How to play Solitaire (Klondike)
Klondike uses one 52-card deck. Seven columns are dealt with one to seven cards, and only the top card of each column is face up. The other 24 cards form the stock in the top left.
- Foundations (the four spaces at the top right): build each suit up from Ace to King. Fill all four to win.
- Tableau (the seven columns): build down in alternating colors, for example a red 7 on a black 8. Any run of face-up cards can move as a unit.
- Empty columns: only a King, or a run that starts with a King, can fill one.
- Stock: press it to turn one card (or three) onto the waste. Only the top waste card is playable. When the stock runs out, turn the waste over and go through it again. Comma Puzzles allows unlimited passes.
When a move uncovers a face-down card, it turns face up automatically.
Draw 1 or Draw 3
With Draw 1 you can reach every stock card in turn, so it is the easier mode. With Draw 3 only the top card of each group of three is playable, and a card you need can stay buried until the next pass. If you are new to the game, start with Draw 1.
Tips for winning more often
- Uncover face-down cards first: columns with many hidden cards are where new options come from.
- Use the stock last: make every useful tableau move before you draw.
- Empty a column only when a King can use it, since nothing else can go there.
- Do not rush cards to the foundations: Aces and 2s can go right away, but a 6 or 7 may still be needed in the tableau to hold lower cards.
- Undo and Hint are there to help: undo has no limit, and Hint (the H key) shows a useful move each time you press it.
Can every deal be won?
No. Every game on Comma Puzzles is a random shuffle, and some deals cannot be won however you play. Researchers estimate that even if you could see every card, only about 82% of Draw 3 deals could be won (Blake and Gent, 2019). Because the face-down cards are hidden in a real game, the share you can win in practice is lower. A loss is sometimes the deal, not you.
Standard scoring
With standard scoring on, you get 5 points for moving a waste card to the tableau, 10 for each card placed on a foundation and 5 for turning over a tableau card. Moving a card back from a foundation costs 15 points, and turning the waste over costs 100 points in Draw 1 or 20 points in Draw 3. The score never drops below zero, and there is no time bonus or penalty.
A short history
One-player card games first appear in European books in the late 18th century, and in Britain they are still called patience. Today "solitaire" on its own usually means Klondike. The name is often linked to the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, but there is no firm evidence for that; the rules we play today first appeared in the 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games as "Seven-Card Klondike". A version bundled with a PC operating system in 1990 made it one of the most played computer games in the world.