Solitaire is a family of single-player card games, not one game. The five you will meet most often are Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid and TriPeaks. Klondike is the classic most people mean by "solitaire", FreeCell rewards careful planning, and Spider is the hardest of the three when played with four suits.

Quick comparison

Game Cards Main rule Difficulty Luck or skill
Klondike 1 deck (52) Build down in alternating colors Medium Mixed
Spider 2 decks (104) Build complete King-to-Ace runs in one suit Easy (1 suit) to very hard (4 suits) Mostly skill
FreeCell 1 deck (52) All cards face up, 4 free cells to park cards Medium Almost all skill
Pyramid 1 deck (52) Remove pairs that add up to 13 Easy to medium Mostly luck
TriPeaks 1 deck (52) Take cards one higher or lower than the last Easy Mixed

Klondike

Setup: 28 cards are dealt into 7 columns, with 1 card in the first column up to 7 in the last. Only the top card of each column is face up. The other 24 cards form the stock.

Goal: move all 52 cards to four foundation piles, one per suit, from Ace up to King.

Rules:

  1. In the columns, place a card on one that is one rank higher and the opposite color, such as a red 6 on a black 7.
  2. You can move a correctly ordered group of cards together.
  3. Only a King, or a group starting with a King, can fill an empty column.
  4. Turn cards from the stock one at a time (Draw 1) or three at a time (Draw 3). Draw 3 is harder.

Tip: turn over face-down cards in the longest columns first. They hide the most cards.

Spider

Setup: two decks (104 cards) are dealt into 10 columns: the first 4 get 6 cards and the other 6 get 5 cards, with only the top card face up. The remaining 50 cards are dealt later, 10 at a time, one onto each column.

Goal: build 8 complete runs from King down to Ace in a single suit. A finished run leaves the table automatically.

Rules:

  1. Any card can go on a card one rank higher, whatever the suit.
  2. Only a run of the same suit can be moved together.
  3. You can only deal from the stock when no column is empty.

Versions: 1-suit Spider uses only spades and is a good starting point. 2-suit and 4-suit versions are much harder, because mixed-suit runs cannot move as a group.

Tip: empty columns are the most valuable thing in Spider. Use them to reorder cards, not to park a single card.

FreeCell

Setup: all 52 cards are dealt face up into 8 columns: 4 columns of 7 and 4 of 6. There are 4 empty "free cells" and 4 foundations.

Rules:

  1. Build down in alternating colors, as in Klondike.
  2. Each free cell holds one card. Use them to move cards out of the way.
  3. Any card can fill an empty column.

Because every card is visible from the start, FreeCell is almost pure skill. Of the 32,000 numbered deals in the original Microsoft version, only one (number 11982) is known to be impossible.

Tip: keep free cells empty for as long as you can. A full set of free cells usually means you are stuck.

Pyramid

Setup: 28 cards form a pyramid of 7 rows, each row overlapping the one above.

Rules: remove two uncovered cards whose values add up to 13. Aces count as 1, Jacks 11 and Queens 12, and a King (13) is removed on its own. You can also pair a card with the top card of the stock or waste pile.

Tip: before you remove a pair, check whether one of those cards is needed to free a card further down.

TriPeaks

Setup: 28 cards form three overlapping peaks. One card starts the waste pile.

Rules: take any uncovered card that is one rank higher or lower than the top waste card, in any suit. In most versions you can go from King to Ace and back. When no move is left, turn a new card from the stock.

Tip: long chains score the most. Before you take a card, look for the move that keeps the chain going longest.

Which solitaire should you play?

  • New to solitaire: start with Klondike (Draw 1) or TriPeaks.
  • You like planning: FreeCell, where almost every deal can be won.
  • You want a long challenge: Spider with 2 or 4 suits.
  • You have five minutes: Pyramid or TriPeaks.

All of these are free to play in your browser on Gameziko, with no download.