Play Klondike Solitaire Online for Free
Klondike Solitaire is the classic seven-column card game most people know simply as solitaire. This page gives the game its own exact landing page while the homepage covers the broader solitaire topic. You can play immediately with no signup, no download, undo, redo, hints, local settings, and a seed display.
What Is Klondike Solitaire?
Klondike uses a single deck. Seven tableau columns hold the active puzzle, the stock and waste control the draw order, and four foundations collect cards by suit. The hidden tableau cards create uncertainty, while the foundation rules create a clear winning target.
How to Play Klondike Solitaire
Move tableau cards downward by alternating color. Build foundations upward by suit, starting with Aces. Draw from the stock when no useful tableau move is available. Try to reveal face-down cards before making moves that only rearrange visible cards.
Klondike Solitaire Rules
Only Kings can move into empty tableau columns. A face-up sequence can move together if it is already in legal alternating order. The waste top card may move to a foundation or tableau pile when legal. The game is won when all four foundations reach King.
Strategy Tips
Reveal hidden cards early, keep empty columns for Kings, and avoid moving a card to the foundation if it is still needed to build a tableau sequence. In Draw 3, remember that playing a waste card changes which stock cards become reachable on the next pass.
Similar Solitaire Games
Try Turn 1 for a relaxed Klondike game or Turn 3 for the stricter classic draw. FreeCell is a good next game if you prefer planning without hidden cards.
Draw Mode Choices
The draw selector changes the rhythm more than the rules. Draw 1 gives steady access to the stock, so it is the better choice when you want a relaxed game or when you are learning how tableau decisions affect later moves. Draw 3 makes the waste order important. Only the visible top waste card can move, so a card that appears useful may need to wait until the next pass through the stock.
Switching modes is useful for practice, but a result in one mode should not be compared directly with a result in the other. The same seed can feel very different when the stock is revealed three cards at a time. If you are trying to improve, play a few seeds in Draw 1 to learn the board, then replay similar positions in Draw 3 and notice how much more careful waste management becomes.
Opening Priorities
The first priority is usually to reveal face-down tableau cards. A move that flips a hidden card gives you new information and often creates another legal move. By contrast, moving a visible card from one pile to another may only make the board look tidier. Before making a move, ask whether it reveals a card, opens a column, reaches an Ace, or improves stock access.
Low foundation cards are usually safe, especially Aces and Twos. Higher cards require more judgment because they can be useful as stepping stones in the tableau. For example, moving a red 6 to the foundation too early may remove the only destination for a black 5. The game allows undo, so you can test these choices, but the stronger habit is to notice support cards before committing.
Empty Columns
An empty column is powerful only when you can use it. In Klondike, a King or a King-led sequence is required. Clearing a column without a King ready can leave valuable space unused, while clearing it at the right time can unlock a long move and reveal several hidden cards. The best empty-column moves are planned one or two steps ahead.
When several Kings are available, prefer the King that brings the longest useful sequence or reveals the deepest hidden card. A lone King may fill the space but not improve access. A King with a well-ordered sequence beneath it can move multiple cards away from another column and open a better route to the foundations.
Hints, Undo, and Restart
Hints are most useful when the board has several legal options and you want a productive direction. They prioritize moves that reveal cards, open columns, or build safely. They do not guarantee a win, and they are not meant to play the game automatically. Use Apply Hint only after checking why the move helps.
Restart keeps the same seed, which is useful when you want to solve a position more cleanly. New Game creates a fresh seed. If a deal collapses, restarting and changing the first five moves teaches more than abandoning the board immediately. Many losses come from a single early choice that buried a needed card or spent an empty column too soon.
Common Klondike Mistakes
The biggest mistake is moving cards only because they can move. Legal does not always mean useful. Another mistake is sending every possible card to the foundations without checking whether that card supports a tableau build. Players also draw from the stock too quickly, skipping tableau moves that would reveal hidden cards first.
Good play is calmer. Scan the tableau, look at the waste, check foundation safety, and then move. The controls are designed to support that pace: undo for experiments, hints for direction, draw mode for difficulty, full screen for focus, and local autosave so an unfinished deal can wait.
Local Saves and Seeds
The current deal is stored locally, so reloading the page should not erase the board. The visible seed makes a position reproducible: Restart repeats it, while New Game creates a different shuffle. This is useful for practice because a difficult layout can be replayed with a new opening plan.
If a bug ever appears, the seed also gives a precise way to report the position. A report with the page, seed, draw mode, and last move is much easier to reproduce than a vague description of the board.
For normal play, the seed is also a learning tool. Replaying the same layout shows whether the first column clear, first foundation move, or first stock pass changed the entire outcome.