Klondike Solitaire: the complete guide to the classic card game
Klondike is the game most Americans mean when they say "Solitaire." One standard 52-card deck, seven columns, a stock pile, and four foundation piles that you fill from Ace to King, one suit each. It is quick to learn, genuinely hard to master, and small enough to finish over a cup of coffee.
This page is the reference guide: where the name comes from, the vocabulary, every rule as this site plays it, and a walk-through of your first game from the deal to the last King. If you want our research numbers on how many Klondike deals can be won with perfect play, the full breakdown lives on our main Solitaire page. Here we keep the numbers to a few and focus on the game itself.
You can play right here in your browser, free, with nothing to download and no account to create.
A gold-rush name and a Windows classic
The name points to the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon, famous for the gold rush of the late 1890s. According to the Wikipedia entry for Klondike (solitaire), the game's name is generally linked to that gold rush, and the game was already well known by the early twentieth century. Its exact origin is not documented, so treat any precise founding story with caution.
What is well documented is how the game reached almost every home and office. Microsoft included a version called simply "Solitaire" with Windows 3.0 in 1990, as described in Wikipedia's article on Microsoft Solitaire. Millions of people learned the game that way, which is why "Solitaire" and "Klondike" are used interchangeably in the United States today.
Outside North America you will often hear it called Patience. The rules are the same.
The vocabulary of Klondike
A few words come up constantly. Learn these and every strategy article suddenly makes sense.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Tableau | The row of seven piles across the middle, where you do most of your building. |
| Foundation | The four piles at the top, one per suit, built up from Ace to King. Filling all four wins the game. |
| Stock | The 24 cards not dealt to the tableau, waiting face down. |
| Waste | The face-up pile next to the stock, where drawn cards land. Its top card is playable. |
| Build | Placing a card on another card in the tableau: one rank lower and the opposite color, such as a red 6 on a black 7. |
| Run (or sequence) | A tidy stack of alternating-color, descending cards in a column, such as black 9, red 8, black 7. |
| Pass (or redeal) | Turning the waste back over to form the stock again once the stock runs out. |
| Turn 1 / Turn 3 | How many cards you flip from the stock at a time. This page plays Turn 1. |
Klondike rules on solitaire-online.us
Setting up the deal
The game deals 28 cards into seven columns. The first column gets one card, the second gets two, and so on up to seven cards in the last column. Each column shows just its top card; the rest stay hidden. The remaining 24 cards form the stock.
Tableau moves
- A face-up card can go onto a face-up card one rank higher of the opposite color.
- You can move a whole run at once, as long as its bottom card fits where you are placing it.
- When you move the last face-up card off a column, the card underneath turns face up.
- An empty column accepts a King, or a stack that begins with one, and nothing else.
Stock and waste
- A click on the stock flips a single card onto the waste. The top waste card can be played to the tableau or to a foundation.
- When the stock is empty, click it again to turn the waste back into a new stock. On this site there is no limit on the number of passes.
Foundation piles
- A foundation begins with an Ace, then takes the 2, 3 and higher cards of that same suit, in order, up to the King.
- You can move a card back from a foundation to the tableau if you need it to catch a lower card.
When the game is won
The game is won once the whole deck, all 52 cards, sits on the foundations. Once every card is face up and the rest is a formality, Auto Play will finish the game for you.
Wins, time and moves
This version does not use a points score. It tracks your wins, the time and the number of moves for the current game, so you have something to beat without any pressure.
A beginner's routine for game one
Here is a sensible routine for a brand-new player. It is not the only way to play, but it avoids the mistakes that lose most beginner games.
- Look before you touch anything. Scan the seven face-up cards. Any Aces go straight to the foundations. Any 2s of the same suit follow.
- Make the tableau moves that turn over a card. A move that reveals a hidden card is almost always worth more than one that does not. Prefer moves from the longest columns, since they hide the most cards.
- Only then turn the stock. Draw one card at a time and play it if it helps reveal something or builds toward the foundations.
- Keep an eye on empty columns. Do not empty a column unless you have a King ready to fill it. An empty column with no King available helps nobody.
- Play to the foundations steadily, not greedily. Aces and 2s can always go up. With higher cards, pause if a lower card of the other color still needs a home in the tableau.
- Go round the stock again. Cards you could not use on the first pass often become playable once the tableau has changed.
- When you are stuck, use Undo. Back up a few moves and try a different order. Undo is unlimited here, and there is nothing to lose by exploring.
A worked example of a good first move
Say the face-up cards are, from left to right: 9 of hearts, 4 of clubs, 10 of spades, Queen of diamonds, 5 of hearts, 8 of clubs, Jack of spades.
- The 9 of hearts can go on the 10 of spades. That empties column one, but you have no King to fill it, so that gain is small.
- The 4 of clubs can go on the 5 of hearts, which turns over a card in column two.
- The Jack of spades can go on the Queen of diamonds, which turns over a card in the seventh column, the one hiding six cards.
The best opening here is the Jack of spades onto the Queen of diamonds, because it starts digging into the column with the most hidden cards. The 4-on-5 move is also good. Emptying column one can wait until a King shows up.
How often can you expect to win?
We tested this game by computer, and two numbers are worth knowing before you start. First, a simple rule-based program that sees only what you see, and never undoes a move, won 42.3% of 10,000 deals. Second, a solver that is allowed to see every card, which is far more than any player can, proved 2.1% of 1,000 deals impossible to win. So most losses are not the deck's fault. Our main Solitaire page has the full set of results, including how many deals are winnable with perfect play.
Klondike and its relatives
Once you know Klondike, several other games feel familiar:
- Klondike Turn 3 uses the same layout but turns three stock cards at a time, which makes it much harder.
- Solitaire Double is Klondike with two decks and nine columns.
- Yukon Solitaire deals every card at the start and lets you move any face-up group.
- Easthaven Solitaire deals from the stock onto every column at once, and has no redeal.
The whole list is on our games page.
How we researched this game
The solitaire-online.us team tested Klondike by computer in September 2026. The main numbers are on our main Solitaire page. Here is the short version of how we worked.
- Rules from our own code. We read the game code behind this page and confirmed it is the same game, with the same rules and the same unlimited redeals, as our main Solitaire page. Only the Draw 1/Draw 3 switch points to a different page.
- A program version of the game. We rebuilt Klondike in Python and checked that the program makes only legal moves.
- Numbered deals. Every shuffle comes from a numbered seed, so any result can be repeated exactly.
- Two kinds of player. A rule-based program that sees only face-up cards gives a floor. A solver that sees every card gives a ceiling.
- Checking against published research. We compared our ceiling with Blake & Gent (2026), who report that 90.480% of Turn 1 deals are winnable with perfect knowledge. That figure falls within our range.
The technology we used
The study is written in Python 3.11 using only the standard library. The Klondike code lives in one module, klondike.py, and a shared runner spreads the deals across many processor cores with Python's multiprocessing. Every 95% range we publish is a Wilson score interval.
We used Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, to help write and review the code and to draft this guide. Claude did not supply any numbers. Every figure comes from running the programs, and the team checked the results against published research before they went live.
By Admin, solitaire-online.us (Solitairen OOD). Updated September 19, 2026.
Klondike guide FAQ
Is Klondike the same as regular Solitaire?
Yes. In the United States "Solitaire" almost always means Klondike. This page and our main Solitaire page run the same game.
What do I do with an empty column?
Save it for a King, or for a run that starts with a King. Only Kings can go there, so emptying a column early without a King ready gains you nothing.
Can I take a card back from a foundation?
Yes. This version lets you move a card back down if you need it to hold a lower card in the tableau.
Is there a limit on stock passes?
As many times as you like. There is no limit here.
Does the game keep a score?
No. The game tracks wins, time and moves instead, so you can play at your own pace.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. It runs in any modern browser. Tap a card and then its destination if dragging is awkward, and use the zoom control to make the cards bigger.