FreeCell Solitaire

Every card is face up before you make a move. What happens next is up to you.

FreeCell deals the whole deck face up. There is nothing hidden, nothing to draw and nothing to guess, so the first thing you see on the table above is everything the game will ever tell you. That is the difference between this solitaire and most others: the deal you are looking at is either solvable or it is not, and your job is to find out which — with the cards already in front of you.

Rules

One deck, eight columns and four foundations. Every card is visible from the first move.

• The tableau — eight columns. The first four hold seven cards and the last four hold six, all face up. Cards are stacked downward in alternating colours, exactly as in Klondike.
• The free cells — the four single-card spaces at the top left. Any card may sit in one, alone, and any card may come back out. They are the whole of the game's flexibility.
• The foundations — the four piles at the top right, ace to king by suit. Once a card is home it stays home.
• Moving a run — a properly ordered run can be moved as one piece, but only if there is somewhere for the cards to wait while it travels: the number of free cells and empty columns decides how long a run may be.
• Winning — all fifty-two cards on the foundations. FreeCell has no lost deal in the ordinary sense: if there is no legal move at all, the deal is finished, and every deal shipped with this game is checked to be solvable before it is dealt.

Strategy

Because nothing is hidden, FreeCell rewards counting instead of luck. The players who win consistently are the ones who treat the free cells as a resource that is nearly always empty.

• Keep the free cells empty. A free cell holding a card you "might need later" is a free cell you cannot use now. Fill them only for the length of one move.
• Count before you move a long run. A run of five needs somewhere for four cards to wait. If the cells and empty columns do not add up, the move is not available, however legal the stack looks.
• Unwedge the low cards early. Aces and twos buried at the bottom of a column are the reason deals stall. The opening moves should aim at the cards that hold them down.
• Empty a column, then protect it. Seven columns with one empty column available is a different game: an empty column is a temporary home for a whole run. Two empty columns make almost any deal workable.
• Build foundations in order of what you can spare. Sending a card home frees the tableau, but it also removes a card you may still need as a step. Foundations are storage, not a scoreboard.
• Undo freely. Undo is unlimited and instant, so a line of play can be tried, seen, and taken back. That is how the game is meant to be played — the deal does not change while you explore it.