Objective
Move all 52 cards to the four foundation piles, building each foundation up by suit from Ace to King.
Every card is face up from the deal, so nothing is hidden and nothing is left to luck once the cards are shuffled — the whole game is working out which order to unpack the columns in. Our full guide covers where FreeCell came from, the habits that win more deals, how often a deal is solvable, and a worked example.
Setup
- 8 tableau columns are dealt face-up with all 52 cards (columns 1–4 get 7 cards, columns 5–8 get 6 cards).
- 4 free cells start empty. 4 foundation piles start empty.
Piles (what each area is)
- Free cells: 4 temporary holding spots — any single card can be placed here.
- Foundations: four suit piles (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs) built up from Ace → King.
- Tableau: 8 columns where most play happens; cards build down in alternating colors.
Allowed moves
- Tableau builds: place a card onto a column if it is one rank lower and the opposite color (example: 8♥ on 9♣). Empty columns accept any card.
- Free cells: move any single card to an empty free cell at any time.
- From a free cell: a parked card can go to its foundation, or onto any column that accepts it.
- Foundations: place a card if it is the same suit and one rank higher (Ace starts an empty foundation).
- From foundations: the top card of a foundation can come back out — onto a column that accepts it, or into an empty free cell.
- Moving stacks: you can move a face-up sequence as a group if enough free cells and empty columns are available (supermove rule).
The supermove rule
- The maximum number of cards you can move at once is: (empty free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns).
- If the destination column is empty, subtract one from the empty column count.
- Example: with 2 free cells and 1 empty column, you can move up to (2+1)×2 = 6 cards at once.
The rules that catch people out
- An empty column accepts any card, not just a King. That is the big break from Klondike, and it is why an empty column is worth more than an empty free cell — it can hold a whole sequence instead of one card.
- A card on a foundation is not stuck there. Send a black 5 up too early and, when a red 4 needs somewhere to land, you can pull the 5 back down onto a column that accepts it. Only the top card of a foundation can come back, and it can also go into a free cell.
- A move can be refused even when the two cards match. Shifting several cards at once borrows the free cells and empty columns to stage them, so a correctly sequenced run still will not move when there is nowhere to put the cards on the way. You can often still move it by hand, one card at a time — the limit only counts empty space, not a card already on the board that happens to take one of yours.
Playing your cards
- Drag and drop: drag a single card to a tableau column, free cell or foundation. A valid stack can only go to another column.
- Double-click on desktop, single tap on touch: auto-plays an exposed card — to a foundation first, then to another column, then to a free cell. To move a whole run, double-click the card that heads it on desktop, or drag the run on touch.
- The cells and foundations respond to it too: a card in a cell goes to its foundation, or back to a column. On a foundation it works in reverse — a tap or double-click takes the top card back off, so on a phone be deliberate about where you tap.
- Undo: the button in the HUD steps back through your moves, up to 200 in one sitting. Reload the page and the last 50 come back with the board.
- Keyboard: H asks for a hint, U undoes and R redoes, with no modifier key. Cmd/Ctrl+Z and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y on Windows and Linux) work too. Redo is keyboard-only — there is no redo button.
- Hint: suggests a legal move when one is available. It favours foundation plays and never offers to take a card back off a foundation, so treat it as a nudge rather than a plan.
- Auto-finish: the button lights up as soon as every column runs high to low by rank — suits and colours do not matter, and cards parked in cells do not block it. From there the deal is guaranteed home, and one click sends the rest to the foundations.
Saving and sharing
- Your progress auto-saves locally in the browser and restores if you refresh or reopen the tab.
- Use Share to get a short link that recreates the same starting deal (seed-based). Where your device has a share sheet it opens that; otherwise the link is copied to your clipboard.
More card games on Solitarium
FreeCell is a planning-heavy solitaire game. For a different kind of challenge, try hidden-card Klondike, no-stock Yukon, or pair-clearing Pyramid.
Sources and further reading
These references informed the rules on this page, and the history and winnability notes in the full guide.