Play FreeCell
Every card face up, four spare cells, almost always winnable.
Moves
0
Best
—
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Controls
- Click a card, then its destination
- Double-click sends a card home
- A runs auto-finish, Escape clears the selection
About FreeCell
FreeCell is the solitaire for people who do not like luck. Every card is visible from the first moment, so there is no hidden information at all — the entire game is a planning problem, and losing means you genuinely misplayed rather than got a bad deal.
It is also famous for being almost always winnable. Of the 32,000 numbered deals in the version that shipped with Windows, exactly one — deal 11982 — has been proven unsolvable. Random deals are winnable at a rate of roughly 99.9 percent, which changes how you should think when you get stuck: the solution is almost certainly there.
The constraint that makes it a game is how many cards you may move at once. You can only move a run of as many cards as your free cells allow, doubled for each empty column, because moving a run is really a sequence of single-card moves using the cells as scratch space. That formula is the whole strategy in one line.
Moves are the score and lower is better, so thinking beats clicking. Auto-finish sweeps up anything that can go home once the board is unpicked.
Tips for a higher score
- Empty a column early. An empty column is worth more than an empty free cell because it doubles how many cards you can move at once.
- Do not fill all four cells. A full set of cells means you can only move one card at a time, which is usually the end of the game.
- Get the aces and twos out quickly, but leave low cards on the tableau when they are still useful as landing spots.
- Plan the whole sequence before you start moving. FreeCell punishes improvisation more than any other solitaire.
- Work on the column with the most cards buried above a card you need.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards can I move at once?
One more than your number of empty free cells, doubled for every empty column. With two free cells and one empty column you can move six.
Can any card go into an empty column?
Yes, unlike Klondike where only a king may. That is why empty columns are so valuable here.
Is every deal winnable?
Not quite, but nearly — roughly 999 out of 1000 random deals can be solved. If you are stuck, it is almost always worth backing up rather than redealing.
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