Choosing a game
There are a lot of games here. These answers narrow it down.
FAQ
Common solitaire questions, answered.
23 short answers in three groups: picking a game, the rules and terms that come up everywhere, and how the boards on this site work. Every answer links to a game or a page where you can see the idea in play.
Which solitaire game should I start with?
If you have played solitaire on a computer before, it was almost certainly Klondike, and it will feel familiar. If you would rather think than hope, start with FreeCell: every card is face-up and nearly every deal can be won. If you want something short, Pyramid or Golf finish in a few minutes.
What is the easiest solitaire to win?
FreeCell. Almost every deal has a winning line, because nothing is hidden and the four cells give you room to work. On this site FreeCell and Klondike can also deal only from pools of seeds that a solver has proved winnable. Among the quick games, Relaxed Pyramid and Tri Peaks are forgiving; among the builders, Westcliff and Thumb and Pouch loosen Klondike’s rules.
What is the hardest solitaire?
Forty Thieves (Napoleon at St Helena) is the classic answer: two decks, one pass through the stock, single-card moves and building in suit. Canfield is the hardest of the well-known single-deck games, with most people winning fewer than one deal in ten. Scorpion, Beleaguered Castle and La Belle Lucie are hard for different reasons: tangled columns, no cells, and strictly limited redeals.
Which solitaire games are quick to play?
The removal games. Pyramid and its variants, Golf and Tri Peaks, and the pairing games such as Baroness, Elevens and Nestor all take a few minutes. Most of the deal is visible from the start, so there is no long dig through hidden cards.
Which solitaire games use two decks?
Spider is the best known. The Forty Thieves family, most of the reserve builders (Sultan, Royal Cotillion, Miss Milligan), the court games (Salic Law, Intrigue) and many of the layout games (Windmill, Big Ben, Zodiac) all use 104 cards. They take longer and reward planning the whole deal rather than the next move.
What is the difference between Klondike and FreeCell?
Klondike hides most of the deal and rations the rest through a stock, so luck plays a part. FreeCell deals every card face-up and gives you four holding cells instead of a stock, so it is a pure planning game. Both build the tableau down in alternating colours and the foundations up from Ace to King.
How is Spider different from Klondike?
Spider has no foundations to build toward. You build descending same-suit runs on the tableau itself, and a complete King-to-Ace run is removed as a unit. Instead of turning a stock into a waste, you deal a whole new row onto every column when you run out of moves. It uses two decks and is considerably harder.
Is patience the same thing as solitaire?
Yes. Patience is the British and European name for the family of single-player card games that Americans call solitaire. The games, the rules and the terminology are the same; only the word differs.
How are the games on this site organised?
By mechanic family: what you build, how new cards arrive, and what winning looks like. There are 19 families, each shown as a district of the city. Every game page names its family and links to its closest relatives, so learning one game can help you explore others.
Rules and terms
The ideas that come up in almost every game.
What is the goal of solitaire?
In most games, to move every card to the foundations in the correct order, usually one suit per pile from Ace up to King. Spider-type games ask you to assemble complete suit runs on the board instead, and removal games ask you to clear the layout by discarding pairs.
Can every solitaire game be won?
No. Some deals are unwinnable no matter how well you play, and the proportion varies enormously by game: nearly all FreeCell deals can be won, most Klondike deals can, and most Canfield deals cannot. Klondike and FreeCell here can be set to deal only seeds a solver has verified, and can check whether the position in front of you still has a way out.
Should I always move cards to the foundation immediately?
Not always. In Klondike and its relatives a low card can still be useful on the tableau as a place to build, and sending it up too early can strand the cards that needed it. Aces and Twos are safe; from Three upward, look at what the card is holding open first. In games with no tableau building, such as Sir Tommy, there is nothing to wait for.
Why are empty columns so important?
Because they are the only place to put a card that is in the way. An empty column lets you move a long sequence in pieces, park a King, or unbury the one card you need. In FreeCell an empty column is worth more than a cell; in Spider it is the difference between a winnable and a lost deal.
What does building down in alternating colours mean?
Each card you place on the tableau must be one rank lower and the opposite colour to the card it goes on: a red Seven on a black Eight, then a black Six on the Seven. Klondike, FreeCell and Yukon use this rule. Spider requires the same suit instead, and Beleaguered Castle ignores suit entirely.
What is a redeal, and how many do I get?
A redeal turns the waste back into a stock (or, in fan games, gathers the tableau) so you can go through it again. Klondike here allows unlimited redeals in draw-one and draw-three; Canfield allows two; Forty Thieves allows none; La Belle Lucie allows two before a final merci. Each game page states its own limit.
What is the difference between draw one and draw three?
How many cards turn from the stock at a time. Draw one shows every card in order and is much easier. Draw three shows only the top of each group of three, so which cards you can reach changes as the waste shrinks, and you have to plan the passes. Klondike offers both; Canfield is traditionally draw three.
What is a reserve?
A pile or group of cards set aside at the deal that you cannot build on. Cards leave the reserve for the tableau or foundations, and nothing goes back in. Canfield has a thirteen-card reserve; a whole family of games (Sultan, Royal Cotillion, Carpet) is built around unlocking one.
Playing on this site
What the boards do, and what the site does not do.
Do I need an account?
No. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to log in to. Every game opens straight away. Your statistics and win streaks are kept in your own browser and never sent to a server.
Are there ads?
Solitaire.City may show ads through Google AdSense to help support the site. Every game remains free to play, with no account required. Our privacy policy explains how advertising services may use data and cookies.
How do I move a card?
Click a card and every pile it can legally go to lights up; click one of them to move it. You can also drag the card, or double-click it to send it to its only legal destination. Undo steps back through as many moves as you like, and Restart replays the same deal from the beginning.
Can I replay a deal or send it to someone?
Yes. Every deal comes from a seed in the page address. Copy the address and you have that exact deal; open it later or send it to a friend and the cards come out the same way.
Can I make sure a deal is winnable before I start?
In Klondike and FreeCell, yes. Tick the winnable-only option and New Game draws from a pool of seeds whose winning lines have been verified against the site’s own engine. You can also ask the board to check the current position; it either finds a winning path, proves there is none, or reports that the search ran out of time.
Where are my statistics kept?
In your browser’s local storage, per game: games played and won, quickest and longest wins, fewest moves, and your current and best daily win streaks. Clearing site data removes them, and they do not follow you to another device.
Still deciding?
The game finder filters every game by family, deck count, pace and difficulty, and the families page explains how each family plays.
Learning the rules?
The rules guide covers the ideas every game shares and how each family changes them. The glossary defines the terms and links each one to boards that use it.
Want to win more?
Every game has its own strategy guide, written for that game rather than copied from a template. Start with the guide for the game you play most.