Canfield Solitaire
Play Canfield Solitaire free online, with Undo and hints when you need them. Four working columns share a reserve of 13 cards, and one dealt card decides where every foundation begins. The useful move is often the one that opens a column and brings the next reserve card into play.
How to play Canfield Solitaire
Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, keeping each suit together. Unlike classic Solitaire, you do not always begin with an Ace. Look at the card already on a foundation: its rank sets the starting point for all four suit piles in this deal.
- Check the foundation starting rank. Find the other three cards of that rank to begin their suit piles.
- Use the four working columns. Place a card on an exposed card one rank higher and the opposite color.
- Bring the reserve into play. Its top card can move to a suitable column or foundation. Clearing a column also releases one reserve card automatically.
- Draw when you need more options. The face-down stock turns three cards at a time. Play from the top of the face-up waste pile.
Where do the 52 cards go at the start?
Thirteen cards form the reserve, with only its top card available. One card starts the first foundation, and each of the four working columns receives one face-up card. The remaining 34 cards form the stock. The waste is empty until your first draw.
Why an empty column refills
As long as the reserve has cards, clearing a working column immediately moves the top reserve card into that space. You do not choose the replacement card. This is part of the same move, so one use of Undo restores both the move and the refill. See the worked reserve-refill example to plan the next two moves.
The replacement comes from the reserve. The reserve is now one card shorter, and its next card becomes available.
After the reserve runs out
An empty column stays empty until you fill it from the waste. Any rank from the waste can start it, not just a King. You cannot move another column's card or group into that space.
Which cards can move?
Build downward in alternating colors in the four working columns: a red 3 fits on a black 4. A correctly ordered group can move together, including a group taken from the end of a longer column. Every connection within that group must follow the same rule.
For example, a black 6 carrying a red 5 can move onto a red 7. You can also move that red 5 alone onto an exposed black 6 elsewhere. You cannot lift a covered card while leaving the cards after it behind.
Ranks continue past King and Ace
In the columns, counting downward continues from Ace to King, with alternating colors. On the foundations, counting upward continues from King to Ace, all in the same suit.
Only an exposed single card can go to a foundation. Foundation cards cannot be played directly back into the columns; use Undo if you need to reverse that decision.
Why might another Canfield game use different rules?
This page allows you to move any correctly ordered alternating-color group from the end of a column. Some versions restrict you to moving the entire column. Here, the stock deals three, passes are unlimited, and empty columns accept only reserve refills or, after the reserve is gone, a card from the waste.
Drawing three cards at a time
Select the face-down stock to turn up the next packet. Only the last card dealt—the exposed top of the waste—is available. If you play it, the card underneath becomes available, so check again before drawing another packet.
A draw uses fewer than three cards when the stock is nearly empty. When it runs out, select the recycle symbol to turn the waste back over. There is no limit on these passes. Removing cards from the waste can change which cards appear on top during a later pass.
If you are stuck, inspect the reserve and all four columns before drawing again. The game checks the full remaining stock rotation when deciding whether any move is still possible.
A few decisions worth slowing down for
The reserve and the draw pile offer different ways forward. Check both before settling on a move.
- Read the reserve top first. Look for its next-higher opposite-color card in the columns, or its next place on a foundation.
- Before clearing a column, notice the reserve card that will replace it. The new card may receive a useful group or open a foundation.
- Keep a receiving card available when you still need it. Moving a black 8 to a foundation also removes a place for either red 7.
- After playing a waste card, check the card it uncovers before dealing again. A single packet can offer more than one move.
- Once the reserve is empty, choose the waste card for an open column carefully. The space cannot be filled directly from another column.
Help with your game
- Moving a card or group
- Drag it onto a legal receiving card or foundation. With 1-Tap Move enabled in Settings, a tap asks the game to choose a legal move.
- Choosing where it goes
- Turn off 1-Tap Move to select the source card first, then the destination. For a group, select its first card.
- Undo
- Reverse a move, including its automatic reserve refill. You can also undo a stock draw or recycle.
- Hint
- Get a suggestion for the current position. A confirmed winning line is useful guidance; a search that reaches its limit may still leave the outcome unknown. A hint is not a guarantee of a win.
- Restart and New Game
- Restart, in the game menu, deals the same cards again. New Game gives you a different random deal.
- Settings
- Choose the available card, display and sound options that make playing comfortable.
Can I leave and finish this deal later?
The game saves your position in this browser when local storage is available. Returning on the same device and browser can restore it. Clearing site data or ending a private session can remove that save.
Watch how to play Canfield Solitaire
See the reserve, foundation starting rank, wrapping sequences and draw-three stock in action.
Duration: 1 minute 25 seconds.
In this video
What counts as progress?
A card placed on a foundation is one step toward finishing the deck. Releasing a reserve card can be just as useful, even when the foundation count stays the same. Judge a move by what becomes available afterward, rather than by the length of a column.
This free game has no wager or cash payout. You win by completing all four foundations. A solver's result is also different from a player's win rate: the study of Solitaire results explains the search limits and the sampled deals.
Canfield Solitaire questions
Do Canfield foundations have to start with an Ace?
Only when the dealt starting card is an Ace. If it is a 7, each foundation starts with a 7 of its own suit, continues upward through King and Ace, and finishes with a 6. All four foundations use the same starting rank.
Why can I not put a column card into an empty space?
While the reserve contains cards, it fills empty columns automatically. After it runs out, only the exposed waste card may start an empty column. Moving a card or group directly from one working column into an empty one is not allowed in this version.
Can I put a King on an Ace?
Yes, in a working column, provided the colors alternate: a black King can go on a red Ace. Foundations run in the other direction and keep one suit, so the Ace follows the King there. A completed foundation stops after all 13 cards of its suit.
How many times can I use the draw pile?
You can recycle it without a fixed pass limit. Each draw turns up to three cards onto the waste; only the exposed top card is playable. Recycling changes no card order. If no board move is available and the entire stock rotation offers no playable card, repeating it cannot open a new move.
Is every Canfield deal winnable?
No. Deals here are random, not chosen from a pool of known solutions. Our bounded search confirmed wins in 331 of 1,000 sampled deals, a 33.1% lower bound for that sample. Another 441 had no solution within the three-redeal search cap and 228 were unresolved. Because the game allows unlimited redeals, those search results do not establish that 441 deals are impossible under the live rules. See the win-rate study for the method.
How is Canfield different from classic Solitaire?
Canfield has four working columns, a separate 13-card reserve and foundations that start at the dealt rank. Classic Solitaire (Klondike) has seven columns with hidden cards and always starts its foundations with Aces. Canfield also allows ranks to wrap between King and Ace.
Try releasing one reserve card
Look at the reserve top and the four exposed column cards. Can the reserve card go directly to a foundation or column? If not, look for a move that clears a column. Watch the reserve fill the gap, then decide whether the new position helps. Undo lets you compare the two positions.
