Yukon Instructions

Overview

The initial setup for Yukon solitaire is the same as that of Klondike solitaire. Seven card stacks are made containing from one to seven cards, with only the top card turned face up. Instead of placing the remaining 24 cards in a stack which is cycled through, four cards are placed face up on each stack except the leftmost. The objective is to put the entire deck in suit stacks of ascending rank, making stacks of descending rank with alternating colors as an intermediate stage. Any face up card can be placed on a card at the top of a stack which has a different color and a rank one greater than it. If the moved card is not the top card in its stack, all cards above it will be moved along with it.

Layout

The seven building stacks are in the middle of the screen, with two suit stacks on each side. If all the face up cards of a stack are removed, the topmost face down card will be turned over.

Moving Cards

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

1. A card can be moved to a card which has a rank one more and a different color from it, moving all cards above it stack along with it.
2. An ace can be moved to its suit stack. (This will usually be done automatically.)
3. A card at the top of a stack can be moved to its corresponding suit stack if the value of the card at the top of that stack is one less than the card's value (Kings have a value of 13, queens 12, jacks 11 and an ace has a value of 1).
4. A King can be moved to an empty building stack.

A card will be automatically moved to the suit stacks from the tops of the 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.

Selecting Moved Cards

Usually there will be only one face up card in the source stack which can be placed on top of the destination stack, and that move will be made regardless of how many cards are selected. If there are more than one card in a stack which can be placed on another card (for example a stack containing a 4 of hearts and a 4 of diamonds which can both be placed on a 5 of clubs), it is necessary to select multiple cards to move the card lower in the stack. Clicking on a card below the top card will select all cards from the clicked card to the top of the stack and clicking twice on a stack will select all face up cards. If more cards are selected than can be moved, as many selected cards will be moved as possible.

Strategy

The general algorithm for playing Yukon solitaire is as follows:

1. For each stack, see which face up cards in the other stacks can be moved to the top of the stack.
2. If there is only one unordered card which can be moved to the top of the stack, go ahead and move it.
3. If there are two or more cards which can be placed on the stack, make the move which will lead to turning over a face down card. If neither move will result in a new face up card, make the move which will enable more moves.
4. Repeat until the game is won or there are no possible moves.

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:

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.

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.