Do you know the rules of the Solitaire game? Here are all the details to learn how to play!
Solitaire or patience, as it is commonly called in some parts of Europe, is a game of which Only one player can participate and requires only a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The goal of most solitaire games is to organize a shuffled deck of cards into four piles (one for each suit) in ascending order from ace to king. The best known version of Classic Card Solitaire is Klondike, which is the one explained here, and it is the game that most people identify with “solitaire”. There are also many other versions of solitaire, some of which will be covered following this explanation on how to play Klondike solitaire.
For more classic card games, see our guides to the best all-occasion card games and the best two-player card games, as well as our index to card game rules. A version of Free Solitaire that you can play online for free can be found here.
The set up
In Solitaire there are four types of batteries: the tableau, the broth, the scraps and the bases.
The tableau and the broth
The tableau is composed of seven stacks. The first pile has one card, the second pile has two cards, the third pile has three cards, and so on until there are seven piles. Only the top card of each pile is revealed. The cards remaining after building the tableau are placed face down and are called stock.
Waste and the foundation
The discarding occurs when they are distributed three cards face up from the deck as the game progresses, with only the top card visible. The bases are made up of four decks of cards (one for each suit) in ascending order (from ace to king). At the start of the game the bases are empty. The goal is to play all the cards in these four foundations.
How to play the game of Solitaire
The aim of Solitaire is move all the cards on the base in ascending orderstarting with the ace and ending with the king.
The first thing to do when starting a new game is to move all available axes from the table to the bases. Very often you are looking for Twos that can be moved to the bases above the Aces already present. In general, it’s a good idea to move low-numbered cards into the base whenever possible. When you can’t move more cards on the base, take a look at the tableau. Cards they can be moved from one pile on the table to another pile, as long as the card to be moved is of a lower number and of the opposite color (red vs black) to the card on which it is placed. You can move multiple cards together, as long as the cards in the sequence to be moved are in descending order and are in alternating colors (red/black, etc.). When there are no more moves available on the table, you can draw 3 cards from the deck.
Always check if the top card on the discard pile can be moved on the table or on the bases. Continue moving cards from the table to the bases if you can, or place them on other piles within the table, so you have more cards face down. When you cannot make any moves from the table, turn three more cards from the deck to the discard pile and continue playing. Continue this process, turning three cards from the deck to the discard pile each time you get stuck. The goal is to continue playing cards on the table and bases.
History of the game of Solitaire
Solitaire is a delightful puzzle game that boasts a wonderful story. The game was recorded for the first time in 1780 in a German book about games, entitled Das Neue Königliche L’Hombre-Spiel. Some early evidence suggests that solitaire began as a fortune-telling game and only later became a strategy game. Some variations of solitaire are still used today for fortune telling.
From the Rhineland, the solitaire craze moved west to France. We get many of the terms still used from French today in Solitaire. For example, Tableau is French for “Table” and Talon is French for “Heel”.
It is commonly said that Napoleon spent most of his days playing solitaire while in exile. In reality, however, it is more likely that he played the common game of Whist, but he is a fun piece of solitaire-related curiosity.
Solitaire became increasingly popular throughout the 19th century and moved west to England, where Prince Albert was a notable lover of the game. In 1870 the first collection of solitaire games appeared in the English languagewith the book Illustrated Games of Patience by Lady Adelaide Cadogan.
The popularity of solitaire steadily increased throughout the 20th century. The game became a lot widespread in the computer agewhen a free digital version was included in the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Other popular solitaire games
There are hundreds of different solitaire games besides Klondike Solitaire, and each of these often has multiple variations. Here you are a brief overview of some of the most popularas well as an introduction to some lesser-known but interesting versions of the game.
Spider
Spider is a popular solitaire game harder to win compared to Klondike solitaire. In Spider there are two decks of cards in play, with ten tableau piles, no foundations and no discard pile.
The purpose is create a sequence of 13 cards of the same suit in descending order from King to Ace within a single tableau pile, at which point those 13 cards are removed from the game. The game is won if you successfully discard all cards in the game in this way. Building within the tableau piles works somewhat similarly to Klondike, but when no moves can be made within the tableau, one card from the deck is dealt to each tableau pile.
FreeCell
Invented in the 1980s and popularized by its digital version, FreeCell is a very simple solitaire which involves a real strategy. The layout includes eight piles of cards face up, the first four with seven cards each and the last four with six cards each. In place of the supply and waste piles, there are four empty storage piles, called “cells”. Any card can be placed in these reserve piles, and this is where strategy comes into play.
Unlike Klondike, card sequences cannot be moved within the tableau, but you can only move one card at a time. Tableau stacks can only be built downwards in alternating colors. The objective is to remove all cards from the four foundations by suit, in ascending order from Ace to King.
Castle besieged
Beleaguered Castle or Beleaguered Castle is another classic solitaire game, but it’s harder to win. The goal is to play all the cards to the base, which are built by suit in order from ace to king. Only the top card of each tableau can be played. Players can also move cards around the table as long as the card moved has one value less than the card it is moved to, ignoring suits.
There are many variations in the Castle solitaire family of games, such as Streets and Alleys. In this variant, the Aces do not start as starting basesbut they are part of the initial tableau, which consists of rows of seven rather than six cards each.
Yukon
Yukon uses a single deck of playing cards and all cards are dealt from the start of the game, therefore there are no stockpiles or scrap piles. Setup occurs by creating a traditional tableau much like Klondike, but all but the first pile receive five additional face-up cards each.
The game inside the table and at the bases is similar to Klondike, but with the removal of one restriction: a group of face-up cards within the table can be moved regardless of the sequence.
Forty Thieves
Forty Thieves, also called Napoleon on St. Helena, is somewhat similar to Klondike, but uses two decks and has some different rules for building the tableau. At the start of the game there are ten piles on the tableau, each with four cards (making up the “forty thieves” from which the game takes its name).
There are eight foundations and, as in Klondike Solitaire, the game is won when all cards are transferred into the foundations, which are built from ace to king based on suit. The tableau is constructed with cards of the same suit (instead of alternating colors) in decreasing sequence. Any card can fill a created space from an empty pile. The Forty Thieves family of solitaire games is one of the largest and most strategic solitaire games. There are many variations, such as Emperor, which starts with each pile having one face-up card on top of three face-down cards.
The Wish
The Wish is one of the simplest solitaire games and falls into the “addition and matching” family. Remove cards 2 through 6 from a standard deck and with the remaining cards you create eight piles of four cards each, with only the top card face up in each pile.
The goal is to remove all cards, which happens removing any pair of cards that has the same value. Once you’ve matched the cards, you can turn over the face-down card underneath and continue playing. If you successfully remove all cards, you win the game!
Accordion
Unlike most previous solitaire games, Accordion is not a building game, so it doesn’t involve building a tableau or foundations. For preparation, all 52 cards are placed individually face up in a single continuous line, which is usually done by placing them in rows depending on space and needs.
A card can be stacked on one card immediately to the left or on three cards to the left if it is of the same suit or if it is of the same rank. For example, suppose a row consists of 7H, 8H, 2C, 7D, and 7H. In this case the 7H can be positioned above the 8H or above the 7D. By making as many moves as possible, the goal is to stack the entire deck.
Bowling Solitaire
Bowling Solitaire is a clever, thematic game created by Sid Sackson. It requires only 20 cards in two suits and only cards from Ace to 10 are used. A pyramid of face-up cards with rows of four cards, three rows, two cards and one card represents the “pins”. Three piles represent “bowling balls,” made up of five cards, three cards and two cards, with only the top card face up in each.
Bowling ball stacks are used for knock down the skittles, which can happen in three ways:
- The pin card has the same value as the ball card.
- The combined value of two or more pin cards is equal to the value of the ball card.
- The last digit of two or more pin cards equals the value of the ball card.
As in normal bowling, the player has two bowls per set of pins before shuffling the pin cards and creating a new pyramid. If they fail to knock down any pins, it is a dump ball and they move to the next pile of balls. Scoring is done like normal bowling.