How to Play FreeCell Solitaire
FreeCell puts all 52 cards face up at the start. You can see the cards you need, but reaching them often means moving several others out of the way first. The 4 free cells give you somewhere to park a card for a while, as long as you do not fill all 4 at once.
What you are trying to do
Like most solitaire games, FreeCell has 4 foundations, one for each suit, each built up from the Ace to the King. Get all 52 cards onto them and you have won. What sets FreeCell apart is how you get there: you can see every card from the start, and the free cells give you a little extra room to work in.
The table
FreeCell deals the whole pack face up into 8 columns. The 4 columns on the left hold 7 cards each and the 4 on the right hold 6, so all 52 are spread in front of you with nothing held back and no stock to draw from later. Across the top are 8 single card spaces. The 4 on the left are the free cells. The 4 on the right are the foundations where the suits are built.
The free cells
Each free cell holds one card. You may move an exposed tableau card into any empty cell, then return it to a legal tableau destination or send it to its foundation. A card in a cell remains available, but the occupied cell cannot help you move another sequence until you empty it.
How the cards move
On the tableau you build downward in alternating colors, a red card onto a black one and a black onto a red, each a single rank lower than the card it lands on. That pattern will feel familiar if you have played Klondike. A card also climbs to its foundation when the next rank is ready, starting with the Ace, then the 2 of the same suit, on up to the King. When you clear a column completely, any card can go into the empty space. In Klondike only a King could.
Moving a sequence
A sequence move, often called a supermove, is a shortcut for legal single-card moves. The game checks whether the run could be moved using the available cells and columns as temporary storage. The cards must already descend in alternating colors, and the highest card of the run must fit the new spot.
Capacity is (empty cells + 1) × 2 raised to the number of empty helper columns. With 4 empty cells and no helper column, you can move 5 cards. With 2 empty cells and 1 helper column, you can move 6. Do not count an empty destination column as a helper: it has to receive the run. The source column is also unavailable while its cards are being moved.
Almost every deal can be won
Paul Alfille wrote the first computer version of FreeCell in 1978 on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois. Microsoft brought it to Windows with Windows 95, and those Windows deals were numbered. Of the original 32,000, only deal #11982 has no solution. A computer study by Charlie Blake and Ian Gent puts the share of winnable deals at about 99.999% (their Solvitaire paper). Odds that high are why FreeCell is thought of as a game of skill.
How to win
Once these basics feel familiar, the separate FreeCell strategy guide follows harder positions through cell management, empty columns, supermove capacity and late-game recovery.
Send the low cards up, but with your eyes open
Aces and 2s can go to their foundations as soon as you reach them, since nothing in the columns ever needs to sit on them. Higher cards deserve a pause. Push a card up too soon and you may strand the card that wanted to land on it.
Keep your cells empty
With all 4 cells full you have very few options left. A card in a cell may still fit a foundation or a tableau card, but before you fill the last cell, find the move that will free one again. Otherwise you may be left with nothing but single-card tableau moves.
Value an empty column above an empty cell
A cleared column doubles how many cards you can move, and it can take a whole run where a cell takes one card. If you can open one, do it. Then think twice before you fill it back in.
Read the whole board first
The play that looks obvious is often the one that buries a card you will want 3 moves later. Before you move anything, work out how you would reach the cards you are stuck behind.
Common questions
How many free cells does FreeCell have?
There are 4 free cells, and each holds one card. Think of them as parking spaces, separate from the foundations. Every card you leave in one cuts down how many cards you can move together later.
Is FreeCell always winnable?
Almost always. About 99.999% of deals can be solved, and among the original 32,000 Windows deals only #11982 cannot. Every Winnable deal on the site has a known solution, so a stuck game usually means an earlier choice went wrong. How we check that a deal can be won.
What is a supermove?
It lets you move a whole ordered run in one go, as long as you could have moved it card by card through the free cells and empty columns. Count those to see how many cards you can move. An empty column that is receiving the run does not count.
Is FreeCell harder than Klondike?
It asks for more thought, since you can see everything and have to plan, but it is far more forgiving in the long run because almost every deal can be solved. If you like Spider for the planning, FreeCell scratches a similar itch with a shorter game.
For another game with every card visible, try Addiction Solitaire. It replaces FreeCell's storage cells and foundations with 4 traveling gaps, so the open table asks for a different kind of planning.
Before building a long run, try the FreeCell supermove exercise and compare an empty destination with a spare column.