A classic game that can be played both physically and online, Solitaire, is a single-player game that can be played using a standard 52 deck of playing cards. It is also known as Klondike or Patience, in Europe. It is a game of sorting or organizing and is relatively easy to learn. Here’s how to play Solitaire.
What you need to play Solitaire
A standard 52 deck of playing cards
A flat surface to lay out the cards in various piles. (There will be 13 piles altogether)
How to set up the deck for Solitaire
If you are playing with physical cards, you will need to know how to set up the game.
Start by shuffling the cards and then laying them out in four piles. In Solitaire, the four piles are known as The Tableau, The Stock, The Talon, and The Foundations.
The Tableau
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The Tableau consists of 7 piles. The first pile has 1 card. The second pile has 2 cards. The third pile has 3 cards and so on. Put the cards into 7 piles with the top card in each pile facing up.
The Stock
The remaining cards after building the Tableau are called the Stock. It is similar to a draw pile.
The Talon
The Talon is a pile of 3 cards from the Stock. The top card will be faced up.
The Foundations
The Foundations consist of 4 stacks of cards. There is one for each suit and it is to be arranged in ascending order from Ace to King. At the beginning of the game, The Foundations pile is empty.
How to play Solitaire
The objective of Solitaire is to open and organize a shuffled deck of cards into 4 stacks, one for each suit, in ascending order (Ace to King).
Players start by looking for any aces that are facing up and moving them into The Foundations pile. The cards can move in the following ways:
- If the card that is being moved is a lower number than the card it is moved to and a
- different colour (e.g: black 5 can move to a red 6 or red 7 can move to a black 8)
Cards can be moved to the foundation pile if it is the next highest number is visible (e.g: 2 hearts can be added on top of ace hearts when visible) - Players can draw from The Stock pile and move the cards to The Tableau
- If a blank space is created on the tableau, players are only allowed to place a King in that spot
- It is possible to move more than 1 card if the bottom card on one stack (e.g black Jack is a higher number and different colour than the bottom card in another stack (e.g: red 10)
Cards will continue to move in these three ways for as long as possible and players will try to complete the game by moving all the cards into The Foundation pile until the game is complete!
Video tutorial on how to play Solitaire
Watch the video tutorial on how to play solitaire below.
