FreeCell

Overview

Every card is visible from the moment the deal lands — no face-down surprises, no guesses buried under a pile. That openness is the defining trait of FreeCell. Eight columns spread the full deck across the table at the start of play, and four small free cells sit above them as temporary parking for a single card each. Because nothing is hidden, the game is almost entirely a problem of sequencing, and a famously high percentage of deals can be solved with care. The objective is the same as any solitaire: move the aces out, then build each foundation up by suit from ace to king. What changes is the means. There is no stock to flip and no waste to grind through. Instead the free cells and the empty columns themselves become the levers that let you reorder the tableau, shuffling cards around until the path to the foundations opens. Unlimited undo encourages exploring several lines before committing.

How to Play

Click or drag a card to move it onto a card of the next rank up and the opposite color, or onto an empty column. Move a card into one of the four free cells to get it out of the way temporarily. Tap a card and then tap its destination on touch devices. Use auto-move to send eligible cards straight to the foundations when the time is right. The undo control walks back any move, so a wrong line costs nothing but a moment.

Tips & Strategy

Treat the free cells as a finite resource. With only four of them, you can move a sequence of at most five cards in one logical shuffle — any more requires empty columns as extra staging ground, so keep at least one column open whenever possible. Build the foundations steadily but not greedily; pushing a card up too early can strand the cards below it that needed it as a landing spot. Plan several moves ahead, because the deal is fully visible and the answer is almost always there if you look. When the board looks stuck, look for the longest descending run you can assemble and the column that frees up once it moves. Use undo without hesitation — it is the natural way to test a line in a game where every position is knowable.