Westcliff takes Klondike's problem and solves it geometrically. Klondike's staircase buries its seventh column under six cards, and a needed ace down there may as well not exist. Westcliff deals the same pack into ten columns of three instead — two face down under one face-up card — so nothing is ever more than two cards deep. Add spaces that accept any card and the board opens up in a way the parent never does. What keeps it honest is the stock: twenty-two cards, one pass, no redeal.
Clear columns — really clear them. Two cards cover each hidden card, so an empty column is three moves away rather than seven. In Klondike emptying a column is a project; here it is a plan. And because a space takes any card, each one you open makes the next easier.
Turn cards over before you bank them. Twenty cards start hidden, and the information matters more than an early foundation play does. A three sent up cannot come back to host a two, and with ten columns you will usually find another use for it.
The stock is your only pressure, so respect it. Twenty-two cards, one pass. That is a small stock, and every card in it that you cannot place when it appears is gone. Exhaust the board before every click — with ten shallow columns, there is almost always something to do first.
Watch which colour you are short of. Alternating-colour building on a wide board fails in a specific way: you end up with four black sevens and nothing red to put them on. Keep an eye on the balance before you commit a run.
The Klondike family turns a handful of the same dials: how much of the board is hidden, what the tableau builds on, what an empty column accepts, how many cards a stock click turns, and how many times the stock returns. Most members adjust a rule. Westcliff adjusts the SHAPE — ten shallow columns instead of a deep staircase — and leaves Klondike's build rule completely alone. That makes it the clearest demonstration in the family of how much of Klondike's difficulty is geometry rather than rules. Whitehead reaches similar relief by hiding nothing; Thumb and Pouch by loosening the build. Westcliff simply refuses to bury anything.
Westcliff 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.