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Klondike Solitaire Strategy and Tips
Most Klondike deals are won or lost by a few choices between legal moves. These five ideas come from Varaq’s Get better lessons, where a full search of each position confirms that the better move wins the deal and the other cannot. They follow Varaq’s default Relaxed rules: draw one card, with unlimited passes through the stock.
Which column should you work on first in Klondike?
When two moves each turn over a card, take the one from the column with the most face-down cards. The cards you need are more likely there.
- A new deal hides face-down cards under every column but the first: none in the first, six in the last.
- Turning over a face-down card is how you gain new options, so favour moves that do it.
- Work on the long columns early; short columns hide few cards and open up quickly.
- When two choices look equal, try one: Undo remembers your last 100 moves.
When should you empty a column in Klondike?
An empty column is useful only when a King, with face-down cards under it, can move in. Until then, leave a lone card where it is.
- Only a King, or a run that starts with a King, can fill an empty column.
- The best King to move is one with face-down cards under it, since moving it turns them over.
- A King already at the bottom of its column gains nothing by moving to an empty one.
- A lone card can still take the next lower card of the other colour; an empty column takes only a King.
Should you always move a card to the foundation in Klondike?
A card on the foundation can no longer hold the next lower card. Before sending one home, check whether a column card still needs it.
- Aces and Twos can go home at once: no column card needs them as a landing spot.
- A card is safe to send home when both lower cards of the other colour are already on the foundations.
- Before sending a higher card home, look for a card one rank lower, of the other colour, that still needs a place.
- Varaq lets you move a foundation’s top card back to a legal column if you sent it home too early.
Should you play the waste card or a column card first?
On Relaxed and Classic the waste turns over as often as you like, so a waste card comes back. A column card blocking face-down cards can’t wait.
- On Relaxed and Classic the stock recycles without limit, so a waste card you skip comes round again.
- On One pass the stock goes through once; use a waste card you need before you draw past it.
- On Classic, playing a waste card changes which cards show on later passes of three.
- Prefer column moves that turn over face-down cards before playing from the waste.
How do you choose between two moves that look equal?
Before choosing, look at what each move uncovers. A card you can see and use now beats one face-down card you can’t.
- Compare what lies under each card you could move: a face-down card, a useful face-up card, or nothing.
- A face-up card you can play straight away is worth more than an unknown face-down card.
- Look one move ahead: the card you uncover may go home or take another card at once.
- Hints use only visible cards and don’t guarantee a win, so check what a hinted move uncovers too.
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