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About Klondike Solitaire
- Turn cards from the draw pile over one at a time. If the card you turn over is playable (either on a foundation or on the tableau), you may do so.
- As they become available, the four aces can be played onto the foundations. Cards of the same suit may be played on each ace in ascending order, from low (2) to high (king).
- On the tableau, cards are played in descending order, alternating colors.
- If a column in the tableau is empty, any visible king can be moved to fill that space.
Why is the game called Klondike?
The game is thought to have its origins in the Klondike region of Canada during the gold rush in the late 1890s.
Solitaire became a popular way for the miners and prospectors to pass the time during long winters in the gold fields. Klondike has since become one of the most popular variations of solitaire.
About the Klondike Gold Rush
After gold was found in Rabbit Creek in north-western Canada in 1896, the Klondike stampede saw an estimated 100,000 prospectors trying to reach the gold fields.
Only around 40,000 made it, and only 4000 of those managed to get some gold.
Boom towns appeared along the route to accommodate the prospectors. Dawson City was founded where the Klondike and the Yukon River meet. In 1896 it housed 500 residents. By the summer of 1898 there were 30,000.
The rush for gold ended in 1899 when prospectors moved on to the next big thing at Nome, Alaska. When the first census was taken in 1901 the population had declined to 9,000.
The History of Solitaire
It's a bit of a mystery where solitaire comes from. Several games are of French origin, such as La Belle Lucie, Le Cadran, La Nivernaise, Le Loi Salique. But that doesn't necessarily mean it started in France. It could just as likely have its roots in Germany or Scandinavia. It has its earliest written appearance in the 1783 edition of the German book of games, Das neue Königliche L'Hombre-Spiel, where it is referred to as Patiencespiel. It was described as a competitive card game where players would take turns to play with separate decks of cards. Playing by oneself probably came out of people enjoying practicing for competitive games.
Worldwide, the game has many names. In Britain, it is still often called Patience, because players do need patience to win a game. In modern France, the game is more often called réussite, which means success. Other languages, such as Norwegian and Danish often use the word Kabal, which means secret knowledge, to describe these games. The outcome of a game could possibly have been thought to be a type of fortune telling.
The first collection of solitaire card games in the English language was written by Lady Adelaide Cadogan with her book of Illustrated Games of Patience published in 1870. Before this, there had been no literature about it, not even in such books as Abbe Bellecour's Academie des Jeux (1674), Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester (1674), and Bohn's Handbook of Games (1850), all of which are used as reference on card games.
It is said that Napoleon played solitaire during his exile. Many games bear his name or the name of the island he was exiled to: St. Helena, Napoleon's Square, Little Napoleon. However, Napoleon enjoyed the more popular games of the day such as Whist, Vingt-Un and Piquet, so whether he played those solitaire games or invented them is unclear.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was another well-known patience player. The game of Roosevelt was named after him, although his favorite solitaire game was Spider solitaire.
In the 1980s, personal computers made solitaire more popular. Microsoft has included the game as part of the Windows operating system since 1990. Players don't need to shuffle and deal the cards for each hand, making game play more enjoyable.
Whether played online in a browser or with real playing cards, it is an ideal mind exercise and stress reliever, more popular now than ever before.
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How To Play Klondike
The table in online klondike solitaire has seven columns. The first starts with one card, the second with two cards, and so on to the seventh, which starts with seven cards. The remaining cards are face down in the top left corner. You can click on them to turn over one card at a time.
There are four foundations at the top, which start off empty. When an ace is uncovered it can be played onto the foundations. Cards of the same suit may be placed onto each ace in ascending order from low to high.
On the tableau, cards are played by alternating colors in descending order from high to low. If a column gets cleared and becomes empty, then you can move any visible king to fill that space.
You win klondike when all the cards have been removed from the tableau and added to the foundations.
Card Layout
The layout of the cards in klondike solitaire involves four areas.
Tableau: The tableau is the main area of gameplay with 28 cards laid out in seven columns of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 cards. The card at the end of each column is turned face up.
Stock: The cards that are left after setting up the tableau are placed face-down on the stock pile.
Waste: Any card you flip from the stock is moved face-up onto the waste pile.
Foundations: The goal is to play all cards to the four foundations in the upper right of the screen. Build them by suit, starting with the Ace and ending with the King.
Difference between Klondike Turn 1 and Turn 3
In Turn 1, one card at a time is turned over from the stock. In Turn 3, three cards are turned over and you can only play the top card, which makes it a harder game.