Solitaire - Free Online Klondike Card Game - Free Online

About the Solitaire

Solitaire — properly Klondike, the version that shipped with Windows and taught the world to drag cards — is the most-played card game there is. You deal seven tableau piles and work through the stock to uncover cards, building four foundation piles up from Ace to King, one per suit. In the tableau you stack cards downward in alternating colours to free the ones you need, and only a King can move into an empty column. It is a game of patience and forward planning: a little bookkeeping, a lot of "if I move that, then this frees up". Clear all 52 cards to the foundations to win.

How to play

Tap the stock (top-left) to turn cards into the waste pile.
Tap a card to pick it up, then tap a legal pile to drop it.
Tableau builds down in alternating colours; foundations build up by suit.
Double-tap a card to send it to its foundation; clear all 52 to win.

What it measures

This test focuses on your planning, concentration and working memory. Most well-dealt Klondike games are winnable with careful play; solving under three minutes is a brisk, efficient run. Not every deal can be won — good judgement is knowing when to restart.

Why play it

Trains forward planning and sequencing under simple rules
A calm, focused concentration exercise — one move sets up the next
The auto-collect button tidies the endgame so wins feel earned, not fiddly

Did you know?

Klondike takes its name from the 1890s Yukon gold rush, where prospectors are said to have played it to pass the long nights.
Microsoft added Solitaire to Windows in 1990 partly to teach people how to use a mouse and drag-and-drop.
Roughly 80% or more of Klondike deals are theoretically solvable, though a human rarely finds the perfect line every time.
Solitaire is really a family of hundreds of single-player "patience" games; Klondike is simply the most famous.

What counts as a good score?

No published norms exist for this format, so the ranges below are practical skill tiers rather than measured population data.

Level	Win rate over many games	What it means
Learning	Under 10%	Usually drawing from the stock too eagerly and flipping tableau cards in an unhelpful order.
Average	10–20%	Typical for a casual player on three-card draw without deliberate strategy.
Strong	20–35%	Consistently prioritising the columns hiding the most face-down cards.
Expert	Over 35%	Careful play close to what is achievable without knowing the hidden cards. The perfect-information ceiling is around 82%.

Solver research on Klondike with three-card draw puts the theoretical ceiling — playing perfectly, with full knowledge of the deck — at around 82%. Human win rates are far lower because the face-down cards are genuinely unknown.

How to improve your solitaire score

1.Uncover the deepest pile first

A column with five face-down cards is where your unknowns live. Prefer any move that flips a card there over one that merely tidies the board.

2.Do not rush to the foundations

Sending a card up early removes it from play. Low cards are often needed in the tableau to receive alternating colours.

3.Only empty a column for a king

An empty column is worthless without a king ready. Plan the king before you clear the space.

4.Think before every stock draw

Exhaust tableau moves first. Once you cycle the stock you have changed the order of everything and lost options you had.

5.Prefer moves that keep options open

When two moves look equal, take the one that leaves more future choices. Solitaire punishes premature commitment more than it punishes slowness.

How winnable is Klondike really?

The question is harder than it sounds, and stayed open for a long time — Persi Diaconis called determining the odds of winning Klondike "one of the embarrassments of applied probability". Work by Bjarnason, Fern and Tadepalli using a solver with full knowledge of the deck put the ceiling around 82% for three-card draw, meaning roughly one deal in five is unwinnable no matter how well you play.

That figure assumes perfect information. A human sees only the face-up cards, and much of the gap between 82% and a typical human rate of 10–20% comes from decisions that were reasonable given what was visible and wrong given what was hidden.

The card game that taught the world to drag and drop

Microsoft included Solitaire in Windows 3.0 in 1990, written by intern Wes Cherry, with the explicit aim of teaching users the mouse — specifically drag-and-drop, which was unfamiliar to people coming from keyboard-driven DOS. Cherry was famously unpaid for it. It became one of the most-used pieces of software ever shipped, to the point that companies removed it to stop staff playing.

Frequently Asked

How do you play Klondike Solitaire?

Move cards to build four foundation piles up by suit from Ace to King. In the seven tableau columns, stack cards down in alternating colours (a red six on a black seven), and fill empty columns only with a King. Turn the stock for more cards, and uncover face-down cards as you free them.

Is every game of Solitaire winnable?

No. Most Klondike deals can be won with careful play, but some are impossible from the start regardless of skill. Part of the game is recognising a dead end and dealing a fresh game.

What does the auto-collect button do?

It sweeps every card that can legally go to a foundation up in one tap, which saves you the repetitive clicks at the end of a game once the hard deductions are done. It never makes a move that is not already available to you.

Are all Solitaire games winnable?

No. Around one deal in five is unwinnable even with perfect play and full knowledge of the deck. If you lose a game, it may genuinely have been impossible.

What is a good win rate?

Casual players on three-card draw typically win 10–20%. Above 35% is strong play. The perfect-information ceiling is roughly 82%, and no human reaches it because the face-down cards are unknown.

Is one-card draw easier than three-card?

Considerably. One-card draw gives access to every stock card rather than every third one, so far more of the deck is reachable at any moment. Win rates are much higher.

Solitaire - Free Online Klondike Card Game