Solitaire looks intimidating the first time you see a full board, with its uneven columns and face-down cards and piles tucked in the corners. In truth, the rules fit on a postcard. Once you understand what each part of the board is for and the handful of moves you are allowed to make, the game opens up and becomes the relaxing, satisfying puzzle that has kept people company for generations.
This guide is written for complete beginners. We will start from an empty table, deal the cards together, and cover every rule you need in plain language, with nothing assumed. The game we are learning is Klondike, the most popular form of solitaire and the exact game behind Dragon Solitaire. Open that board now and follow along, because seeing the cards move while you read makes the rules stick far faster.
What You Are Working With
Solitaire uses a single standard deck of 52 cards: four suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades) each running from Ace low up to King high. Two suits are red (hearts and diamonds) and two are black (clubs and spades). That red-and-black split matters enormously, because much of the game depends on alternating colours. There are no jokers and no wild cards. Just the ordinary deck, shuffled fresh for each game.
The Deal: Setting Up the Board
Every game of Klondike starts with the same layout. Understanding the deal is half the battle, so here is exactly how the cards are placed.
The Seven Tableau Columns
You deal seven columns across the middle of the table. The first column gets one card, the second gets two, the third gets three, and so on up to seven cards in the last column. Only the final card dealt to each column is turned face up; all the cards below it stay face down. This creates a descending staircase of hidden cards that you will slowly reveal as you play.
The Stock, Waste, and Foundations
After dealing the tableau you are left with 24 cards. These become the stock, a face-down reserve you draw from during play, with drawn cards landing face up in the waste pile beside it. Above the tableau sit four empty foundation piles, one destined for each suit. They start bare and your job is to fill them.
The Objective
Winning is straightforward to describe: build all four foundations up from Ace to King, each in a single suit. Move all 52 cards home in the right order and you win. If you reach a point where no legal move can make progress and the stock is exhausted, the game is lost. That is the whole win-or-lose condition, and everything below serves it.
It is worth knowing early that most deals can be won with careful play, though not every single one; some shuffles are impossible from the very start. That blend of skill and chance is exactly what keeps solitaire fresh over thousands of games. For now, focus on the process of filling the foundations, and the wins will come as your judgement sharpens.
The Four Legal Moves
There are only a few things you are ever allowed to do in solitaire. Learn these and you know the rules completely:
- Move a card to a foundation. Play an Ace to start a foundation, then add cards of the same suit in ascending order: Two, Three, Four, up to King.
- Build within the tableau. Place a card onto another tableau card that is one rank higher and the opposite colour, forming a descending, colour-alternating run.
- Fill an empty column with a King. When a column is emptied, only a King or a King-led sequence may move into the gap.
- Draw from the stock. Turn cards from the stock to the waste and play the exposed card if it fits somewhere.
A face-down card in the tableau turns face up automatically the moment the card above it is moved away, giving you something new to work with. That single mechanic, uncovering hidden cards, is the engine that drives the whole game.
Understanding Alternating Colours
The rule that confuses newcomers most is tableau building, so it is worth its own explanation. When you stack cards in the columns, each card must be one lower in rank and the opposite colour from the card beneath it. Think of it as always switching between red and black as you descend.
- A red Ten can go on a black Jack.
- A black Nine can go on a red Ten.
- A red Eight can go on a black Nine.
- A black Seven can go on a red Eight, and so on down the ladder.
You can never place a card on one of the same colour, and you can never place a higher card on a lower one within the tableau. Remembering down in rank, opposite in colour covers every tableau move you will ever make.
Why does the game insist on alternating colours at all? The rule keeps the tableau flexible. Because each card must sit on the opposite colour, every card has exactly two ranks that can legally land on it, one from each opposite-colour suit, which spreads your options evenly and stops columns from becoming dead ends too quickly. You do not need this reasoning to play, but it helps you appreciate why a neatly ordered column is worth building.
Using the Stock Wisely
When your tableau moves dry up, you turn to the stock. Depending on the game mode you draw either one card or three at a time into the waste, and only the top waste card is playable. When the stock is empty you flip it back over and go through it again. Beginners should start with the draw-one mode because it is far more forgiving; our draw 1 vs draw 3 guide explains why. A common beginner error is racing through the stock too early, which our common mistakes article warns against.
Your First Game Plan
Rules alone will not win games, but a couple of simple priorities will. Get Aces and Twos up to the foundations quickly, spend your energy uncovering face-down cards, and be cautious about the stock until the tableau has nothing left to offer. That is enough to win a fair share of deals. Once the basics feel natural, our Klondike strategy guide will help you win a great deal more, and if a term ever puzzles you, the solitaire glossary defines everything.
One last beginner reassurance: you cannot break the game by making a wrong move, and most digital versions let you undo freely. Treat your first dozen deals as practice, experiment without fear, and pay attention to which choices open the board and which close it down. That habit of noticing consequences is how the bare rules turn into real understanding.
Conclusion
Solitaire really is simple once the pieces click into place: seven tableau columns, a stock and waste, and four foundations that you fill from Ace to King in each suit. Build down in alternating colours, save empty columns for Kings, and keep feeding the foundations. That is the entire game. The surest way to lock it in is to play a hand, so open Dragon Solitaire and deal your first board. When you feel confident, try the tougher Spider or the wide-open Yukon, and browse every game on the dragon-solitaire.com homepage.