Patience classic · 1 player
Solitaire
Turn over the hidden cards, build four perfect foundations, and bring order to the whole deck.
Choose your version
How many cards will you draw?
The choice changes the game, illustrated guide and variant rules below.
Game complete
You cleared the table!
All 52 cards made it home in 0 moves and 00:00.
Reveal every card.
Build every suit.
Follow the illustrated examples, then use the complete rules below to check a detail. Select a card and then its destination.
Illustrated guide
See each move in place.
Examples are separate from the live game. Use Next to see how a deal unfolds.
Complete rules
The core text describes the Draw-One base game. Choose Draw-Three above to see its changes under Variants.
Origin & history
Klondike is one game in the larger family of single-player patiences. Such games appeared in printed European collections in the nineteenth century. Klondike later became one of the best-known versions, and computer editions made its seven-column layout familiar worldwide. Its exact origin and the history of its name are uncertain.
Objective
Move all 52 cards onto four foundations, one for each suit. Build each foundation from Ace to King.
Equipment & setup
Use one standard 52-card deck without Jokers. Deal seven tableau columns: one card in the first, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the seventh. Only the top card of each column is face up. The remaining 24 cards form the face-down stock. Leave room for a face-up waste pile and four empty foundations.
Gameplay
In the tableau, place a card on a card of the opposite colour and one rank higher: for example, a red 7 on a black 8. You may move a whole face-up descending, alternating-colour sequence in one move. When a face-down card becomes the last card in a column, flip it face up. Only a King, alone or leading a valid sequence, may fill an empty column.
Build foundations upward in the same suit, beginning with an Ace. Move a single exposed card from the tableau or the top of the waste to its foundation. You may also move the top card of a foundation back to the tableau when it fits. In this online game, select a card and then its destination; double-click an exposed card to move it directly to a foundation when legal.
Click the stock to draw one card onto the waste. Only the waste's top card is available to play. When the stock is empty, click its space to recycle the waste into the stock, preserving the cycle's order. You can repeat this without a fixed pass limit.
Scoring & points
This version has no point score. The move counter and timer record your progress, but only completing all four foundations wins the game.
End of game & winning
You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. If no useful move remains, the game tells you. Use Hint to look for a useful move, Undo to take back a move, or New game to try a fresh deal. An empty stock can be recycled from the waste before deciding that a deal is stuck.
Variants
Draw-One · base game
Turn one stock card onto the waste at a time. When the stock is empty, recycle the waste and continue with unlimited passes. Draw-Three uses the same tableau and foundation rules; select it above to see its stock rules.
Draw-Three
Use the same deal, tableau moves, foundations and winning condition as Draw-One. Each click on the stock turns up to three cards onto the waste; if only one or two remain, draw those. Only the top waste card is playable. After you play it, the card beneath becomes available. When the stock is empty, click it to recycle the waste in order. This online version allows unlimited passes, so some cards may remain out of reach until you change the waste by playing a card. No point scoring is used.
Category
Patience · Sorting · Building
Also known as
Klondike · Patience
Documented countries
International