How to play Klondike Solitaire

In this guide, we will teach you how to play Klondike Solitaire. To help make the guide as good as possible, we will be using Solitaire FRVR as the example game.

You can also watch this tutorial as a video on YouTube:

The elements of the game board

A classical game of Klondike Solitaire has four individual card piles as shown below. Notice that these piles might move around depending on screen resolution. However don't be worried the rules are exactly the same.

Let's take a look at the individual piles.

  1. Goals Four goals.
  2. Preview The preview with face-up cards.
  3. Pile The pile with face-down cards.
  4. Columns The seven columns that make up the main table.

Starting a new game

The columns are numbered from 1 to 7 from left to right. When starting a new game column 1 has one card, column 2 has two cards, column 3 has three cards, and so on. The reminder of the cards are face-down in the pile. Preview and Goals are all empty when a new game is started.

How to win

To win Klondike Solitaire you must move all the cards to the four goals. Each goal can only hold one suit and you must put the cards in the following order Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Jack, Queen and King.

How to play

To play and win the game, use the below moves to complete the game.

  • Moving cards You can move cards by dragging them between the piles. If you simply click a card Solitaire FRVR will try to move the card to the best possible position.
  • Flip cards from the Pile (3) to the Preview (2) You can flip cards from the pile (3) to the preview (2) by clicking the Pile. You can flip either one card or three card per click depending on if you play draw 1 or draw 3 solitaire. In Solitaire FRVR you change the game mode in the sidebar menu.
  • Moving cards to a Columns (4) You can move a face-up card to a Column (4) if the Columns (4) top card is one higher in value and a different color. For example you could move a black 4 onto a red 5.
  • Moving new cards to Columns (4) You can move new face-up cards from both the Preview (2) and the Goals (1) to the Columns (4), however you can only ever move the top-most card from either piles.
  • Moving cards to empty Columns (4) Only Kings can be moved to an empty Column (4)
  • Moving cards between Columns (4) You can move both single cards and sets of multiple face-up cards between the Columns (4). Moving a set of multiple face-up cards, work exactly as moving a single card, except you are moving multiple cards at once.
  • Moving cards to the Goals (1) To start moving cards to the Goals (1) you must first move an Ace to an empty Goal (1). You can move any Ace to any Goal (1). Hereafter you can move cards of the same suit as the Ace to the Goal (1). However you must do so in the following order Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Jack, Queen and King. If you click a card that can be moved to a Goal (1) it will automatically be moved there.
  • Auto completing the game When the Pile (3) and Preview (2) are empty and all Column (4) cards are face-up, Solitaire FRVR will automatically move the renaming cards to the Goals (1) and thereby complete the game.
  • Undo moves Solitaire FRVR allows you to undo an unlimited amount of times. Simply click the undo button in the bottom right corner.

More information

This tutorial is brought to you by FRVR who retains the copyright hereto.