Play Chinese Solitaire — The Same Board, With Spaces Opened Up

Chinese Solitaire is Chinese Discipline with a single rule changed, and on a board this tight the change matters more than it sounds. Seven columns are dealt seven cards each, face up in a diagonal of seven, seven, seven, four, three, two and one, with three cards left as the stock. Any face-up card may be moved with everything on top of it, packed or not; cards build down in alternating colour. The difference is what happens when you empty a column: here any card may fill it, not only a king. On a board where forty-nine of the fifty-two cards are already dealt, that is the difference between an empty column being a prize and being unusable. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Chinese Solitaire?

Goal: build all 52 cards onto the four foundations, up in suit from an ace.

Setup

• Columns: seven, of seven cards each — 49 in all.
• Face up: the first three columns entirely; then four, three, two and one.
• Stock: just three cards.
• Foundations: four, up in suit from an ace.

Rules

• Any face-up card moves with its whole tail, packed or not — the Yukon rule.
• Cards build down in alternating colour: a red six on a black seven.
• A card turns face up when the cards above it are moved away.
• The stock holds three cards. Clicking it deals one to each of the first three columns — the only deal in the game.
• There is no waste and no redeal.
• You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations.
• Any card may be moved into an empty column — the one difference from Chinese Discipline.

What's the Best Chinese Solitaire Strategy?

• An empty column is now genuinely worth making. In Chinese Discipline a space needs a king and often sits unused; here anything can go in it, so clearing a column early transforms the game. Look for the shortest route to one.
• Do not fill a space carelessly. Any card may go there, which means the wrong card can. A space holding a lone eight is worth much less than the same space holding a king with a run growing under it.
• The seventh column is still the problem. Six cards face down under one. The difference is that you now have a realistic way to unload the cards you dig out.
• Your three open columns are the workshop. Columns one to three are entirely face up, so every card in them is a legal source for staging runs.
• Save the one deal. Three cards, landing on the three columns that need help least. Keep it for a moment when a single card unlocks something.

A Short History

Chinese Solitaire and Chinese Discipline are the same game but for one line, and the source makes the difference as small as it can be written: the parent restricts an empty column to kings, and this class simply does not. It is a fair question whether that is enough to be a separate game, and on most boards it would not be — but this board deals forty-nine of its fifty-two cards at the start, so an empty column is both hard to make and, under the king rule, frequently useless once made. Lifting the restriction turns the central goal of the game from digging out the seventh column to clearing a column outright, which is a different plan from the first move onward. The open-source PySolFC collection, whose rules this version follows, registers the two separately and rates both balanced. Playing them back to back is the clearest demonstration in the whole catalogue of how much one rule about empty columns can carry.

About This Version

This Chinese Solitaire 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

• Chinese Discipline — the same board, kings only into a space
• Queenie — a 1-to-7 staircase dealt face up, 24 in stock
• Rushdike — that staircase dealt face down, built in suit
• Yukon — the original — every card dealt, no stock