About Solitaire

Four patience games on one table. Klondike is the one most people mean by solitaire: seven columns built down in alternating colours, four foundations built up from ace to king in suit, and a stock you turn one card or three at a time. FreeCell deals every card face up with four cells to park cards in, so nothing is hidden and almost every deal can be beaten. Spider uses two decks and asks for runs of one suit from king down to ace, in one, two or four suits. TriPeaks clears three overlapping pyramids by taking any exposed card one rank above or below the card on the pile.

Tap a card to pick it up and tap where it should go; a double tap sends it straight to a foundation if that is where it belongs. Undo goes back as far as you like, the hint button finds a move worth making, and in Klondike and FreeCell one button sends every card that can go up to the foundations, so a won game does not need fifty more taps to finish.

The daily challenge is FreeCell, and deliberately so: with four cells and eight columns all but a handful of deals in the whole deck can be beaten, which is what a leaderboard everyone shares needs. Everybody gets the same deal, ranked by fewest moves and then by time, with a streak for coming back. Klondike, Spider and TriPeaks are all there for free play whenever you want them.

Tips to win

• In Klondike, turn up a face-down card whenever you can: the cards you cannot see are the ones losing you the game
• Do not empty a Klondike column until you have a king ready for it, or you have gained nothing
• In FreeCell, plan before you fill the last cell; with every cell full you can only move one card at a time
• In Spider, build in suit wherever there is a choice — a mixed run cannot travel, and untangling one costs far more than making it correctly
• In TriPeaks, look at the long runs first: taking cards in an unbroken chain is where the game is won