Klondike

Full rules

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

Overview

Klondike is the best-known patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire): it is the game that came with Microsoft Windows as "Solitaire". Your goal is to sort the whole deck into four piles, one for each suit, each running in order from Ace up to King. Not every deal can be won – that is part of the fun.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and a table with room for two rows of seven piles.

Card order and colours

In Klondike 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 the red suits, ♠ spades and ♣ clubs are the black suits.

The parts of the layout

• Tableau: the seven piles (columns) in the middle, where you rearrange the cards. The cards in a column are spread slightly downwards so you can see every face-up card.
• Foundations: four spaces above the tableau, one per suit. Here you collect the cards in order, starting with the Ace. At the start they are empty.
• Stock: the face-down pile of cards left over after dealing the tableau.
• Waste: the face-up pile next to the stock, onto which you turn cards from the stock.

Setup

Shuffle and deal seven columns from left to right:

1. Deal one card face up to column 1, then one card face down to each of columns 2–7.
2. Deal one card face up to column 2, then one face down to each of columns 3–7.
3. Carry on in the same way: each time, one face-up card on the next column and face-down cards on all the columns to its right.

In the end column 1 has 1 card, column 7 has 7 cards – 28 cards in all, and only the bottom card of each column – the one nearest to you, not covered by any other card – is face up.

Put the remaining 24 cards face down as the stock above the tableau, with room for the waste next to it and for the four foundations.

Playing

There are no turns – you simply make one move after another in any order you like. These are the moves:

1. To a foundation: an Ace that becomes available starts a foundation. Onto it you may put the 2 of the same suit, then the 3, and so on up to the King. You can play the bottom (uncovered) card of any column or the top card of the waste to a foundation.
2. Within the tableau: you may put a card onto the bottom card of a column if it is one rank lower and of the other colour – this is called building down in alternating colours. For example, a red 9 (9♥ or 9♦) can go onto a black 10, and a black 8 onto the red 9.
3. Moving a sequence: a correctly built group of face-up cards can be moved together, as a unit, onto another column, as long as its top card fits there. You may also move just the lower part of such a group.
4. Turning up cards: when you move away the last face-up card of a column, turn over the face-down card beneath it. It is now in play.
5. Empty columns: a column that is completely empty may only be filled with a King – either a King on its own or a King with the sequence built on it.
6. Using the stock: when you like (usually when you are stuck), turn the top card of the stock face up onto the waste. The top card of the waste can be played to a foundation or onto the tableau; the cards below it become available as soon as it is moved.
7. Starting the stock again: when the stock is empty, turn the waste over (without shuffling) so it becomes the new stock, and carry on. You may go through the stock as often as you like.
8. Back from a foundation: you may take the top card of a foundation back onto the tableau if it fits there, to help another move.

Example: The waste shows 6♦ and a column ends in 7♣. You put the 6♦ on the 7♣. Another column has 5♠ at the bottom with nothing face up above it – you move the 5♠ onto the 6♦ and turn up the face-down card that was under the 5♠: it is the A♥, which goes straight to a foundation.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards lie on the four foundations, each pile running from Ace to King in one suit. If you go through the whole stock without being able to make any move, the game is lost – shuffle and try again.

Tips for beginners

• Always play Aces and 2s to the foundations at once – they are never useful in the tableau.
• Turning up face-down cards is the most important thing. Prefer moves that free a hidden card, especially in the long columns on the right.
• Don't empty a column unless you have a King ready to go there.
• Don't rush other cards to the foundations – you may still need a red 5 to hold a black 4.
• If two cards could move to the same place, pick the one from the column with more face-down cards.

Variants

All of these are optional – choose one before you start.

• Draw three: turn the stock over three cards at a time onto the waste (keeping their order), and only the top one of those three is playable; the one below becomes available when you play it. At the end, turn the waste over and go through again, as often as you like. Much harder than draw one.
• Limited passes: allow only one pass through the stock with draw one, or three passes with draw three.
• Vegas scoring: you "pay" 52 points (one per card) at the start and gain 5 points for every card put on a foundation – 11 cards to break even, 208 points profit for a won game. Draw one allows only one pass through the stock, draw three three passes. Keep a running total over several games.
• Computer scoring (as in Windows): waste to tableau +5, card to a foundation +10, turning up a tableau card +5, foundation back to tableau −15.
• Thoughtful (open) Klondike: deal everything face up so you can plan the whole game in advance.