If you are stuck and cannot move any more cards, draw from your stockpile until you have something you can use in your tableau. The aim is to pull the cards from your tableau to your four foundation piles – if you manage to do this successfully, you will have won the game! While playing, you should hopefully build sequences of cards in order, from ace to king, for each suit (traditionally, spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs).

For example, if you have one column that ends with a red 5 card, and another that starts with a black 4 card, you can move the black 4 card (together with any lower cards connected to it) over to the red 5 card to free up space.Īces can only be used at the bottom of columns, so you’ll want to keep these in your foundation. You can also stack columns within the tableau on top of each other if they follow the correct pattern (alternating colors and descending order).

If you have an empty column and no corresponding card to fill it with, you can fill it with a king card or a stack of cards with a king at the base. If you remove a face-up card from the tableau, you can reveal the face-down card underneath it and use it in the game. This way, the aces go first and then you stack up the cards on them up to the kings. The cards are moved to the foundation piles in the reverse order. Here is the order in which sequences of cards must be built on the tableau: You can move cards from the tableau to the foundation by matching them by rank and color in ascending order. Your main goal when playing solitaire is to build up your foundation piles by suit, starting with the ace and ending with the king.

Waste: A pile of discarded cards that are no longer in play.

Stock: A deck of cards you can draw from if you’re stuck or need help.

Foundation: Four piles of cards – these are the piles you are trying to build from your tableau in the ascending order, from ace to king.

Tableau: Seven columns of cards – this is where you build the game.

There are a couple of terms you’ll need to know before you begin: It doesn’t matter if you’re playing with a real deck of cards or online for free – the method and layout of classic solitaire are the same. While you are not playing against other players, there are still a few things to remember. If you want to play solitaire, it is important to understand the game’s rules.

Online classic solitaire