FreeCell
Added 02/2026
FreeCell: The Ultimate Open-Information Puzzle
By Martin Petroff
If you are tired of losing card games purely because the exact card you needed was buried at the bottom of a face-down pile, FreeCell is the perfect antidote. Unlike Klondike or Spider, FreeCell is an "open-information" puzzle. From the very first second of the game, all 52 cards are dealt face up. There are no hidden surprises and no lucky draws. Because of this, it has an incredibly high win rate—in fact, mathematically, nearly 99.99% of all FreeCell deals are entirely winnable! It is a game of pure strategy, foresight, and careful manipulation of the board.
How to Play
While you can see everything from the start, navigating the board requires you to master the four "free cells" at the top of your screen.
The Objective: Just like Klondike, your goal is to move all 52 cards into four "Foundation" piles at the top right of the board. You must build these piles by suit, starting with the Ace and ascending in order all the way up to the King.
The Setup (The Tableau):
Use one standard 52-card deck.
Deal all 52 cards face up into eight columns.
The first four columns receive 7 cards each.
The remaining four columns receive 6 cards each.
At the top left of your board, you have four empty spaces. These are your Free Cells.
At the top right, you have your four empty Foundation piles.
How to Play:
Building the Columns: Within the Tableau, you can move a fully exposed card onto another card, but it must be in descending order and alternating colors (for example, a red 5 goes onto a black 6).
Using the Free Cells: This is the core mechanic of the game. You can move any single, exposed card from the Tableau into one of the four Free Cells to temporarily get it out of the way. A Free Cell can only hold one card at a time.
Moving Sequences (The Catch): You can move a sequence of correctly stacked cards together, but there is a major restriction: you can only move as many cards at once as you have empty Free Cells and empty Tableau columns to facilitate the move. The game is essentially temporarily moving them to the free spaces for you. If all your Free Cells are full, you can only move one card at a time!
Empty Columns: If you completely clear one of your eight Tableau columns, you can move any single card (or a valid sequence of cards) into that empty space. Empty columns act as incredibly powerful super-cells to help you shift large stacks around the board.
Winning: The game is won when all cards have been successfully stacked from Ace to King in their respective Foundation piles.