FreeCell Rules

Objective

FreeCell is a one-player game with a standard deck in which every card is dealt face up. The aim is to move all 52 cards onto four foundation piles, one per suit, each built from Ace up to King. Because nothing is hidden there is no luck once the cards are on the table — with care, almost every deal can be won.

Players and cards

• Players: 1.
• Deck: a standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Aces are low: A, 2, 3 … 10, J, Q, K.
• Colours: hearts and diamonds are red; spades and clubs are black. Colour matters in the columns, suit matters on the foundations.

The deal

1. Deal the whole deck one card at a time across eight columns, left to right. The first four columns end up with seven cards and the last four with six.
2. All 52 cards are face up. There is no stock and no waste — every card you will ever have is on the table from the start.
3. Four empty spaces at the top left are the free cells.
4. Four empty spaces at the top right are the foundations. On CardCouch each is marked with its suit.

The free cells

• Each free cell holds exactly one card, of any rank or suit.
• Only the top card of a column may be moved into a cell. You cannot lift a run into a cell.
• A card in a cell may leave at any time — to its foundation, onto a column where it fits, or into an empty column.
• Cells are the game's temporary parking. Every occupied cell reduces the number of cards you can move at once (see the supermove limit below), so filling them is a real cost.

Building the foundations

• Each foundation is built up in a single suit: Ace, then 2, 3 … Queen, King.
• Only an Ace may start a foundation, and it must be the Ace of that foundation's suit.
• Cards go up one at a time, from a column top or a free cell.
• The top card of a foundation may be moved back to a column where it fits, or into a free cell or empty column. It is legal, though rarely wise.

Building in the columns

1. Columns build down in rank and in alternating colours: a card may go only on a card one rank higher and of the opposite colour. A red Six on a black Seven; a black Jack on a red Queen.
2. Any card may be moved into an empty column — not just a King. So may any ordered run, within the move limit.
3. You may pick up the top card of a column or an ordered run — a card and everything on top of it, provided the whole stack alternates colour and descends by one. A card buried under an unordered stack cannot be picked up.
4. A run may be split anywhere: pick up a card partway down an ordered stack and only that card and those above it move.

The supermove limit

Strictly speaking, FreeCell allows you to move one card at a time. A run can still change columns — you park its cards one by one in empty cells and columns and reassemble them on the destination — and because that shuffle is routine, the game does it for you in a single tap. What matters is that you have enough space to do it, which is what the supermove limit measures:

• Four empty cells, no empty columns: 5 cards.
• Two empty cells, no empty columns: 3 cards.
• Four empty cells, one empty column: 10 cards.
• Two empty cells, one empty column: 6 cards.
• No empty cells, no empty columns: 1 card.

When the destination is itself an empty column, that column cannot also be used as a staging post, so it is not counted: with four empty cells and one empty column, moving a run into that empty column is limited to 5 cards, not 10. If you try to move a run longer than the limit, CardCouch refuses and tells you how many cards you can move right now.

Game numbers

• Every deal on CardCouch comes from a game number between 1 and 1,000,000. The same number always produces the same layout.
• Type a number into the Game number box and press Deal # to play that deal; New Game picks one at random. The current number is shown above the table.
• Numbering is CardCouch's own. It does not correspond to the Microsoft FreeCell deals, so a number you know from Windows will give a different layout here.

Moves, undo and winning

• Every move of a card or run — to a column, a cell or a foundation — counts as one move. A supermove counts as one.
• Undo takes back the last move and can be repeated all the way to the deal.
• You win when all four foundations are complete, Ace through King.
• The deal is stuck only when all four cells are full and no card can go to a foundation or onto another column. CardCouch tells you when there are no moves left; Undo or a new game are the ways out.
• Your personal bests — wins, fastest time and fewest moves — are kept on your device.

Common variations

• Fewer or more free cells: playing with three, two or even one cell makes the game much harder; five or more make it trivial. Standard FreeCell, and CardCouch, use four.
• Baker's Game: the same layout but columns build down in suit rather than alternating colour. Considerably harder.
• Strict single-card moves: some purists insist on moving runs one card at a time by hand. The result is identical to a supermove, just slower.
• Kings only in empty columns: a Klondike habit, not a FreeCell rule. Any card may fill a gap here; if you want the King restriction, play Klondike Solitaire.

Frequently asked questions