Klondike Solitaire

Klondike Solitaire is THE solitaire — the single-deck card game that’s been bundled with Microsoft Windows since 3.0 (1990) and is probably the most-played video game in computing history. Estimated to have been played by hundreds of millions of people for hundreds of millions of hours collectively. Microsoft specifically included it to teach early Windows users how to drag and drop with a mouse — a function that, in 1990, was genuinely novel.

How to play

• Setup: 7 tableau columns. Column 1 has 1 card, column 2 has 2, … column 7 has 7. Top card of each column is face up. Remaining 24 cards form the stock pile.
• Foundations (top-right): build up by suit, A → 2 → 3 → … → K. Goal is all 52 cards on the four foundations.
• Tableau: build down by alternating colour. A black 7 goes on a red 8. A red Q goes on a black K.
• Stock: click to flip cards to the waste pile. Top of waste is playable.
• Empty tableau columns: only Kings (or sequences starting with King) can fill them.
• Win condition: all 52 cards on the four foundations.

Beginner strategy

• Always play Aces and 2s to foundations immediately. They can’t help you in the tableau — they’re only blockers there.
• Uncover face-down tableau cards first. The single biggest source of new moves is flipping face-down cards. Prioritize moves that expose them, even at the cost of building foundations.
• Don’t rush to foundations. A 4 or 5 still in the tableau might be useful for stacking. Hold low cards until you have no other use for them.
• Empty columns are gold. An empty tableau column lets you park any sequence temporarily. Don’t fill an empty column with a King unless you must — keep it as flex space.
• Drawing from stock is irreversible. Once stock is empty and you’ve cycled through waste once, the recycle costs you score points. Plan stock draws after exhausting tableau-only moves.

Intermediate strategy

• The “color block” play. If you have a black K-Q-J-10 sequence and a red Q-J-10 elsewhere, you can rearrange them around. Moving the Q-J-10 onto your K creates options for the other sequence’s J.
• Don’t break a Kings’s stack to play to foundations. A K-Q-J-10-9 sequence is more valuable to leave intact (it accepts an 8, opening more chains) than to break for a foundation play.
• Watch the buried Aces. If a foundation Ace is sitting at the bottom of a tableau column under 4+ face-down cards, your win odds plummet. Recognize unwinnable boards within 10-15 moves.
• Three-card vs one-card draw. Three-card draw (the classic Microsoft default) is harder — you only see every third card from stock. One-card draw lets you choose any card from waste in sequence, making winnable rate jump from ~33% to ~82%.
• Move from the right column. When you have a choice of which tableau column to draw from, prefer rightmost (column 7 has the most face-down cards behind its sequences).

Advanced strategy and scoring

• Microsoft scoring system: +10 for tableau-to-foundation moves; +5 for flipping a face-down card; +5 for waste-to-tableau; -2 per 10 seconds elapsed; -15 per stock recycle. Total score targets: 1000+ is good, 1500+ is expert.
• Vegas scoring: -52 (cost of “buying” the deck), +5 per card sent to foundation. Net positive only if you complete a significant portion.
• Look ahead 2-3 moves. Each “first” move chains into setting up several others. Expert players evaluate the resulting board state, not just the immediate move.
• Use Hold/Undo strategically. Undo doesn’t penalize Microsoft scoring (in newer versions). Try a sequence, undo if it leads nowhere, try another.
• Recognize the “trap states”. Sometimes a move is technically legal but locks you into a worse position. Common trap: moving the only black 8 onto a red 9 when you needed the 8 for a different sequence.

The math: how often is Klondike winnable?

• One-card draw, perfect play: approximately 82% of deals are winnable.
• Three-card draw, perfect play: approximately 79% of deals are winnable.
• Human play wins much less. Even strong human players win 30-50% of winnable deals — the optimal play tree is too large to track manually.
• Solver complexity: determining if a Klondike deal is winnable is NP-hard. No app reliably labels “this deal is winnable” without exhaustive (or heuristic) search.
• Why the 18%/21% unwinnable: blocked Aces under face-down stacks. If an Ace is buried under cards that can’t be moved, the foundation for that suit can never be completed.

Klondike’s history

• 1850s — Klondike origins: the game’s exact origin is disputed. The Klondike name probably references the Yukon Gold Rush; the game spread via 19th-century miners’ cabins.
• 1893 — first publication: “Patience Games” by Lady Adelaide Cadogan describes Klondike with rules close to the modern version.
• 1990 — Microsoft Windows 3.0: Susan Kare and Wes Cherry write the Microsoft Solitaire implementation. Cherry famously was paid nothing for the work, which Microsoft has now bundled with 1+ billion installs.
• 2015 — Microsoft Solitaire Collection: the bundled Solitaire moves to a separate Store download in Windows 10. Public outcry; Microsoft restores a free version with ads.
• 2019 — Microsoft Solitaire inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Common mistakes

• Building foundations too aggressively. Sending every available card to foundations removes options from the tableau.
• Not uncovering face-down cards. The whole point of mid-game play is to expose more board state. Moves that don’t flip a face-down card are usually low-value.
• Filling empty columns immediately. An empty column is a tool; don’t burn it on the first available King.
• Cycling stock without playing. Each stock cycle costs score and rarely changes the board state. If you’ve cycled twice without a single new move, the deal is probably unwinnable.

Variants worth playing

• Spider Solitaire. Two decks, 10 columns. Build same-suit runs from K to A to clear them.
• FreeCell. All 52 cards face-up; 4 “free” cells for parking single cards. Estimated 99%+ winnable with perfect play.
• Pyramid Solitaire. Triangular layout; match pairs that sum to 13.
• Yukon. Like Klondike but all cards are dealt to the tableau (no stock), with all face-up cards visible. Higher win rate.
• TriPeaks. Climb three pyramids by playing one card above or below the current waste card.

FAQ

• Q: Is Klondike the same as Patience? A: “Patience” is the umbrella term in British English for any single-player card game. Klondike is the most famous Patience variant.
• Q: One-card or three-card draw? A: Three-card is the classic Microsoft default — and harder. One-card has a much higher win rate but is considered less interesting by purists.
• Q: Can I always win with skill? A: No. About 18-21% of randomly-dealt Klondike games are mathematically unwinnable from the start (typically due to blocked Aces).
• Q: Why use alternating colours instead of suits? A: Alternating colours give 2 valid placements for any card (e.g. a red 7 goes on any black 8), keeping the puzzle solvable. Suit-strict alternation would make most deals unwinnable.

For other solitaire variants, try Spider Solitaire, FreeCell, Pyramid Solitaire, or Solitaire.