How is Four Colours different from FreeCell?

Two ways. The deck is dealt by suit into four of seven columns, leaving three empty, and each of the four cells takes only its own suit. The alternating-colour build and the run rule are FreeCell's.

Why do three columns start empty?

Because every card goes to the column of its own suit, and there are four suits and seven columns. The three spaces are where you build.

What can go in a cell?

A card of that cell's suit only. Each of the four cells belongs to one suit, in the same order as the four dealt columns.

How many cards can I move at once?

A packed run of up to (empty cells + 1) times two to the power of empty columns. With four empty cells and three empty columns that is forty.

Is the order within a column random?

Yes. Each column holds one suit, but the thirteen cards are in shuffled order, so the ace may be anywhere in it.

No. All 52 cards are dealt face up and there is no stock.

Four Colours Solitaire - Play Online & 100% Free

Play Four Colours Solitaire Online — A Deck Sorted by Suit

Four Colours deals the pack one card at a time, each to the column of its own suit. The result is four columns of thirteen — all the clubs, all the spades, all the hearts, all the diamonds, each in shuffled order — and three empty columns from the start. Four free cells sit above the board, and each cell, too, takes only one suit. The tableau builds down in alternating colours, so nothing can be built on a column of one suit until cards start crossing between them; the three empty columns, which take any card, are where that happens.

Setup

Tableau: seven columns. Four hold thirteen cards each — one suit per column, in shuffled order — and three start empty.
Cells: four, empty, one per suit. A cell takes only a card of its own suit.
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.
A card may be moved to the empty cell of its own suit, and back to the tableau when it has a host.
An empty column takes any card.
Foundations build up in suit from the ace and are one-way.

Strategy

The suit columns cannot be built on. A column of thirteen hearts has a red top, and the build wants black on red — but every card you could put there comes from a black column and has to leave it first. The opening is about moving tops into the empty columns to create hosts of the opposite colour.

Three spaces and forty cards of movement. With four empty cells and three empty columns the max-movable rule allows a run of forty, which is more than you will ever have packed. The limit only bites once the spaces fill; keep at least one empty for as long as you can.

Each cell serves one suit. The hearts cell cannot hold a spade. Before you plan a dig through the spades column, check that the spades cell is free; it is the only cell that will help.

Find the aces first. Each ace is somewhere in its suit's column under a known number of cards. The cheapest ace is where the game starts, and its column's cards spread across the three spaces as hosts for the others.

Where It Sits in the FreeCell Family

The FreeCell family is the open, cell-based line of patience. German FreeCell gives each of its four cells a suit; Four Colours does the same and then deals the deck by suit as well, so that the board begins fully sorted by the one property the build rule ignores. It is the family's strangest opening — four monochrome towers and three empty columns — and the strategy is the reverse of FreeCell's: rather than untangling a mixed deal, you are mixing a sorted one just enough to build.

Other Games to Try

German FreeCell — suited cells on the ordinary FreeCell deal
FreeCell — the original
Tuxedo — seven cells and a suit build
Challenge FreeCell — FreeCell with the aces and twos buried

About This Version

Four Colours 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.