Solitaire Card Games: Klondike, Spider, FreeCell and Pyramid Compared

Compare the solitaire games at a glance

Winnable-deal figures are estimates for the rules as played on CardCouch (Klondike draw-one with unlimited passes, four free cells, three passes in Pyramid). "Winnable" means a solution exists; whether you find it is another matter.

What the four games have in common

All four are one-player games with ordinary playing cards and no scoring beyond the clock and the move counter. Three of them — Klondike, Spider and FreeCell — share the same skeleton: a tableau of columns where cards are built down in rank, and a goal of sorting the deck into ordered suits. Pyramid is the odd one out: nothing is built, cards are simply removed in pairs. On CardCouch every one of them has unlimited undo, a timer, a move counter and personal bests saved on your device, and each has its own how-to-play guide, rules page and strategy guide. Unfamiliar words? The solitaire glossary covers all four games.

Klondike Solitaire — the classic

Klondike is the game most people mean by "Solitaire": seven columns dealt with only the top cards showing, a stock of 24 cards you draw from one at a time, and four foundations built up in suit from Ace to King. Columns build down in alternating colours and only a King may fill an empty column. CardCouch plays draw-one with unlimited passes through the stock, the friendliest standard version.

• Difficulty: easy to learn; the hidden cards add real luck.
• Winnable deals: studies of draw-one Klondike with full knowledge of the cards put the solvable share around 80%, but because most cards are face down a typical player wins somewhere between a third and a half of deals.
• Game length: 5–10 minutes.
• Who it suits: anyone who wants the familiar game, a quick break, and a reason to chase a faster time.

How to play Solitaire · Klondike rules · Solitaire strategy

Spider Solitaire — the two-deck challenge

Spider deals two decks — 104 cards — into ten columns. Cards build down by rank regardless of suit, but only same-suit runs can be moved together, and the goal is eight complete King-to-Ace runs, each removed from the table as it is finished. When you run out of moves you deal ten more cards from the stock, one onto every column, which is allowed only while no column is empty. Any card may fill an empty column.

• Difficulty: your choice. One suit is easy, two suits is the classic medium game, four suits is genuinely hard.
• Winnable deals: nearly every one-suit deal, most two-suit deals, and a majority of four-suit deals with careful play and undo.
• Game length: 10–20 minutes.
• Who it suits: players who want a longer, more strategic puzzle than Klondike and like being able to turn the difficulty up.

How to play Spider Solitaire · Spider rules · Spider strategy

FreeCell — the solitaire of pure skill

FreeCell deals all 52 cards face up into eight columns, with four free cells for parking single cards and four foundations to build up from Ace to King. There is no stock: everything is visible from the first move. Columns build down in alternating colours, any card may fill an empty column, and the number of cards you can move at once is set by the supermove limit — (empty free cells + 1) × 2 to the power of empty columns. Every deal has a game number (1 to 1,000,000) you can replay or share.

• Difficulty: medium. The rules are simple; the planning is the game.
• Winnable deals: over 99.99%. A loss is almost always a wrong move, not a bad shuffle.
• Game length: 5–10 minutes.
• Who it suits: anyone who dislikes losing to luck, enjoys thinking several moves ahead, or wants a personal best to chase on a repeatable deal.

How to play FreeCell · FreeCell rules · FreeCell strategy

Pyramid Solitaire — pairs that make 13

Pyramid is the quick one. Twenty-eight cards are dealt face up in a seven-row pyramid, and you clear it by removing pairs of uncovered cards whose values add up to 13 — Ace and Queen, 2 and Jack, 3 and 10, and so on. Kings are 13 on their own and go alone. A card is uncovered only when both cards below it are gone, so the pyramid is dismantled from the bottom up. When no pair is available you draw from a 24-card stock; you get three passes through it. The pyramid empty is a win, whatever is left in the stock.

• Difficulty: the easiest rules of the four, but a great deal of luck.
• Winnable deals: under the three-pass rule, roughly one deal in four or five can be cleared. Undo helps you find the line when one exists.
• Game length: 2–5 minutes.
• Who it suits: anyone who likes a fast round, a bit of mental arithmetic, and the "one more go" feeling of a game that punishes nobody for losing.

How to play Pyramid Solitaire · Pyramid rules · Pyramid strategy

Key rule differences side by side

Which solitaire should you play?

• You want the game you already know: Klondike. Draw-one and unlimited passes keep it friendly.
• You hate losing to luck: FreeCell. Every card is visible and nearly every deal can be won.
• You want a longer, deeper puzzle: Spider at two suits — then four when you are ready.
• You are brand new to solitaire: one-suit Spider or Klondike. Both teach the build-down habit and are forgiving.
• You have two minutes: Pyramid. A round is short and losing costs nothing.
• You want a personal best to chase: FreeCell, where you can replay the same deal number, or Spider, which keeps separate bests per suit count.
• You are playing on a phone: any of them — all four have tap-to-move controls and fixed layouts sized for small screens. Klondike and Pyramid have the fewest columns and the largest cards.

Other solitaire games you may know

The solitaire family is large. TriPeaks is a cousin of Pyramid where you remove cards one rank above or below the waste card. Golf as a solitaire works the same way (CardCouch's Golf is the different, two-player card game). Yukon is Klondike without a stock, where any face-up group may be moved; Spiderette is Spider with one deck; Baker's Game is FreeCell built in suit rather than alternating colours; and Canfield, Forty Thieves and Scorpion each have their own devotees. If you would rather play against the computer than the deck, the free online card games comparison covers Cribbage, Hearts, Euchre, Spades and Gin Rummy.

Frequently asked questions