Play Super Challenge FreeCell Online — Buried Aces and a King Rule

Challenge FreeCell buries the eight cards you most need — every ace and two sits at the bottom of the column it was dealt to. Super Challenge FreeCell keeps the burial and takes away the escape: an empty column takes only a king. Everything else is FreeCell — eight open columns, four cells, alternating-colour building, runs under the max-movable rule — but with no opening foundation play and no free space to dig with, the source rates it pure skill.

Setup

• Tableau: eight columns — four of seven cards and four of six — every one face up, with each ace and two at the bottom of its column.
• Cells: four, empty. Each holds one card.
• Foundations: four empty piles, one per suit, built up from ace to king.
• No stock and no waste. All 52 cards are in the columns.

Rules

• The tableau builds down in alternating colours — a red 7 on a black 8.
• A packed run moves as a unit, limited by the free cells and empty columns: (cells + 1) × 2 to the power of empty columns.
• Any single card may be moved to an empty cell, and back to the tableau when it has a host.
• An empty column takes only a king, or a run headed by one.
• Foundations build up in suit from the ace and are one-way.

Strategy

The aces are at the bottom, so every dig is a full column. There is no quick ace. Pick the column whose cards above the ace have the most hosts elsewhere, and dig that one to the floor before you touch another.

A space is a king's, so it is not a dig tool. In Challenge FreeCell you can empty a column and use it as a workbench. Here an emptied column sits idle until a king arrives, so clearing one is only worth it when a king with a good run beneath it is ready to move in.

Four cells are the whole budget. With spaces closed, the cells are the only temporary storage. Never fill the last one unless the move that follows frees a cell again.

Build runs that end in a low card, not that cover one. A run whose bottom card is a three has a two coming to sit on it; a run that buries a four under a nine has to be dismantled later, cell by cell.

Where It Sits in the FreeCell Family

The FreeCell family is the open, cell-based line of patience. Challenge FreeCell is FreeCell with a hostile deal; Forecell is FreeCell with kings-only spaces and full cells; Super Challenge FreeCell combines the hostile deal with the king rule and leaves the cells empty. It is the family's hardest one-deck member by design, and the one to play when FreeCell's near-certain wins have stopped being interesting.

Other Games to Try

• Challenge FreeCell — the same burial with any card into a space
• Forecell — kings-only spaces with the cells full from the deal
• FreeCell — the original
• King Only Baker's Game — the king rule with a suit build

About This Version

Super Challenge FreeCell runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer and it works offline. You get unlimited undo, a hint button that names a legal move, statistics that track your wins and times, and seeded deals: every game has a seed you can replay, so a board you enjoyed (or lost) can be played again exactly.