FreeCell Solitaire

FreeCell Solitaire is a variation of the classic Solitaire game where the goal is to build up foundations from Ace to King in the same suit. FreeCell was invented by Paul Alfille in the mid-1970s as a video game for the PLATO computer system.

How to Play FreeCell Solitaire

Setup

FreeCell Solitaire uses a standard 52-card deck. Here’s how the game is set up:

• All cards are dealt face up into 8 tableau piles. The first four piles each get 7 cards, and the last four piles each get 6 cards.
• There are 4 free cells located at the top left of the screen. These cells can hold one card each and are used for temporarily storing cards.
• There are 4 foundation cells located at the top right of the screen. The goal is to build these foundations up in suit from Ace to King.

Objective

The objective of FreeCell Solitaire is to move all cards to the four foundation piles, building each pile up in suit from Ace to King.

Rules

• The top cards of the tableau piles and cards in the free cells are available to play.
• You may build tableau piles by placing cards in descending order and alternating colors (e.g., a red 9 on a black 10).
• Only one card can be moved at a time. (With an exception for our online version, see below for details).
• The top card of any tableau pile can be moved to an empty free cell. Each free cell can hold only one card.
• Cards in the free cells can be moved to the foundation piles or back to the tableau piles.
• Any card can be placed on an empty tableau cell.

Even though rules state that only one card can be moved at a time, as a shortcut our game allows moving a sequence of cards if there are enough empty free cells or tableau cells, as it would be possible to achieve the same result by moving cards one by one to free cells and back to tableau.

Variations

• FreeCell Two Decks - same as FreeCell but double the cards, foundations and free cells.
• Eight Off - like FreeCell but with four additional free cells.