Play Freecell
The strategic solitaire game. FreeCell is a wildly popular solitaire game where all the cards are face up at the start of the game. Nearly every game is winnable but many games of FreeCell can be quite difficult to win, making the game very challenging but with the knowledge that you can always always win it. 📜FreeCell rules: Learn how to play. The setup: There are 8 tableaus, numbered from 1 to 8. The first 4 tableaus start with 7 cards each. The last 4 tableaus start with 6 cards each. The foundation and open cells start empty. The objective: To win, you have to get all of the cards onto the foundations. The foundations are ordered by suit.
How to play FreeCell Solitaire?
FreeCell Solitaire is a combination of luck and tactics. The luck is from what cards you’re dealt, while the tactic comes into play when you need to prepare and calculate for several moves ahead.On the board, you have four blank fields on the left and the right. The ones on the left are called freecells, and the ones on the right are the homecells or the foundation. The goal of the game is to move all cards into the homecells.
The games start with eight columns of cards, all 52 of them, where the first four columns have seven cards, while the other four have six. This arrangement is called the tableau. The cards from there will need to go to the homecells. Each homecell is for one of the card suits, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. You will need to order them starting from the ace and finishing with the king, making sure that each suit is in its homecell. The freecells are used like temporary holders, where you are able to place the last card in the tableau column to move it out of the way.
All cards from the deck are randomized in the eight columns on the board, and you will need to move them around to put all of them in their homecells in the required order. You have three options to make your move, and they are the only ones you will need to know.
When you start the game, the cards that you are available to move are the ones that are on the bottom of the columns, in other words, if no other card is covering it. If it’s an ace, you can move it to a homecell. Moving the cards to a homecell means that you will need to move them with a specific order from ace to the king, making sure every card in that field is with the same suit.
- Freecell Solitaire is a full screen classic solitaire card game. Just like in kondike solitaire, build stacks of cards in descending order and opposite color (red or black). You can drag-and-drop any card into one of the four 'free' cells on the top left, but always try to have an exit-strategy for that card.
- It's kind of a big deal. One of the world's most popular Solitaire games, Freecell is a remarkable combination of strategy and simplicity. Nearly all games can be solved, but with only four open cells (and only ten minutes on the timer), can you beat the clock and win the game?
- ️Play FreeCell Solitaire online for free. No registration or download required. 10000+ free FreeCell Solitaire card games.
When you move a card to a freecell, the only rule you need to follow is that you can have only one card in one freecell at a certain time. Apart from that, you are free to move any uncovered card there at any time. Even though you are available to use the freecells as much as you want, try to keep them available for future cards you may need to move around.
Before the game begins, you will need to come up with a tactic and plan a few moves ahead of time. This will enable you to plan how to move cards to their homecells or free them to be moved to a freecell or below another card in the columns. To move a free card from one position to another that is not a homecell or freecell there are three rules:
- it needs to be the latest card in the column, uncovered
- the card you intend to place on also needs to be a free one
- the card you move needs to be one card lower and with the opposite color than the card you plan to put it below.
Here is an example: if you have seven of hearts in one column and six of spades in another, you can place the six below the seven. On the other hand, if you have seven of hearts and six of diamonds, then you cannot. Below each black card will need to go a red one, and it needs to be one card lower – five below six, queen below the king, and so on.
During the process of clearing up the board, you will come into a situation where you will manage to clear out an entire column and be left with seven or less. In that case, you can grab any free card and move it to an empty column slot. It doesn’t matter which card it is, as long as it is a free one.
The advantage of the game is that all cards are uncovered, meaning that there will be no surprises, and you have the option to plan well ahead. Since the game randomizes the cards, there may be a situation where you will be left with no options or possible moves. There are ways of avoiding this, but if you don’t manage to do so, restart the game and try again.
If you like FreeCell, you may also like Spider Solitaire. Also, don’t forget to play or the day for classic solitaire also known as klondike solitaire. And if you’re looking for new types of games, we have over 500 different solitaire card games. Good luck!
History of FreeCell Solitaire
FreeCell is one of the most popular card games you can find on most computers. It was first introduced in 1978 by Paul Alfille, who programmed the first computerized version of it as a medical student on a PLATO computer at the University of Illinois.
It was popularized in 1991 when it came preinstalled with every version of Windows. Just like any other card game, there is a unique set of rules that a player must follow to win the game. The game is played with one deck of cards, and even though there is an infinite number of possible deals, don’t expect to be able to learn all of them. Mathematically speaking, there are 1.75 times 10 to the power of 64 possible games.
With all the billions of possible games and combinations, you may think that it’s a challenging game to play. In reality, it’s relatively easy, and there are a few simple rules you’ll need to follow.
Introduction to Freecell
Classic FreeCell is played with one 52-card deck of standard playing cards. It's a modification of the solitaire game called Baker's Game. The only real difference is that in FreeCell, they are built by alternate (red and black) colors, while in Baker's Game cards are built by suit.
Almost all FreeCell games are winnable. A rare example of a deal that is considered to be unsolvable is deal number 11982 from Windows 95's version of FreeCell. You can play this deal from the top menu (choose 'Numbered Deals').
Both ranks and suits of cards are important in FreeCell. From low to high, card ranks run in order from Ace, to Two, to Three, and so on up to Ten, Jack, Queen, and finally King.
History
Paul Alfille is credited with the invention of FreeCell. Working at the University of Illinois, he programmed the first computerized version of the game in 1978. Originally, the game had several different variants. The most popular version played today is the Classic version.
Goal
The goal of FreeCell is to build up all 4 of the suits in the foundation, each in order from Ace to King.
How to Play Freecell
When the game starts, all 52 cards are dealt face-up into the 8 columns in the tableau. In the first 4 columns, piles of 7 cards are dealt, and in the remaining 4 columns, piles of 6 cards are dealt.
Play Freecell Solitaire online, free
A card may be moved by the player back and forth between the tableau and the free cell area. Any single card may be moved to an empty free cell.
When moving a card from a free cell to the tableau, it can only be placed either into a vacant column or onto the lowermost card in a pile that is next-in-rank and of the opposite (red or black) color. For example, the Four of Spades might be moved from a free cell onto either the Five of Hearts or the Five of Diamonds at the bottom of a pile. Note that since the King possesses the highest rank, it cannot be moved from a free cell onto a pile.
Play Freecell Solitaire
A card may also be moved either from a free cell or the bottom of a pile to the foundation, providing that it is an Ace, which begins a suit build, or the next in rank for a suit, which extends a build. It's also possible to move a card from the foundation to a free cell or the tableau.
An ordered sequence consists of consecutive cards in a pile that are both in-rank and with alternating colors, with the lowest rank being at the bottom. For example, from the bottom up, the Two of Diamonds, the Three of Clubs, and the Four of Hearts constitutes a 3-card ordered sequence.
The player moves one card at a time. However, provided that a sufficient number of combined free cells and tableau columns are empty, an ordered sequence of more than 1 card may be moved all at once from one pile either onto another pile or into an empty column. This counts as only 1 move.