Klondike Solitaire is the most classic version of the Solitaire game. Most of the world know the game by the name “Solitaire”, and the rules of the game are simple – but winning quickly has never been easy. Not every game of Klondike Solitaire that you play will be winnable; this is because the game involves so much chance and guesswork that it’s impossible to keep up a winning streak.
However, there are a few known winning strategies for players to use. The rest of this post will focus on those strategies to make the next game of Klondike Solitaire you play less stressful and more fun.
1. CHANGE YOUR FIRST MOVE
When someone starts playing Solitaire, nine times out of ten, their first move will involve moving a face-up card from its column to another column that has a corresponding card (a black 5 to a red 6, for example). But the best first move you can make while playing Solitaire is actually to flip over the first card in the deck and see if you can use it anywhere. In Solitaire, you need to flip over and use all of the cards in the deck, which means that this should give you a better start to the game.
2. CLEAR THE LARGEST COLUMN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
If you want to make the most of the time you spend playing Solitaire, aim to clear the largest column of facedown cards first. This may mean making several moves to reveal all of the facedown cards, but it will be worth it once they’re all out of the way.
3. DO NOT EMPTY A COLUMN IF YOU DON’T HAVE A KING
A free column space can only be filled by a King card, which means you don’t reap any benefits from emptying out a column if you have no King to move in the free space afterwards. Keep your options open, and don’t make any rash moves.
4. CONSIDER YOUR CHOICE OF KING
If you happen to have both a red King and a Black King waiting to fill a free column space, have a look at the other cards you have face-up before you make your decision. If you have a red Queen that is visible and easy to get to, then don’t move a red King card into the free space.
5. BALANCE THE CARDS YOU HAVE
It’s tempting to move as many cards as possible to the foundation piles to be done with them asap. However, if you don’t balance the cards that you move, you could end up hurting your chances of finishing a game. Imagine you move a card on top of a black 3 early on in the game, and then discover that you happen to need a black 3 to move a red 2. Only move cards to the foundation piles once you have all four of a kind discarded – don’t move any 2s until your Ace cards are all gone etc.
6. TRY TO EMPTY OUT A SMALL PILE EARLY
The first pile on the left is the easiest and quickest to clear, and it will leave a space for a King so that you can start a new column. Try to do this early on in the game to give you somewhere else to move cards to.