FreeCell
Quick Rules
- All 52 cards are dealt face up into 8 tableau columns - nothing is hidden, unlike Klondike.
- 4 free cells each hold exactly 1 card temporarily; 4 foundations build up by suit from Ace to King.
- Move a tableau card onto another that's one rank lower and the opposite color, or park it in an empty free cell.
- You can move a whole stack of cards at once, up to (free cells + 1) x 2^(empty columns) cards.
- Because everything is visible from the start, nearly every FreeCell deal is mathematically solvable.
How to Play (Quick Overview)
- 1
Shuffle a standard 52-card deck and deal all 52 cards face up into 8 tableau columns: the first 4 columns get 7 cards each, the remaining 4 get 6 cards each.
- 2
Set up 4 empty free cells and 4 empty foundation piles (one for each suit) above the tableau.
- 3
On your turn, move the top card of any tableau column onto another column's top card if it's exactly one rank lower and the opposite color.
- 4
Alternatively, move a tableau card into any empty free cell (holding it there temporarily), or move a card out of a free cell back onto a legal tableau spot or a foundation.
- 5
Move any Ace to its matching foundation as soon as it's available, then build that foundation upward in suit.
- 6
Continue moving cards between the tableau, free cells, and foundations until all 52 cards are on the foundations, or until no legal moves remain.
Objective
Move all 52 cards onto the four foundation piles, sorted by suit from Ace up to King - using four temporary holding cells to give yourself room to maneuver.
Setup
Shuffle a standard 52-card deck and deal it out entirely, face up, into 8 tableau columns: the first 4 columns get 7 cards each, the remaining 4 columns get 6 cards each. Because every card is dealt face up from the start, there’s no hidden information at any point in the game - which is what makes FreeCell fundamentally different from Klondike. Above the tableau, set up 4 empty free cells and 4 empty foundation piles, one per suit.
How to Play
You may move the top card of any tableau column onto another column’s top card if it is exactly one rank lower and the opposite color - the same descending, alternating-color rule as Klondike.
You may also move any single tableau card into an empty free cell, where it sits by itself temporarily. A card parked in a free cell can later be moved onto a legal tableau spot or onto a foundation, freeing that cell back up.
Moving multiple cards at once: most FreeCell implementations let you move a whole descending, alternating-color sequence in one action, as a shortcut for what would otherwise take several single- card moves through free cells. The maximum sequence length you can move this way is:
(number of empty free cells + 1) x 2 to the power of (number of empty tableau columns)
An entirely empty tableau column can also be filled by any card, not just a King - unlike Klondike.
Whenever an Ace becomes available (in the tableau or a free cell), move it to its matching foundation, then continue building that foundation upward in the same suit: 2, 3, 4, and so on to King.
Scoring
Traditional FreeCell has no point score - it’s won or lost as a single deal. Some digital versions track move counts or time taken, but this isn’t part of the core game.
Winning
You win once all 52 cards have been moved onto the four foundation piles, sorted correctly from Ace to King. Because every card is visible from the very first move, the large majority of FreeCell deals are actually solvable with correct play - unlike Klondike, where a hidden card can make a deal unwinnable no matter what you do.
Variations
- Fewer free cells: playing with 1, 2, or 3 free cells instead of the standard 4 makes the game noticeably harder.
- Multi-deck FreeCell: a version played with two decks and additional tableau columns for a longer game.
- Sequential/“Super” FreeCell: relaxes or changes the multi-card move formula, letting more cards move at once regardless of empty cells or columns.
History
FreeCell traces back to a 1968 game called Baker’s Game, invented by Paul Alfille, which added the idea of temporary holding cells to Klondike-style solitaire. FreeCell itself, dealing every card face up from the very start, followed shortly after and became widely known once it was bundled as a built-in game with Windows starting in 1995, introducing millions of new PC users to the format.
Fun Fact
Because every card is visible from the first deal, computer scientists were able to analyze large batches of FreeCell deals for solvability - famously, of the first 32,000 numbered deals shipped with Microsoft’s version of the game, only one (deal #11982) was later found to be unsolvable, a small bit of software trivia that spread widely among players at the time.