FreeCell

The solitaire with nothing hidden

FreeCell deals all fifty-two cards face up into eight columns and hands you four empty cells, each able to hold a single card. Nothing is hidden and there is no stock, which makes FreeCell the purest skill game in the solitaire family: virtually every deal can be won, and when one is lost the loss belongs to the player.

Foundations build up by suit from Ace to King, columns build down in alternating colours, and the four cells are your hands — places to hold a card briefly while you rearrange what is underneath it.

• ✓All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns.
• ✓Build the foundations up from Ace to King in each suit.
• ✓Columns build downwards in alternating colours.
• ✓How many cards you can move at once depends on your free cells and empty columns.

The multiplier that decides every game

You can formally move only one card at a time, but empty cells and empty columns multiply that. The capacity is (free cells + 1), doubled for each empty column: four cells and no empty column moves five cards, four cells and one empty column moves ten. That number is the invisible resource every FreeCell decision spends or saves.

Which is why the standing advice is to keep cells empty rather than treat them as storage. A card parked in a cell earns nothing and shrinks your largest possible move for as long as it sits there. Strong players fill a cell for a purpose measured in moves, not minutes.

Free cell

One of the four slots at the top left. Holds exactly one card, of any rank or suit.

Supermove

Dragging several cards at once. The engine allows it when your cells and empty columns can cover the shuffle.

Safe card

A card that can go to its foundation with no risk, because no lower card of the opposite colour still needs it.

Empty column

Worth more than a cell: it doubles your move capacity and can hold an entire sequence.

Five habits of FreeCell players who finish

1. 01

   Plan the whole sequence before touching a card

   Nothing is hidden, so there is no excuse for discovery mid-manoeuvre. Count the moves the plan needs and compare it with your capacity — starting a five-card shuffle with room for four is the commonest way a winnable deal is thrown away.

2. 02

   Win an empty column early

   An empty column doubles your capacity, which is worth more than any single cell. The shortest column at the deal is usually the cheapest one to clear, and clearing it first pays for every manoeuvre afterwards.

3. 03

   Dig out Aces and Twos without burying them

   Low cards are what start foundations, but a Two trapped beneath a King is the usual cause of a locked board. When excavating toward an Ace, check where the cards you displace are going to land.

4. 04

   Empty a cell as soon as its card has a home

   A card that lands in a cell for one specific purpose should leave the moment that purpose is served. Cells silently accumulate, and a player with three occupied cells has quietly reduced their capacity by three quarters.

5. 05

   Hold back a card its opposite colour still needs

   Sending the red Fives up early can strand both black Fours with nowhere to sit. Before promoting a card, glance at the two lower cards of the opposite colour — if either is still buried, the card is more useful where it is.

Two, three or four cells

Settings can reduce the number of cells, and each reduction is a different game rather than the same game turned up. Every configuration draws from its own verified pool, so the harder ones keep the guarantee.

Two-cell FreeCell with verified-winnable deals is among the tightest puzzles on the site. If you want open information with more freedom instead, Yukon lets you move any pile regardless of order.

Questions about this game

Is every FreeCell deal winnable?

Almost every random one is — the classic analysis of the original 32,000 numbered Microsoft deals found a single unsolvable layout, number 11,982. This site does not rely on that near-certainty: each deal here was verified by the solver first, including the reduced-cell variants.

Why was my drag of a long run refused?

The run was longer than your current capacity allows. Free a cell or empty a column and the same drag will work — the engine is enforcing the supermove arithmetic rather than being arbitrary.

Is FreeCell harder than Klondike?

Harder to play well, easier to win. Klondike hides twenty-one cards and can deal you a hopeless shuffle; FreeCell hides nothing and is nearly always winnable, which means every loss is a solvable puzzle you did not solve.

Do I need to use all four cells?

No, and the best players use them as little as possible. Cells are a temporary loan against your move capacity; a game won with cells left empty was a game played with full manoeuvring power throughout.