Solitaire advice usually assumes a paper rule set. This site runs a specific Klondike engine in src/games/solitaire/SolitaireEngine.ts, and several of its rules change correct play. The deal, the scoring, and one movement quirk are documented below with exact numbers.
How the solitaire deal happens
The engine builds a 52 card deck and applies a Fisher-Yates shuffle seeded by Math.random. It then deals 28 cards to seven columns, one card to the first column up to seven cards to the last, with only each column top card face up. The remaining 24 cards go face down into the stock.
The stock turns one card at a time onto the waste. There is no draw-three mode. Clicking an empty stock recycles the waste back, and the recycle code pops waste cards onto the stock one by one, which reverses the reversal. Every pass through the stock presents the same 24 cards in the same order.
That determinism drives rule one of the strategy below. There is no seed display and no way to replay a specific deal.
The scoring ledger
Every number here is a constant in the engine.
1. Each card sent to a foundation adds 10 points.
2. Each tableau card flipped face up adds 5 points, and flips happen automatically after every successful move.
3. Moving a waste card to the tableau adds 5 points.
4. Recycling the stock subtracts 20 points, floored at zero.
5. Each undo subtracts 5 points, and the undo stack holds at most 20 states.
Winning adds a time bonus of 700 minus seconds times 5.83, floored at zero. The bonus hits zero at 120 seconds, so any win slower than two minutes earns nothing extra. Chasing the bonus means playing fast and skipping undo fishing entirely, since five undos cost more points than most quick plays gain.
The movement quirk that changes strategy
Physical Klondike moves only properly sequenced runs. This engine checks only the leading card of your selection. Any contiguous face-up segment moves to a tableau pile when its top card legally fits the destination, even when the cards behind it do not form a valid descending alternating run.
Two consequences follow. You can split a face-up run at any point and move the lower half elsewhere, which physical rules forbid. You can also relocate mixed cards to reorganize columns far more freely than paper allows. Use the quirk to empty columns, because only a King may occupy an empty column, per canPlaceOnTableau.
Standard build rules still apply to the destination. Tableau builds run descending in alternating colors, foundations build ascending in one suit starting from the Ace.
Deterministic play order
1. Never send an Ace or 2 anywhere manually. After every successful move, autoMoveAcesAndTwos lifts Aces and 2s from waste and tableau tops to foundations on its own, and pays you 10 points each time.
2. Prioritize moves that expose face-down cards. Each flip pays 5 points and each revealed card is new information for free.
3. Double click a card to auto send it to a foundation when possible. The double click window is 350 ms on the same pile.
4. Before recycling the stock, scan the waste top card against every tableau top and foundation. A recycle costs 20 points and returns zero new information, because the next pass shows the identical order.
5. Prefer waste to tableau moves that unlock a face-down flip over immediate foundation sends when the flipped card enables chains.
6. Reserve undo for unseen information, never for fishing. Each undo is a permanent 5 point loss and the stack caps at 20.
Win requires all four foundations at 13 cards. The engine then plays the cascade animation and records best time and best score.
Honest limits
The auto flip after every move means you never choose when to flip, which removes a small strategic lever paper players have. The auto Ace and 2 mover fires after every move, and you cannot disable it, so holding a 2 for tableau building is impossible while it sits on a pile top. The run movement quirk cuts both ways, since it also lets you build sloppy mixed stacks that hide missing links. Undo is capped at 20 states and every use leaks 5 points, so long reversal chains are unrecoverable. Stats persist in localStorage and clearing site data wipes games played, games won, best time, and best score.
Solitaire pre move checklist
- [ ] No manual Ace or 2 moves pending, the engine handles them.
- [ ] Next move exposes a face-down card.
- [ ] Waste top checked against tableau tops before any recycle.
- [ ] Double click tried on every newly freed card.
- [ ] Empty columns reserved for Kings.
- [ ] Undo budget and the 5 point cost weighed before use.
Deal a game on the [solitaire page](/en/solitaire) and count your recycles. If you finish with zero recycles and the score still trails the arithmetic above, send us the move log. Real deal logs against this engine are the data we need to extend this guide.
