By Noyon Rahman · Updated August 2026 · Reviewed for accuracy against the live game

About FreeCell Solitaire

FreeCell is the thinking player's solitaire. Where Klondike hides cards in a stock pile and Spider buries them in the tableau, FreeCell shows you all fifty-two cards face up from the very first move. There is no luck after the deal — no stock to dig through, no hidden card to hope for. The entire game is played in the open, and almost every deal is winnable. That single design choice is why FreeCell developed a devoted following when it shipped with Windows in the 1990s, and why it is still considered by many players to be the most satisfying solitaire variant ever made. If you lose, it is almost never the cards' fault.

How to Play FreeCell Solitaire

All fifty-two cards are dealt face up into eight tableau columns — the first four columns hold seven cards each and the last four hold six. Above the tableau sit four free cells and four foundations. Build tableau columns downward in alternating colours: a red 8 can be placed on a black 9, and so on. Build the foundations upward by suit, starting with the four Aces and finishing with the Kings. You may move any single card into an empty free cell, and you may move onto an empty tableau column freely. Longer runs of consecutively descending, alternating-colour cards can be moved together, but only if you have enough free cells and empty columns to hold the intermediate cards — the more free cells and empty columns you have, the longer the run you can shift. The game is won when all four foundations are complete. Click a card to select it, then click its destination; or double-click a card to send it straight to a foundation.

Tips & Strategies

Keep free cells empty. They are your flexibility, and spending all four is usually how a game is lost rather than won.
Empty tableau columns are even more valuable than free cells — an empty column doubles the length of run you can move.
Uncover the Aces and Twos early. Getting them onto the foundations immediately helps everything that follows.
Beware of parking a card in a free cell "just for now" — those temporary moves accumulate and quietly kill the game.
Look for moves that build long runs, because a long alternating-colour run can be relocated in a single move once you have the space.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is every FreeCell deal winnable?

Almost. FreeCell is famously nearly always solvable — the widely cited figure is that more than 99.99% of deals can be won with correct play, and only a tiny handful of known deals are truly impossible. In practice, treat every loss as a mistake you can learn from.

How many cards can I move at once?

It depends on your free space. With no empty columns, you can move a run as long as your number of empty free cells plus one. Each empty tableau column doubles that capacity, which is why emptying a column opens up dramatically bigger moves.

What is the difference between FreeCell and Klondike?

Klondike deals the stock face down and asks you to uncover it three cards at a time, so luck plays a large part. FreeCell has no stock and no face-down cards at all — you see everything from the start, and the four free cells replace the stock as your reserve space.

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FreeCell Solitaire