Types of Solitaire
Solitaire is not one game. The name covers hundreds of them, and people have been inventing new ones for more than two centuries. What keeps it from turning into a mess is that nearly all of them are built from a few simple ideas, borrowed and bent into new shapes. Once you can see those ideas, a long list of odd names like Yukon, Scorpion and Baker's Dozen stops looking random. This guide sorts the field into its main families, shows what makes each one its own game and points you to the best place to start.
How the types are sorted
The clearest way to group these games is by where the sorting actually happens. In some you build up to a set of foundations off to one side, and the columns on the table are only a staging ground on the way there. In others there are no foundations at all, and the entire job gets done down in the columns themselves. A third group throws out the long tableau and hands you a fixed shape to clear by matching cards instead. Ask one question of any solitaire game: where do the cards finish? The answer usually lands it in one of those 3 broad groups. From there, the practical families below split those groups into the games people actually search for and play.
Two more things tell the families apart after that. One is the size of the pack, since a few games deal from 2 decks and run far longer than the rest. The other is how much sits face down at the start, because a board with every card showing is a planning test you can win on skill alone, while a board full of hidden cards always keeps a little luck in the mix. Once you know where the cards finish, pack size and hidden information place almost any solitaire you will ever meet.
Klondike and the building games
When someone just says solitaire, with no other word in front of it, they almost always mean Klondike. It shipped on office computers for years, which is how a quiet parlor game became the face of the whole genre. You deal 7 columns, build them downward in alternating colors and feed 4 foundations up by suit, Ace through King. Only the bottom card of each column starts face up, so a real part of the game is freeing the buried cards in an order that does not trap you.
The family is wider than that single game. Klondike Turn 3 deals the stock 3 cards at a time rather than 1, the very same board under a stricter rule. Yukon keeps the Klondike shape but drops the stock and lets you pick up a whole group of cards at once, in order or not, which turns it into a heavier puzzle with almost everything on show from the first move. If all of this is new, the plain game is the door to walk through, and the how to play Klondike guide takes it one step at a time.
Spider and the packing games
Spider looks like Klondike from across the room and plays nothing like it. It runs on 2 full decks across 10 columns, with no foundations anywhere. Instead you assemble 8 sequences from King down to Ace right inside the columns, and the instant one comes together it vanishes from the board, all 13 cards gone in a single sweep. What sets the family apart is the group move. A clump of cards travels as a unit only if it is already sorted into one suit, so a single off-suit card jams everything beneath it. Calm, deliberate suit sorting is the skill these games reward.
It comes in 3 strengths that hardly feel related. One suit is forgiving and falls into place on most deals. Two suits is where moving cards in bulk turns into real work. Four suits leaves every suit in play and loses far more often than it wins, even in skilled hands. Scorpion and Spiderette belong to the same packing branch, and the Spider guide breaks down every suit count in detail.
FreeCell and the open-table games
FreeCell turns all 52 cards face up before you make a move, so none of the luck is hidden under the table. The aim is the same as Klondike, 4 foundations built up by suit, but you also get 4 free cells, and each one can park a single card while you work the rest of the board around it. With nothing concealed and that bit of room to breathe, almost every FreeCell deal can be solved by a player willing to think it through. This is the type for anyone who wants the result to hinge on decisions, not the shuffle.
The open table is a whole shelf of games, each one shifting a single rule. Baker's Game builds in suit rather than alternating color. Eight Off hands you more cells to work with. Seahaven Towers spreads the cards across 10 narrow towers and tightens the squeeze. The FreeCell variants guide sets them side by side, and the FreeCell guide walks through the standard game from end to end.
Baker's Dozen and the no-reserve games
A smaller family takes the open table and cuts the safety net away. Baker's Dozen spreads the whole pack into 13 short columns, gives you no stock to draw from and no cells to set a card aside, then asks you to build the foundations anyway. With nowhere to stash a card out of the way, the order you take the columns apart is the entire game, which makes it a clean test of sequencing rather than speed.
Its cousins each loosen or swap one rule. In Spanish Patience a cleared column will take any card you like, which opens the game up. Castles in Spain works much the same way with empty columns. Both keep the 13 column frame, so they sit a notch harder than FreeCell for one reason: with no reserve to fall back on, every move carries a cost you pay later. The Baker's Dozen guide lays out how each one plays.
Pyramid, TriPeaks and Golf, the clearing games
The last big type clears away the tall columns and the foundations, then hands you a fixed shape to take apart by matching. Pyramid stacks 28 cards and has you remove them in pairs that total 13, working the shape loose from its bottom edge upward. TriPeaks and Golf both feed a single waste pile, where you grab any card one rank above or below the one on top and chain long runs whenever the cards cooperate. These are the quick games of the genre, a few minutes to a deal, and they call for a different reflex: spotting the next match in a blink rather than planning a long way ahead.
Which type should you start with
For a first game, start with Klondike. It teaches the pieces every other type leans on, the foundations, the alternating colors and the patient draw from the stock, and once those feel like second nature the rest of the field opens up. After that the choice comes down to what you want from a sitting. Reach for FreeCell when you want a fair fight that rewards thought over luck, since almost any deal there can be won. Reach for Spider when you want a long game to disappear into for a while. Reach for Pyramid or Golf when you have five minutes and want something quick and light. If you would rather size up the odds before you pick, the is solitaire winnable guide covers how often each type can actually be solved, and the how to win guide gathers the habits that carry across all of them.
Common questions
How many types of solitaire are there?
There are hundreds of named solitaire games but only a handful of real types. Almost every one either builds up to foundations the way Klondike and FreeCell do, packs runs inside the columns the way Spider does or clears a fixed shape by matching the way Pyramid and Golf do. Learn those few families and the endless list of names stops being intimidating.
What is the most popular type of solitaire?
Klondike, by a wide margin. Microsoft put it on every copy of Windows for decades, so for a lot of people the word solitaire and the game Klondike are the same thing. Spider and FreeCell are the next most played.
What is the easiest type of solitaire?
One suit Spider and Golf are the gentlest of the common games. One suit Spider shares a single suit across both decks, so almost any descending order can move and most deals come home. Golf clears so quickly that a poor run costs you very little. FreeCell is harder to play but easier to win, since nearly every deal has a solution waiting for a patient player.
What is the hardest type of solitaire?
Among the games most people play, 4 suit Spider and Baker's Dozen are the toughest. In 4 suit Spider a sorted run is slow to assemble and quick to fall apart, while Baker's Dozen hands you no stock and no spare cells, so a single wrong order can leave the board stuck. Both punish a careless move far more than Klondike does.
What is the difference between Klondike and Spider?
Klondike runs on 1 deck, builds down in alternating colors and sends the cards up to 4 foundations off to the side. Spider runs on 2 decks, pays no attention to color and builds full King to Ace runs inside its 10 columns with no foundations at all. They share a look and almost nothing else.