How to play FreeCell
FreeCell is the solitaire where nothing is hidden. All fifty-two cards are dealt face up into eight columns, and four free cells at the top each hold a single card while you dig. Because you can see everything from the first moment, a FreeCell deal is a puzzle rather than a gamble — almost every one of them can be solved, and losing means you played it wrong rather than drew it wrong.
How to play
- Build the four foundations up from ace to king, one suit each. That is how you win.
- In the columns, cards stack downwards in alternating colours — a black nine goes on a red ten.
- Each free cell holds exactly one card. Use them to park cards you need out of the way, and remember every filled cell is one you cannot use next turn.
- Cards in order move as a group, but only as far as the empty cells and empty columns could have carried them one at a time. The game tells you how many that is.
- An empty column takes any card, which is why an empty column is worth far more than an empty cell.
Tips & strategy
- Look for the aces first and work out what is buried on top of them before you touch anything.
- Empty a column early if you can. An empty column roughly doubles how many cards you can move at once.
- Keep at least one free cell open. Filling all four is the most common way a winnable deal becomes unwinnable.
- Plan several moves ahead rather than taking the first legal one — the order you do things in is the entire game.
Accessibility
Fully playable by touch, keyboard and screen reader, with no dragging: tap a card, then tap where it goes, and every legal move is also a full-size labelled button beneath the table. Because nothing in FreeCell is face down, "Read the whole table" is a complete description of the game rather than a summary — the whole position can be played without seeing it.