Play German FreeCell — Four Cells, and Each One Has a Suit

German FreeCell is Seven by Four's board with a single rule added, and that one rule remakes the game. Seven columns are dealt — three of eight cards and four of seven — all face up, and there are four free cells as usual. The difference is that the cells are not interchangeable: the first takes hearts only, the second diamonds, the third clubs, the fourth spades. So a board with three awkward black cards has one place to put them, not four. Cards build down in alternating colour, a packed run travels as a unit, any card may fill an empty column, and the foundations build up in suit from an ace. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play German FreeCell?

Goal: build every card onto the foundations.

Setup

• Columns: seven — three of eight cards and four of seven, all face up.
• Cells: four, one for each suit.
• Foundations: four, built up in suit from an ace.
• No stock. Every card is visible from the first move.

Rules

• Build down in alternating colour: a red six goes on a black seven.
• Each cell takes one suit only — hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades, in that order.
• A cell still holds exactly one card at a time.
• A packed run moves as a unit, as far as the free cells and empty columns allow.
• Any card may fill an empty column.
• You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. You lose when no legal move remains.

What's the Best German FreeCell Strategy?

• Count your real cells, not your empty ones. Four empty cells look like four places to park a card, but if the card you need to move is a club, you have exactly one. Before starting a sequence, check that the suits you will be parking actually have homes free.
• The move limit is suit-blind, and that is a trap. The arithmetic still says one plus your free cells, doubled for each empty column — but a supermove needs the right cells free, not just some cells. Plan the suits of the cards that will pass through.
• Empty columns are worth even more here than in FreeCell. A column accepts any card, so it is the only unrestricted space on the board. Clearing one early is worth more than in the ordinary game.
• Do not park a card you cannot retrieve. A king in the spade cell blocks every other spade for the rest of the game unless you can play it out. Cells here are commitments.
• Everything is face up, so plan the whole line first. The game is rated pure skill, and it deserves it — a move you cannot finish is a mistake you could have seen. Undo is free.

A Short History

German FreeCell takes one of the cleanest ideas in patience — a handful of cells you may park anything in — and makes it specific. Each cell keeps one suit, which sounds like a small restriction and is not: the value of a free cell in FreeCell comes precisely from its being unconditional, and taking that away turns every parking decision into a question of which suits you will need to move later. The board is unchanged from Seven by Four, and the comparison is instructive — the open-source PySolFC collection, whose rules this version follows, rates Seven by Four as mostly skill and German FreeCell as pure skill, the difference showing up in its own grading. It is one of very few games in the family where the cells, rather than the columns, are the thing you plan around.

About This Version

This German FreeCell runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day.

Other Solitaire Games to Try

• Seven by Four — the same board with ordinary cells
• FreeCell — the eight-column original
• Seahaven Towers — same-suit building and kings-only spaces
• Repair — two decks, ten columns, and cells that start full