Klondike Solitaire Rules
The quick, plain-language rulebook for Klondike Solitaire — great for settling “is that move legal?”
If you’re learning from scratch, How to Play is the friendlier on-ramp. If you want diagrams and examples, try the Walkthrough.
Want a shorter version? See How to Play.
Goal
Build four suit piles from Ace to King. The goal is to clear the deal and waste piles and turn every card face up in the columns. Once the deal and waste piles are empty and all cards are face up, auto-win finishes the remaining moves for you.
Setup
- Play area: 7 columns. Deal 1 card in the first column, 2 in the next, and so on up to 7. Only the top card in each column starts face up.
- Deal pile: the remaining cards face down.
- Waste pile: cards drawn from the deal pile go here face up.
- Suit piles: 4 empty goal piles, one for each suit. Any Ace can start — the order doesn’t matter.
Any Ace can start — suit piles can be built in any order.
Legal Moves
- Move within the play area: build down in descending order by alternating colors (for example, a black 7 on a red 8). You can move a stack of face-up cards together.
- Move to suit piles: build up by suit from Ace to King, one card at a time.
- Empty columns: only a King (or a stack starting with a King) can move into an empty column.
In the columns, stack cards in descending order and alternate colors.
Example: red 7 on black 8, then black 6 on red 7.
Draw Rules
- Tap the deal pile to flip cards to the waste pile.
- When the deal pile is empty, tap it to recycle the waste pile back into the deal pile.
- In our game, you can choose Draw 1 or Draw 3 when starting a new deal.
Auto-win
When the deal and waste piles are empty and all cards are face up, auto-win completes the last moves to the suit piles so you do not have to drag each one manually.
What Counts as a Move?
A “move” is a single action that changes the layout of the game.
- Moving a card (or a stack) between columns.
- Moving a card to a suit pile.
- Dealing from the deal pile to the waste pile (Draw 1 or Draw 3 counts as one move per tap).
Flipping a card face up (automatic reveal, or a manual tap when Auto-flip is off) doesn’t count as an extra move. Recycling the waste back into the deal pile also doesn’t add a move — it just resets what you can draw.
We animate cards when they move so you can track what changed and learn the flow of the game.
More Coming
We are planning more features across all of our games. Thanks for playing and helping us shape what comes next.
Have a question? See the Solitaire FAQ.