The complete rules of Klondike solitaire — layout, legal moves, empty columns and the win condition — plus six tips that measurably raise your win rate.
| Tableau | Seven columns — 1 card in the first, 2 in the second, up to 7 in the seventh. Only the top card of each column starts face up. |
| Stock | The remaining cards, drawn when you run out of moves. |
| Foundations | Four empty slots, one per suit. |
| Goal | Move all 52 cards to the foundations, each built ace → king in suit. |
| Tableau | Build down in alternating colours — red seven on black eight, black six on red seven. |
| Empty column | Only a king (or a sequence headed by one) may fill it. |
| Face-down | Clear what sits on top of a face-down card to flip it. |
| Winning | All 52 cards on the four foundations. |
Klondike is the game most people picture when they hear "solitaire" — the one that shipped with Windows and taught a generation to drag cards with a mouse. It uses a standard 52-card deck and one player.
Deal seven columns: one card in the first, two in the second, up to seven in the seventh. Only the top card of each column starts face up. The remaining 24 cards become the stock. Four foundation slots sit empty above, one per suit.
In the tableau, build downward in alternating colours — a red seven onto a black eight, a black six onto that red seven. You may move a single card or an entire ordered sequence.
Foundations build upward in suit, ace first, then two, and so on to king. Get all four foundations to king and you have won.
An empty column can only be filled by a king, or by a sequence headed by one. This restriction is the single most important structural rule in the game.
Play aces and twos up immediately. They can never be useful in the tableau, since nothing builds onto them, so there is no cost to banking them.
Do not empty a column without a king ready to fill it. Empty columns are the most valuable resource in Klondike, and an empty one you cannot fill is worse than no empty column at all — you have spent a slot for nothing.
Always prefer the move that flips a face-down card. Every card revealed is new information and a new option. Between two otherwise equal moves, take the one that uncovers something.
Play the visible cards before cycling the stock. Once you start drawing mindlessly you commit to whatever happens to be in front of you.
Do not send 3s and 4s to the foundation too early. A four on the foundation cannot receive a three in the tableau any more. Low cards are often more useful staying down where they can accept a card.
Between two equal options, empty the longer column. It uncovers more cards and buys more future flexibility.
No. Somewhere around 80% of Klondike deals are theoretically solvable with perfect play and full information, but a real player seeing only the face-up cards wins far less often than that. Drawing one card at a time wins considerably more often than drawing three.