Play Solitaire - Questions and Answers

What’s the story behind Klondike Solitaire?

Most video games come and go. So, it’s not surprising that so many games were released in recent years that we spent hours playing and that now seem to have disappeared from the face of the Earth. But there is one computer game that has been played every day by millions of people all over the world since the end of the 1980s and has now become the most played game ever. We’re referring, of course, to the timeless Klondike Solitaire card game. Not only is the game relaxing because you don’t have any opponents, but it’s good for the brain too, since each new game challenges you to think and come up with strategic moves, thereby improving short-term memory and concentration.

The game has been around for centuries, but didn’t truly gain popularity among the general public until physical playing cards were replaced by digital ones with the advent of computers. More and more people had their own computer at home and at the office and because Microsoft started including the game for free with its Windows operating system in the early 1990s, the game could suddenly be played anywhere. Windows Solitaire is therefore the most popular version of the game ever made, which is why we based the game available at Play-Solitaire.com on this version, the rules of the game and the scoring are exactly the same.

How does the scoring work?

In our game, we maintain the standard, classic Windows Solitaire score. You earn 5 points every time you play a card from the stock to the tableau and 10 points when you play a card from the tableau or from the stock to the foundation. You also earn 5 points when you turn over a hidden card on the tableau. When you undo a move, you lose the points awarded for this undone move.

When you’ve finished a game, the score will always be around 700 points. To keep things interesting, there’s also a time bonus that is calculated for this score. The formula for this is as follows: 700,000 divided by the total playing time in seconds.

Are all deals unique?

Every deal in our game is unique. After all, there are 52! (52 factorial) ways to distribute the cards. This is an enormous amount and works as follows: Solitaire is played with 52 cards and when these are dealt, the top card has 52 possibilities, the next card has 51, the one after that 50, and so on. The sum of the number of possible deals is therefore 52 x 51 x 50 x … x 3 x 2 x 1 = 80 unvigintillion, which is an 8 with 67 zeroes. It is safe to say that, in the history of card playing, no one in the world has ever had the same deal with 52 cards. For comparison purposes, the universe is 432 quadrillion seconds old, which is a 4 with 17 zeroes. Even if you would have dealt a new deck of cards every second since the beginning of the universe until today, you still would only have gone through a small percentage of the number of possible deals.

Can all games be won?

Even if a player were to know all the cards in Klondike Solitaire, the number of solvable games is between 82% and 92%, although in practice this number is a lot lower. That’s because lots of cards are hidden and you only need to make one wrong move in a winnable Solitaire deal for the game to suddenly become unwinnable. However, the player can always use the Undo option to turn the game in another direction. It is estimated that 43% of three-card draw games can be solved by a human player, while the chances of winning a one-card draw game are many times higher.

How do I play the game?

Play Solitaire by clicking or tapping on the cards or move them around with your mouse or fingers

The cards in our game can be moved in various ways. You can drag them to the desired position and you can also press or click on the cards to automatically move them to the most logical position. The game also has several buttons, which are explained below:

Klondike Solitaire isn’t working or isn’t working properly. How do I fix this?

There are many different kinds of computers and systems on the market. Some people use a Windows desktop, while others prefer using an Apple iPad. Our game undergoes regular testing and should work on all of these devices. But sometimes something is loaded into your Internet browser incorrectly, causing some parts of the game to not function properly. In this case, you can refresh the browser you’re using to play the game. If you have a Windows PC, use the Ctrl + F5 key combination and if you have a Mac computer, press Command + Shift + R. The browser should then reload. If you’re using a device with a touchscreen without a keyboard, swipe the entire page downward to reload the browser.

Is the Solitaire game still not working after this? Then a more serious error has occurred in your browser and you will need to empty the browser cache. If you’re using a PC or laptop with Microsoft Windows, press the Ctrl + Shift + Delete keys, follow the steps below in your favorite browser and try to start the game again.

If you are using a cell phone or tablet, you can usually press the menu in the upper right of the screen and empty the cache manually. Are you still experiencing problems with our Solitaire game after you’ve gone through all of these steps? Send us an email and we’ll help you get the game up and running again as quickly as possible.