How to play FreeCell

FreeCell is a solitaire game played with a single 52-card deck. Every card is dealt face up at the start, so there is no hidden information and no luck of the draw. Almost every deal can be solved with correct play, which is what separates FreeCell from Klondike.

The layout

• Eight tableau columns across the bottom. The deck is dealt left to right, so the first four columns hold seven cards and the last four hold six.
• Four free cells in the top left. Each holds exactly one card.
• Four foundations in the top right, one per suit.

The goal

Move all 52 cards to the foundations. Each foundation is built up in suit order, starting with the Ace and finishing with the King.

Legal moves

• Move the exposed card at the bottom of any column onto another column, if it is one rank lower and the opposite colour than the card it lands on. A red six goes on a black seven.
• Move any exposed card into an empty free cell.
• Move a card from a free cell back onto a column, or onto its foundation.
• Move a card to its foundation when it is the next rank up for that suit.
• Any card may be moved into an empty column. Empty columns are the most valuable resource in the game.

Cards do not come back off the foundations.

Moving more than one card at a time

You can drag an ordered run — cards descending in rank and alternating in colour — as a single move. This is a shortcut, not a separate rule: behind the scenes the cards are moved one at a time through your free cells and empty columns.

That is why the number you can move is limited:

(free cells + 1) × 2 ^ (empty columns)

With two free cells open and one empty column, you can move six cards at once. There is one catch: if you are moving the cards into the empty column, that column cannot also be used as workspace, so it does not count. The same move onto an occupied column would carry six cards; onto the empty column it carries three.

Winning

Every foundation topped by a King. Safe cards are sent up for you automatically — a card is only sent when no lower card of the opposite colour could still need it, so autoplay can never spoil a winnable deal.

A few pointers

• Empty a column early. An empty column doubles how many cards you can move, and it is worth more than a free cell.
• Do not fill all four free cells. A card sitting in a cell is a card doing nothing, and with every cell full you can only move one card at a time.
• Dig for Aces and low cards first. They are the ones you need out of the way soonest.
• Look at the whole board before your first move. Nothing is hidden, so every deal can be planned rather than guessed.