Solitaire: the Klondike you can actually finish on a phone

01  What it is

Solitaire is a browser version of Klondike — the solitaire that shipped with every office computer for twenty years, and still the one most people mean when they say "solitaire". Seven tableau columns, four foundations, a stock and a waste pile. Build the four foundations up from ace to king in a single suit and you have cleared the deck.

What makes this version different is what it is built for. Most browser solitaire assumes a mouse and a big screen, then shrinks awkwardly onto a phone, where the cards become too small to hit and the interface fills with things you are not looking for. This one starts from the phone: cards are sized for a thumb, a tap moves a card where it obviously wants to go, and the board fits on screen without pinching or scrolling.

It is free, runs entirely in your browser, and needs no account. Nothing is installed and nothing to sign up for — open the page and the deck is already dealt.

02  Draw-1 or draw-3, and why it matters

You can play either way, and the choice changes the game more than it sounds. In draw-1 the stock turns over one card at a time, so every card in the deck is reachable and the great majority of deals can be won with careful play. It is the forgiving mode — good for a relaxed game, and good for learning where the traps are.

Draw-3 turns three cards at a time and only the top one is playable, so two cards out of every three are locked away until the cycle comes round again. Deals that look identical at the start play completely differently: order of operations becomes everything, and a meaningful fraction of deals simply cannot be won no matter how well you play. That is not the game being unfair — it is the classic rule, and it is what makes a draw-3 win worth something.

Switch modes whenever you like. A new deal starts immediately under the rule you picked.

03  Undo, hints, and playing without frustration

Two small features do most of the work of keeping the game pleasant. Undo steps back through your moves, so a mis-tap or an experiment that obviously failed costs you a second rather than the whole deal. Hints point out a legal move when the board has gone opaque and you are about to give up on a position that is not actually dead.

Neither is compulsory and neither plays the game for you — a hint shows one move, not the solution. If you want the purist experience, do not press them; the timer and the move counter keep running either way.

• Tap a card to send it to the obvious destination; drag when you want to choose.
• The move counter rewards efficiency — the same win in fewer moves is a better win.
• The timer runs live, so you can chase a personal best on a deal shape you know.

04  The streak is the actual game

Every win extends a streak, and the streak is kept in your own browser, so it is still there tomorrow, and the day after. That one number quietly changes how you play. A single deal is disposable; the eleventh win in a row is not, and you will find yourself thinking harder about a risky stock cycle when there is a streak riding on it.

Clear a deal and you get a share card — something like "cleared in 47 moves / 2:11" — which is the part people actually send to a friend. It is a screenshot, not a leaderboard: there is no ranking to climb and no account holding your history hostage.

05  Tips that actually change your win rate

Klondike rewards a few habits far more than it rewards clever individual moves.

• Uncover face-down cards first. A move that reveals a hidden card is almost always better than a move that does not, even when the second one looks tidier.
• Do not rush aces and twos to the foundation — a low card left in the tableau is a landing spot for the opposite colour, and sending it up early can strand a column.
• Empty a column only when you have a king ready, or reasonably in sight. An empty column with no king is dead space.
• In draw-3, cycle the stock early to learn what is in it before you commit the tableau to a plan.
• When two moves look equal, take the one that keeps more choices open next turn.

06  Questions people ask

Is it really free, and do I need an account?

Yes, free, and no account. The game is ad-supported and runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, and no paywall on any part of the game.

Does it work offline or on a phone?

It is built mobile-first and plays one-handed on a phone in portrait. The page needs to load once over the network; after that the game itself runs locally in your browser.

Is every deal winnable?

No, and that is true of real Klondike too. In draw-1 the large majority of deals can be won with careful play. In draw-3 a meaningful share cannot be won at all, whatever you do — which is exactly why a draw-3 streak is harder to build.

Where is my streak stored?

In your own browser, on your own device. It is never sent anywhere, which also means it does not follow you to a different browser or a different phone, and clearing your browsing data clears it.

Does using a hint or undo cheat me out of the win?

Not as far as the game is concerned — the win counts and the streak extends. The timer and move counter keep running, so the cost of leaning on them shows up in your numbers rather than in a penalty.