Klondike Instructions

Overview

The goal of Klondike solitaire is to place all the cards in each suit in stacks of ascending rank. Stacks of cards with alternating colors in descending rank can be built in the bottom half of the screen as an intermediate step.

Layout

There are three areas of the screen:

• Building Stacks The building stacks are found in the bottom half of the screen. The leftmost stack has one card, with each subsequent stack having an additional card. Only the top card of each stack is face up. Removing the top card from a stack will turn over the card below it.
• Deck The deck is located in the upper left corner of the screen and contains the cards which are not found in the source stacks. Three cards are initially removed and placed to the right of the deck with their face up. The top card of those three can be moved to another stack. Clicking on the deck, or right-clicking anywhere on the screen, will turn over the next three cards (if there are at least three cards remaining in the deck). If there are no more cards to go through in the deck, clicking on the outline of the deck will begin another pass through the deck. The number of passes through the deck is unlimited.
• Suit Stacks The suit stacks are located in the upper right corner and are initially unoccupied.

Moving Cards

To move a card, click on the card (which will highlight it) and then click on the destination stack. The following are valid moves:

1. An ace can be moved to its suit stack. (This will usually be done automatically.)
2. A card at the top of a stack can be moved to its corresponding suit stack if the rank of the card at the top of that stack is one less than the card's ranke (Kings have a rank of 13, queens 12, jacks 11 and an ace has a rank of 1).
3. A king can be moved to an empty space.
4. A card can be moved from the deck, a suit stack, or a building stack to a source stack if the card at the top of the destination stack has a different color from and a value one more than the card.
5. Ordered cards at the bottom of a building stack can be moved to another building stack if there is a card in the ordered sequence which has a different color and a rank one less than the card at the top of the destination stack.

A card will be automatically moved to the suit stacks from the deck and building stacks if the cards which might be placed on top of it are already in the suit stacks. Clicking undo will retract an automatic move.

Buttons

Clicking on these buttons will perform the following actions:

New Game

Begin a new game after shuffling the deck

Restart

Return to the original state of the current game

Undo

Return to the condition before the previous move was

Options

Bring up a window with the following options:

Number of cards drawn

This option determines the number of cards which are turned up from the deck at a time. The number can vary from 1 to 5, with 3 the default.

Number of redeals

This sets the additional number of passes which can be made through the deck

Starting rank

This option sets the rank of the cards at the tops of the suit stacks at the start of the game. A new game must be started for this option to take effect. Increasing this value will result in an easier game.

Empty spaces accept

This option enables empty building stacks to accept cards other than kings.

Display deck contents

Setting this option will display a listing of the deck, highlighting the available card. After the initial pass through the deck, upcoming cards will be displayed above the current card, with the accessible cards appearing in the rightmost column. Occasionally it is beneficial to refrain from removing a card from the deck because it will a set up a better order in the subsequent pass through the deck. Listing the deck will show when these instances occur.

Automatic card moving

When this box is set (which is the default), a card atop a building stack will be moved to its suit stack automatically if there are no cards available which might be placed on top of it.