Solitaire
The card game Solitaire was historically called Patience because it supposedly supplied one and two players with a lesson in patience. Although a two-player Patience exists, the same lesson applies to the singleplayer Klondike. It has one of the lowest solve rates of all Solitaire games because a player must follow complicated gameplay rules while relying upon personal skill and "luck of the draw." Solitaire.net sticks with traditional gameplay. There aren't any special themed decks, Jokers used as wild cards, stories arcs, missions, quests or minigames from other popular online games. This is a straightforward version of Klondike Solitaire.
People who know and love Solitaire consider the Klondike version found here one of the most mentally stimulating card-game challenges anywhere.
A Bit of History
Any type of game can have the name solitaire attached to it as long as only one person plays. That said, Solitaire normally refers to card games. Solitaire.net hosts Klondike Solitaire. Named after the Klondike Gold Rush (circa 1900s), it became popular on a global scale after Microsoft Corporation's 1990 release of a computer-based version with Windows 3.0. In fact, it was one of the earliest Windows computer games for consumers. Marketed as Solitaire, it quickly became popular with people from all walks of life.
Solitaire.net features a slightly updated version of that same classic game!
The Tabletop Presentation
In offline versions of Solitaire, a player was presented with 52 standard playing cards, based on French designs, on a green felt tabletop referred to as the tableau. The felt, known as baize, historically appeared on tables used for billiards and card games, especially in casinos and clubs. Most importantly, billiard tables often doubled as card-playing tables, which meant that Klondike Solitaire became known as a game played on a green, felt tabletop. The color comes from a connection to outdoor games on grass lawns that influenced billiards, but it's also associated with luck, money, prosperity and wealth.
Although many online Klondike games feature tabletops with a wide range of colors, patterns and textures, Solitaire.net continues a classic tradition by presenting the game as it was originally played on a simple green background. The cards are equally simple with a blue background theme bordered in white and a central white crown. They're arranged into seven vertical columns of layered face-down cards and a single layer of face-up cards with the number of cards built into each column increasing in number from one card on the far left side of the table and seven cards on the far right side.
Above the tableau is a face-down draw pile known as the stock with an empty space called the waste to the right of it where one or three cards are drawn whenever needed by the player. To the right of the stock and waste are four empty cells in a spot called the foundation. This is the area where the player must transfer all columns from the tableau. In this version of the game, the player can also see and review the total time it takes them to win or lose, their score and their best score ever.
How to Play
The card game Solitaire was historically called Patience because it supposedly supplied one and two players with a lesson in patience. Although a two-player Patience exists, the same lesson applies to the singleplayer Klondike. It has one of the lowest solve rates of all Solitaire games because a player must follow complicated gameplay rules while relying upon personal skill and "luck of the draw." Solitaire.net sticks with traditional gameplay. There aren't any special themed decks, Jokers used as wild cards, stories arcs, missions, quests or minigames from other popular online games. This is a straightforward version of Klondike Solitaire.
Klondike is considered so difficult because it focuses on extremely specific ways to build piles on both the columns and in the foundation cells. It also offers two ways to draw cards from the draw pile (Draw 1 Card and Draw 3 Cards). People usually find the three-card draw option more difficult than the one-card because there is a higher level of chance and loss of control. With the three-card draw, the player must use the far-right card first because the game locks the two cards layered behind it. If they can't use that card, then they must put all three cards in the waste, which costs them the equivalent of two additional turns of gameplay they could have enjoyed with the one-card option. The player must pick one of these modes before they ever see the tabletop and cards.
On the tableau, the player must rearrange the cards into new vertical columns to transfer cards to the foundation cells and reveal face-down cards. Each reordered column is referred to as a build. They reorder the cards in a non-suit (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades) fashion in which they place mixed suits in the build. That said, they must restack the cards in standard, descending, sequential order from King (K) to Ace (A) (i.e. K, Q, J, 10... 4, 3, 2 and A) with alternating suit colors (red, black, red... or, black, red, black). The player must stack the foundation piles using a standard, ascending, sequential order divided into suits starting from Ace and building up to King (A, 2, 3, 4.... 10, J, Q and K). Our game tip of the day; play a game of
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If the player can't find the cards they need in the columns, they draw from the face-down stock to the waste area. Klondike on Solitaire.net helps make the process easier by not penalizing the player if they run out of stock cards. The game doesn't automatically end. Instead, they can turn the waste over and start again with the remaining stock cards during the same game. At the end of the game, the player receives their score, time bonus and total score. They also receive the opportunity to restart the same game or start a new one.
Controls
Solitaire on Solitaire.net offers incredibly easy-to-use controls for moving cards around on the tableau. The player can use either a mouse or a mobile input device.
Mouse: To transfer a card, click it. The game will automatically move it to any correct available position. If two or more possibilities exist, place the cursor on the card, press the left button, and then slide the card into position.
Mobile: To move a card automatically, tap it. If two or more options exist, place the cursor on the card, press the trackpad or screen surface, and then slide the card into position.