Solitaire

Solitaire is one of the most popular card games in the world, with the pre-installed Solitaire games on early Windows versions contributing to its popularity. Depending on how the cards are distributed, the gameplay can be either complicated or simple. However, some games are impossible to finish.

At the start of a game of Online Solitaire, seven rows are formed where only the top card is turned over. The remaining 24 cards form a pile of face-down cards, also known as the stock. This pile offers you individual cards when no more moves are possible in the vertical rows. Additionally, above the seven rows there are four empty fields – called stacks – on which the cards are to be stacked in the correct order.

Rules of the game – How do you win at online Solitaire?

The aim of Solitaire is to arrange the cards correctly on the four empty spaces, according to the suit of the card (hearts ♥, spades ♠, diamonds ♦ and clubs ♣). Each pile begins with an ace and is completed with the king. So, the correct order is as follows: Ace-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-Jack-Queen-King. When all four stacks are complete, Online Solitaire is won. If you cannot place any more cards, the game is over, but not won.

There are eight discard piles in the related game, Spider Solitaire. Here, you have to put the cards in the right order in the vertical rows. When a row is complete, the cards used to form the row must be removed from the board and placed on a stack as a completed pile. Freecell Solitaire, another related game, has four fields in addition to the four stack fields, for temporarily storing cards. However, Freecell does not have a stock pile.

Allowed moves

In online Solitaire, you can place a card – either from the face down pile or a face-up card from a vertical row – on a face-up playing card in another vertical row. Note that this card has a different suit and a lower number. You can move several cards face-up from one row to another, provided the order is correct.

Example 1: there is a black 5 ♠ card on top, so you can place a red ♥ or 4 ♦ on top of it. This is followed by another black ♠ or 3 ♣, etc.

Example 2: there is a black 5 ♠ card on top, so you can place the following row on this row: ♥/♦ 4 – ♠/♣ 3 – ♥/♦ 2 – ♠/♣ Ass

When you move cards from one row to another, the row from which you took the card(s) becomes free. This row now consists exclusively of cards face-down. In this case the top card is turned over.

If a row is empty, you can place a king, or a row beginning with a king, regardless of suit, on the empty row. To win online Solitaire, the four stacks must be filled according to card suit, and in the correct order. Each pile begins with one of the four ace cards and ends with the corresponding king.

Ejemplo: ♥ Ace – ♥ 2 – ♥ 3 – ♥ 4 – ♥ 5 – ♥ 6 – ♥ 7 – ♥ 8 – ♥ 9 – ♥ 10 – ♥ Jack – ♥ Queen – ♥ King

How is the stock pile used in Solitaire?

If it is no longer possible to move cards in the vertical rows, you can use the pile of face-down cards. There are two variants of online Solitaire:

– Turn 1: one card is revealed

– Turn 3: three cards are revealed

In the first variant, only one card (from the top of the pile) is revealed. If you don’t find a use for this, you can put it back at the bottom of the pile and turn over the next card from the top.

In the second variant (the standard), three cards are face up next to the pile, on top of each other. The card on top or the third card can be moved, whereas you cannot move the other two. If you are able to use the top card, it is possible to use the next revealed card, followed by the next.

If you cannot use the top card, you can reveal three additional cards. When you have turned up all the cards, you can simply start all over. However, it is important not to shuffle the cards again.

Features of Solitaire

Before starting a game of online Solitaire, you first have to choose a difficulty level. There are three difficulty levels to choose from for both the “Turn 1” and “Turn 3” game modes: easy, normal and hard. After choosing your difficulty, the cards are dealt and you can win Solitaire according to the rules described above.

If you click on “Time limit on / off”, this activates the time limit for the online Solitaire game. In order to determine the time limit, a level of difficulty must be selected, which then leads you to a selection screen for the time limit, which you can specify as you like.

The online Solitaire game menu consists of various elements that provide players with simple and clear information about the current game, and enable quick setting selection. If you first select the difficulty “Normal” in the game mode “Turn 1”, then “Turn 1 · Normal” is highlighted in white in the game menu. If you click on it, a new game starts with that setting.

To switch to the “Turn 3” game mode, click on the field of the same name. Now, “Turn 1” will be muted, and “Turn 3 · Normal” is highlighted in white. Clicking on “Turn 1” again switches back to the game mode “Turn 1 · Normal”. To change the difficulty of an online Solitaire game, you can do this under “New game”. However, if you want to play the current game again, click on “Restart”.

To undo steps or to put cards back on the stock pile, click on “Undo”. To restore undone steps, click on “Redo”. If you don’t know what to do next, you can get help by clicking on “Hint”, which will display a possible move. You can pause the game by clicking on “Pause”, to be continued later. To get to the start menu, simply click on the “Solitaire” in the middle. On the game display, you can see the elapsed time, the number of steps, the remaining cards in the stock pile and the number of passes through the stock pile.

Frequently asked questions