of play dead-ends, back up to the last real decision and try the other branch.
FAQ
Is every deal really winnable?
Yes. Every deal comes from a list of 500 shuffles that our solver completed in both Draw 1 and Draw 3, and we re-checked the full list against the exact dealing code the game uses.
What’s the difference between Draw 1 and Draw 3?
Draw 1 turns one card at a time, so every card in the deck is reachable on each pass. Draw 3 turns three and only lets you play the top one, which makes it noticeably harder. Best scores and times are tracked separately for each mode.
Does closing the page lose my game?
No. Your game in progress, its score and its clock are saved in your browser after every move. Reopen the page to continue. Use “Restart this deal” in the menu to replay the same shuffle from the start.
