FreeCell

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and colours
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Playing
6. Moving several cards at once
7. Winning
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

FreeCell is a patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) in which every card is face up from the start. Your goal is to sort the whole deck onto four piles, one per suit, from Ace up to King. Four free cells – parking spaces for one card each – help you untangle the columns. Because nothing is hidden, almost every deal can be won with careful planning.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and room for eight columns plus eight single spaces above them.
• Time: about 5–15 minutes per game.

Card order and colours

The Ace is low. From lowest to highest:

A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K

♥ hearts and ♦ diamonds are red, ♠ spades and ♣ clubs are black.

The parts of the layout

• Tableau: the eight columns in the middle. The cards in a column are spread downwards so you can see all of them.
• Exposed card: the last card of a column – the one nearest to you, not covered by any other card. Only this card can be moved.
• Free cells: four spaces above the tableau, on the left. Each can hold exactly one card of any kind.
• Foundations: four spaces above the tableau, on the right, one per suit. Here you collect the cards in order, starting with the Ace. At the start they are empty.

Setup

Shuffle and deal all 52 cards face up, row by row from left to right, into eight columns. Columns 1–4 get 7 cards, columns 5–8 get 6 cards. Leave room above for the four free cells and the four foundations.

Playing

There are no turns – you make one move after another. Strictly speaking, you always move one card at a time: an exposed card, or a card from a free cell. It may go:

1. To a foundation: an Ace starts a foundation; then the 2 of the same suit, the 3, and so on up to the King.
2. Onto another column: onto an exposed card that is one rank higher and of the other colour – this is called building down in alternating colours. A red 9 goes onto a black 10, a black 8 onto the red 9.
3. Into an empty free cell – any card, one per cell.
4. Into an empty column – any card (not only a King).

Cards in a free cell stay there until you play them to a column or a foundation. Cards on a foundation stay there.

Example: Column 2 ends in 10♠ 4♦ and you need the 10♠ for the 9♥ at the end of column 7. Put the 4♦ in a free cell, move the 9♥ onto the 10♠, and later bring the 4♦ back onto a black 5.

Moving several cards at once

Often you want to move a whole sequence (e.g. 8♣ 7♥ 6♠) onto another column. By the strict rules you'd move it card by card, parking the lower cards in free cells and empty columns on the way. As a shortcut you may move the whole sequence at once – as long as you have enough free spaces to do it card by card:

• With no empty column, you can move free cells + 1 cards: with 2 empty free cells, a sequence of 3.
• Each empty column doubles that number: 2 empty free cells and 1 empty column let you move 6 cards.
• If the sequence is going into an empty column, that column doesn't count.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. If you are stuck – every free cell is full and no card can move anywhere useful – the game is lost.

Tips for beginners

• Look before you move. Everything is visible, so plan several moves ahead.
• Free Aces and 2s early – look for where they are buried.
• Keep free cells empty. Each full cell makes you less flexible; avoid filling all four.
• An empty column is worth more than a free cell. Don't fill it with a single low card.
• Don't rush low cards of one colour to the foundations if you still need them to hold cards of the other colour.

Variants

All optional:

• Fewer free cells: play with only three, two or one free cell – much harder.
• Baker's Game: the older ancestor of FreeCell – build down in suit (a 9♥ only on the 10♥) instead of in alternating colours. Harder.
• Relaxed FreeCell: you may move sequences of any length, no matter how many spaces are free.