Inside Technique : Solitaire Home Page : Explorer Solitaire : Freecell

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Rules of the game

Objective

To move all cards to the foundations.

Layout

Four Freecells, initially empty. Any card may be played onto a freecell, but each Freecell may hold only one card. The Freecells are used as temporary storage areas while arranging the Tableaux.

Four Foundation piles, initially empty. Start building by moving an Ace to the empty foundation, followed by 2, then 3 and so on until King. Each foundation accepts cards of the same suit in ascending order only (UP IN SUIT), i.e. once you play the Ace of Spades on a particular foundation, you may only play 2 of Spades on that foundation, then 3 of Spades, upto the King.

Eight Tableau piles, the leftmost four are initially dealt 7 cards, while the rightmost four are dealt 6 cards each. All cards in the Tableau are face-up. Cards can be played onto the tableaux if they are one rank below and of a different color (DOWN IN ALTERNATE COLOR) than the topmost card of the pile, i.e. if the topmost card is 10 of Spades, then either 9 of Hearts or 9 of Diamonds can be played on that pile. Groups of cards cannot be moved. Double-clicking the topmost card of a tableau pile will send it to the foundation or a Freecell. This is a shortcut for the sometimes tedious drag-and-drop. An empty tableau may be filled by playing any card onto it.

Tips

Since all cards are face-up from the start of the game, winning is more a matter of skill than luck. Try to keep as many Freecells empty as possible, this makes it possible to unearth cards several levels below. This game was invented by Paul Alfille.

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