Klondike Solitaire

👥 1 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Calm 🧩 Moderate ⏱ 10-30 minutes 🎂 Ages 8+

Quick Pitch

Klondike is the classic solitaire card game where you sort a shuffled deck into four foundation piles — one per suit from Ace to King — by carefully building and rearranging columns on the tableau.

Hook

You've got seven columns of cards, most of them face-down, and your job is to expose and move them until you can build all four suits from Ace up to King. You can place cards in descending order, alternating colors, to free up buried cards — but with only one draw pile and no undo button, every move matters. Most deals can be won with good play; some can't. Figuring out which is which is part of the puzzle.

Equipment Needed

  • One standard 52-card deck
  • Clear playing surface
  • Paper and pencil for optional score tracking

Setup

  1. Shuffle deck
  2. Deal 28 cards in cascade format:
    • Row 1: 1 card (K pile)
    • Row 2: 2 cards, first face-down, second face-up (2K pile)
    • Row 3: 3 cards, two face-down, one face-up (3K pile)
    • Continue until Row 7: 7 cards, 6 face-down, 1 face-up
  3. Remaining 24 cards form the stock pile
  4. Flip top card of stock to begin discard pile

Rules

Objective

Build four foundation piles (one per suit) from Ace to King. Move all cards to foundations to win.

Tableau (Cascade Piles)

Building rules:

  • Build in descending rank (K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-A)
  • Alternate colors (red-black-red-black, etc.)
  • Example: Red 7 can have Black 6 placed on it

Moving groups: You can move multiple cards together if they form a valid sequence

Empty column: When a column empties, any King can fill it

Foundations

Building rules:

  • Start with Ace
  • Build by same suit in ascending order (A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K)
  • Example: Ace of Spades can have 2 of Spades placed on it

Stock Pile

Drawing:

  • Flip cards from stock to discard pile one at a time (or three at a time in harder variant)
  • When stock exhausted, reshuffle discard pile into stock (typically allowed once, sometimes three times)

Gameplay

  1. Look for moves to foundations (automatic win if possible)
  2. Build tableau cascades strategically
  3. Expose face-down cards in tableau when possible
  4. Draw from stock when no moves available
  5. Continue until all cards reach foundations (win) or no moves possible (loss)

Winning

  • All 52 cards in foundations = Win
  • No valid moves with cards remaining = Loss

Expert Player

Tips

  1. Expose cards: Prioritize moves that expose face-down cards
  2. Ace/King priority: Look for foundations early; Kings open columns
  3. Sequence building: Build long sequences to unlock cards
  4. Empty columns: Use sparingly; save for Kings
  5. Stock awareness: Anticipate what cards remain in stock
  6. Cascade planning: Build cascades strategically to enable longer sequences
  7. Foundation timing: Don't rush foundations; foundations reduce maneuvering room

Variations

  • Three-card variant: Draw 3 cards at once from stock (harder)
  • One-card variant: Draw 1 card at a time (easier)
  • Vegas solitaire: Scoring system; win/lose money based on foundations cleared
  • Unlimited redeals: Reshuffle stock infinitely (until no moves)
Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Klondike's exact origins are uncertain, but the game is thought to have developed in North America in the late 19th century, possibly during or around the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s in the Yukon — though whether it was actually named for the gold rush or the name is coincidental is unclear. Solitaire games (called "Patience" in Britain) had been popular since the early 19th century, and Klondike became the dominant form in North America by the early 20th century.

The game's cultural reach exploded in 1990 when Microsoft included it as a default application in Windows 3.0. The decision to bundle Solitaire with Windows was partly practical — it was designed to teach users how to use a mouse by making dragging and dropping cards feel natural and low-stakes. The game became one of the most-played computer programs in history, almost certainly making Klondike the most-played solitaire variant in the world by the mid-1990s.

Cultural Context

Few games have had their popularity as completely transformed by technology as Klondike. Before Windows, it was a well-known card game played by millions. After Windows, it became something virtually every computer user had encountered — a constant background presence of offices, homes, and school computer labs through the 1990s and 2000s. Studies estimated that at its peak, office workers collectively spent millions of hours per day playing Windows Solitaire.

The game's win rate under standard rules (drawing three cards at a time) has been calculated at about 11–35% depending on the strategy used — meaning most games end in a loss, which gives each won game a satisfying feeling of achievement. Unlike FreeCell (where nearly every deal is solvable) or Spider Solitaire (very hard), Klondike occupies a satisfying middle ground: beatable enough to make winning feel earned, hard enough that it doesn't happen every time.

See Also