Practice Solitaire with a coach

New to Solitaire? Read the full rules · All practice games

The Solitaire table

The practice game needs JavaScript. The rules page has everything you need to play for real.

Coach

Goal: get all 52 cards onto the four home piles, one pile for each suit, in order from the ace up to the king. When every card is home, you have won. Undo has no limit, so you can try things without fear.

What just happened

Tips appear here as you play.

Your progress

Remember my progress on this device

Off by default. When it is on, the totals in the table above are saved in this browser only and never sent anywhere. Pressing Reset progress, or turning this off, deletes them.

About this practice game

One player, one deck of 52 cards. Seven columns of cards are dealt, and your job is to move every card onto four home piles, one pile for each suit, in order from the ace up to the king. You dig down through the hidden cards by building the columns in alternating colors. Press Hint for a suggestion and Undo as often as you like. Not every deal can be won. New to the game? Press Watch a narrated deal above the table to see the computer play a whole deal, with every move explained and the hidden cards left hidden, as in a real game.

Keep going

Privacy · SelectACard home

How Solitaire works

One player, one deck. You play against the cards, not against another person. This is the game most people simply call Solitaire. Its other name is Klondike. Cards go in this order, lowest to highest: A (ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J (jack), Q (queen), K (king). A card's place in this order is its rank, so a 7 is one rank higher than a 6.
The seven columns. The cards are dealt into seven columns, left to right, with 1 card in the first column, 2 in the second, and so on up to 7 in the last. Only the last card of each column (the one lowest on the screen) is face up. The cards above it are face down, which means hidden.
The draw pile. The other 24 cards are the draw pile, at the top left. Click it to turn cards over onto the turned-over pile next to it, one card at a time or three at a time (you choose with the buttons under the table). You can only play the top card of the turned-over pile. When the draw pile is used up, click its empty space to turn the turned-over pile back over, and go through it again as many times as you like.
Building down in the columns. A card can go onto a card of the other color that is one rank higher: a red 6 onto a black 7, a black 7 onto a red 8. So a column runs downward, alternating red and black.
Moving several cards at once. Cards that already follow each other in order, such as a black 7, a red 6 and a black 5, can move together. Pick up the first card of the part you want to move, and the cards below it come with it.
Hidden cards turn over by themselves. When you move all the face-up cards out of a column, the hidden card above them turns face up.
Empty columns take only a king. When a column has no cards left, only a king (alone, or with the cards below it) can go there.
The home piles. The four home piles are at the top right, one for each suit. Each pile starts with the ace, then the 2, then the 3, and so on up to the king, one card at a time. You never have to send a card home. In this practice game a card that is home stays home.
Winning, and not winning. You win when all 52 cards are on the home piles. Not every deal can be won, even by a perfect player. When the game can prove that a deal can no longer be won, it says so.

How to use this page

Click a card to pick it up (it gets a red outline, and so do the cards below it). Then click where it goes: another column, an empty column, or its home pile. Click the card again to put it down. The line at the top of the board lists where the picked-up cards can go, and those places are outlined.
Double-click a card to send it home when it can go. The Auto button sends home every card that is safe to send, one after another (see the strategy below). Once every card is face up, it often finishes the whole deal.
Click the draw pile to turn over cards. Click the turned-over card to pick it up.
Hint points at one good move with a gold outline and says why it is good. Undo takes back your last move, and you can press it again and again. New deal shuffles and starts over.
Under the table, 1 card and 3 cards set how many cards the draw pile turns over at a time. One at a time is easier. Changing it starts a new deal.
With the keyboard: press Tab to move between the draw pile, the turned-over pile, the home piles and the columns. In a column, the up and down arrow keys move between its cards and the left and right arrow keys move to the next column. Enter or Space picks a card up and puts it down. H sends the card you are on home. Escape puts it down.
The counters show how many moves you have made and how many cards are home. There is no timer, and nothing is scored.
To watch instead of play, press Watch a narrated deal above the table. The computer plays a whole deal, and every move is explained: what could be moved, which move it chose and why. Hidden cards stay hidden, as in a real game. Press Next and Back (or the arrow keys) to step, Play to let it run on its own, and Jump to to skip ahead. Back to playing returns to your game exactly as you left it.

Four things beginners miss

Uncover hidden cards first. You cannot win until every card is face up. When you can choose between moves, take the one that turns over a hidden card, and prefer the column with the most hidden cards.
Do not rush cards home. A card on a home pile can no longer hold another card in the columns. An ace can go home at any time, and a 2 as soon as its ace is there. A higher card is safe to send home once the two cards of the other color that are one rank lower are already home: then no card can still need to go on it. Auto follows exactly this rule.
Think before emptying a column. Only a king can go into an empty column. If you empty one and no king is ready to go in, the space may stay empty for a long time. Empty a column when a king is waiting.
Keep red and black in step. The cards that can go on a card are the two of the other color, one rank lower. So keep the home piles of the two colors close together: do not send a red card up far ahead of the black piles, or the black cards lose a place to go (and the other way round).

Common beginner mistakes

Turning over the draw pile when a hidden card could be turned over instead. The draw pile is always there; the hidden cards are the ones that decide the game.
Sending a card home too early. It feels like progress, but a card that is home cannot hold a card in the columns any more. If you did it by mistake, press Undo.
Emptying a column with no king ready. The empty column does nothing for you until a king arrives.
Moving a king into an empty column without looking. If a king is in a column that still has hidden cards, moving that king turns a hidden card over. Prefer it to a king that already starts a column or comes from the turned-over pile.
Giving up too soon. Press Hint, or press Undo and try a different way. The game tells you when it can prove a deal cannot be won any more.

The full rules page →

Draw pile turns over

Coach ↓