Types of solitaire

Hundreds of solitaire variations have been published, and any decent card-game app ships with a couple of hundred. That number is less intimidating than it sounds, because nearly all of them descend from a handful of families. Learn one game from each family and an unfamiliar variation becomes readable within a deal or two.

This page maps those families: what each one asks of you, which games belong to it, and where to start. If you have never played at all, begin with how to play solitaire and come back.

How solitaire games are classified

Three questions separate almost every game from almost every other:

• What do you build? Most games are builders: you assemble ordered sequences, either on foundations (Klondike, FreeCell) or in the tableau itself (Spider). Matching games instead ask you to pair or clear cards by rank (Pyramid, Golf).
• How much can you see? Games run from fully closed to fully open. Klondike hides 21 cards, Spider hides 44, and FreeCell hides none at all — which turns it from a game of discovery into a game of calculation.
• How many decks? One deck means shorter, tighter games. Two decks mean 104 cards, longer arcs, and far more planning.

The Klondike family

The default. Seven columns, four foundations built Ace to King by suit, a tableau built down in alternating colors, and a stock you turn over for cards you cannot yet see. Named for the Gold Rush, standardized by Microsoft, and still the game most people picture.

• Klondike Turn 1 — draw one card at a time. The friendliest serious solitaire, won roughly a third of the time.
• Klondike Turn 3 — draw three at a time, only the top one playable. Same cards, about half the wins, and a second board to track: the stock cycle.
• Vegas Klondike — the same game scored as a wager, typically with only three passes through the stock. Scoring is covered on our Klondike rules page.
• Double and Triple Klondike — two or three decks, nine or thirteen columns. Longer, more forgiving in the middle, harder to finish cleanly.

The Spider family

Two decks, ten columns, and no foundations at all: you build complete King-to-Ace runs inside the tableau, and each finished run leaves the table. Placement ignores suit but movement demands it, and that single asymmetry is the whole game.

• Spider, 1 suit — every descending move also builds a movable run. The teaching mode, won around 62% of the time.
• Spider, 2 suits — spades and hearts. The everyday game for most players, and where the suit-discipline tension starts.
• Spider, 4 suits — all four suits live. Around 6% of games are won without undo; arguably the hardest popular solitaire.
• Scorpion — one deck, Spider-style building by suit, and the ability to move any card with everything piled on top of it. Brutal and beloved.
• Spiderette — Spider's rules on a single deck and seven columns. A quicker, lighter cousin.

The FreeCell family

All 52 cards face up from the first move, plus four free cells to park single cards in. Nothing is hidden, so nothing is luck: if you lose a FreeCell deal, you were outplayed by the deal rather than ambushed by it. Roughly 99.99% of standard deals have a solution.

• FreeCell — the standard game. Eight cascades, four cells, four foundations.
• Baker's Game — identical, except the tableau builds down by suit instead of alternating colors. Much harder, and the game FreeCell was derived from.
• Eight Off — eight free cells instead of four, and building by suit. Gentler than Baker's Game, more forgiving than FreeCell.
• Double FreeCell — two decks, more cells, considerably longer.

The full ruleset, including the supermove formula that governs how many cards you can shift at once, is on our FreeCell rules page.

The Yukon family

Yukon deals like Klondike but abolishes the stock: every card is on the table from the start, most of them face up, and you may move any face-up card along with every card stacked on top of it, regardless of order. That one permission turns the game into a puzzle of excavation.

• Yukon — the base game, tableau built down in alternating colors.
• Russian Solitaire — Yukon built down by suit instead. Dramatically harder, and a favorite of players who find FreeCell too tidy.
• Alaska — a Yukon variant where tableau sequences may run up or down by suit, which sounds generous and rarely is.

Matching and adding games

A different pleasure entirely: no long sequences, just steady clearing. Rounds are short, rules take a minute, and outcomes lean more on the deal than on your judgment — which makes these the games people reach for when they want to unwind rather than concentrate.

• Pyramid — a 28-card pyramid cleared by removing pairs that total 13. Kings go alone, Queen plus Ace, Jack plus two, and so on.
• TriPeaks — three overlapping peaks cleared onto a waste pile by playing cards one rank above or below the current card, suit irrelevant. Fast and streaky.
• Golf — seven columns cleared onto a single waste pile by rank, up or down. Scored like the sport: fewer cards left is better.
• Clock — twelve piles in a clock face, played almost automatically. Close to pure chance, and traditionally used for fortune-telling rather than competition.

The big two-deck games

Where solitaire gets slow and demanding. These games run long, punish loose play, and reward the kind of player who enjoys a position more than a result.

• Forty Thieves — two decks, ten columns, all cards face up, and only one card may move at a time. Famously stingy; a low win rate is normal.
• Canfield — one deck but relentlessly difficult, with a reserve pile feeding the tableau and foundations that start on a random rank.
• Grandfather's Clock — two decks arranged around a clock face, each pile built to a designated rank. Unusually pleasant to look at, and quite winnable.

Which type should you play?

• You want the classic. Klondike — and once wins feel routine, Turn 3.
• You want to think, not guess. FreeCell. Every card visible, almost every deal solvable.
• You want a long, absorbing game. Spider, 2 suits — twenty minutes of real decisions.
• You want to be humbled. Spider, 4 suits, or Russian Solitaire if you find it.
• You want to unwind. Pyramid or TriPeaks — clearing without calculating.

A fuller head-to-head of the three games we host is in Klondike vs Spider vs FreeCell, and every term used on this page is defined in the glossary.

Frequently asked questions