Russian Solitaire is the harder cousin of Yukon. Same seven-column layout, all 52 cards dealt at the start (21 face-down, 31 face-up), no stock pile. The single difference: tableau columns build down by same suit, not alternating colors. That single rule makes the same deal much harder to solve. The lift-anything Yukon move is still in play — you can pick up any face-up card together with every card beneath it. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.
Goal: build all four foundations from Ace to King by suit.
One rule different. The same deal that's winnable in Yukon often isn't in Russian.
| Aspect | Yukon | Russian |
|---|---|---|
| Tableau columns | 7 | 7 |
| Stock pile | None | None |
| Hidden cards | 21 face-down | 21 face-down |
| Group moves | Any face-up card + everything beneath | Any face-up card + everything beneath |
| Tableau building | Down by alternating color | Down by same suit |
| Relative difficulty | Easier | Much harder |
The same-suit rule cuts your placement options roughly in half. Each tableau card now has only one legal target instead of two, which closes off many of the routes that make Yukon winnable. The lift-anything move helps but doesn't fully compensate.
Russian Solitaire appears in mid-20th-century patience anthologies as a regional variant of the Yukon family — same lift-anything mechanic but with strict same-suit building. The "Russian" label is conventional rather than historical; like many national patience names, it reflects publication tradition more than a verified geographic origin. The variant has remained niche in print but is included in most modern multi-game digital collections.
This Russian Solitaire runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install 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 so you can compare times.
One rule: Russian builds tableau columns by same suit, Yukon by alternating colors. Same layout, same lift-anything move rule, no stock in either. The same-suit rule cuts your placement options roughly in half, so far more deals end in a dead end than in Yukon.
No. The strict same-suit building rule with no stock relief can leave a deal with no way out. No one has published a solvability study for Russian or Yukon, so treat any exact win rate as a guess. The suit rule makes Russian much harder than Yukon.
No — only Kings, or any group with a King at the bottom. Same as Klondike and Yukon. If all four Kings are buried in deep positions, the empty-column game is over.
No. Every card is on the tableau from the first move. The Yukon family removes the stock to compensate for the lift-anything rule, which already gives you huge mobility on individual moves.
The "Russian" label is conventional rather than historical — like many national patience names, it reflects publication tradition in mid-20th-century patience anthologies more than a verified Russian origin. The defining characteristics (Yukon layout + same-suit building) appear in print under this name from at least the 1940s.