How many cards can I move at once in FreeCell?

Officially one. In practice, you can move a run whose length is (empty free cells + 1) × 2 for every empty column — because that is how many single-card moves the free spaces allow. Our game calculates this for you.

Are all FreeCell deals winnable?

Very nearly. Of the famous 32,000 numbered Microsoft deals, all but one (#11982) are solvable. Treat every deal as winnable and the game becomes a puzzle, not a gamble.

What happens if I fill all four free cells?

Nothing is lost, but your mobility collapses — with no free cells and no empty columns you can only move single cards onto matching tableau spots. Games die this way more than any other.

Can any card go on an empty column in FreeCell?

Yes. Any single card or movable run can be placed on an empty column — there is no king-only rule.

FreeCell rules and how to play

FreeCell is the thinking player’s solitaire: every card is face-up from the first moment, luck is almost entirely absent, and nearly every deal can be won with enough care. One 52-card deck, four foundations to fill, and the four “free cells” that give the game its name. You can play FreeCell now and follow along.

What you need

A standard 52-card deck, no jokers. The board has three areas:

Eight tableau columns across the middle — the first four hold seven cards, the last four hold six. Every card is dealt face-up.
Four free cells (top left) — parking spaces that each hold exactly one card, any card, any time.
Four foundations (top right) — one per suit, built up from ace to king. Filling them is the goal.

The moves

There are only three places a card can go:

Onto a tableau column, on a card one rank higher of the opposite color — a red 6 on a black 7. This is the same alternating-color rule as Klondike. An empty column accepts any card.

Into a free cell, any single card, whenever a cell is open. The card sits there until you bring it back down onto a valid tableau spot or send it to a foundation.

Onto its foundation, in suit order from the ace up: A, 2, 3 … K. Cards on foundations are effectively out of the game.

That is the entire rule set. No stock, no waste, no hidden information — everything you will ever know about the deal is visible before your first move.

Moving more than one card

The official rule says one card at a time. But if you have, say, a red 8–black 7–red 6 run and an empty free cell, you can obviously move the run in three legal single-card steps: 6 to the cell, 7 across, 8 across, 6 back on top. Every computer version — including ours — automates this, and the resulting shortcut has a formula:

Movable run length = (empty free cells + 1), doubled for each empty tableau column.

All four cells free and no empty columns: 5 cards. Two cells free: 3 cards. All cells free plus one empty column: 10. The formula is worth internalizing, because it is the precise measure of your mobility — and the reason strategy in FreeCell revolves around keeping cells and columns open. (Note: when you move a run onto an empty column, that column does not also count toward the doubling.)

Winning and losing

You win when all 52 cards reach the foundations. You lose when no legal move exists or — more commonly — when every remaining move just shuffles cards without freeing anything. There is no redeal and no undo of fate to blame: of the classic numbered deals, essentially all are winnable, so a lost game was a solvable puzzle mis-solved. That is FreeCell’s appeal — the strategy guide is about learning to solve them on purpose.

A worked example

Suppose an ace of clubs sits three cards deep in a column, under a red 10 and a black jack. You could throw both cards into free cells and take the ace — two cells spent, ace won. Or you might notice a red queen two columns over: jack onto queen, 10 onto jack, and the ace comes free with zero cells spent. Both lines work; only one leaves your mobility intact. Almost every FreeCell decision has this shape — the impatient line and the clean line — which is why the game rewards a ten-second pause before every move.

Baker’s Game: identical layout, but tableau builds are same-suit instead of alternating colors. Noticeably harder — the free cells have to do far more work.
Eight Off: the older ancestor with eight free cells and same-suit building. More parking, stricter stacking.
Beleaguered Castle: FreeCell’s open-information feel with no free cells at all, and building by rank regardless of suit.

Once the moves feel natural, the FreeCell strategy guide covers the habits — free-cell discipline, empty columns, and planning backwards from buried aces — that turn “nearly every deal is winnable” into actually winning them.

Play FreeCell →