How to play Russian Solitaire

Russian Solitaire is Yukon with a sharper edge. The deal is the same - all 52 cards go out into seven columns, there is no stock, and you may move any face-up card together with everything lying on top of it - but the columns are built down in the same suit instead of alternating colours. A 9 of hearts goes only on the 10 of hearts. Every card has exactly one place to go on the table, so the game becomes a careful puzzle of untangling four suits that start out thoroughly mixed.

It is one of the hardest well-known patience games. The tangled piles you lift around the table are your main tool: a single move can carry half a column across to free the card you need.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Choose a level - Easy, Normal or Hard (classic) - check your record at that level and press PLAY. The cards fly out onto the table and the game begins.

• Moving cards: tap a face-up card and it goes to the best place it can: a foundation if that is safe, otherwise onto the column where it fits, taking every card on top of it along. Tap the same card twice quickly to send it straight to its foundation.
• Dragging: drag any face-up card - the cards on top of it come with it - and drop it where you want it. A move that isn't allowed is refused: the cards shake and slide back.
• Undo: the UNDO button at the top takes back your last move. Undo is free: use it as many times as you like, all the way back to the deal. There are no hints - the puzzle is yours.
• The score line at the top shows your moves, the time and your score.

When every card on the table is face up, the game sends the remaining cards to the foundations for you, as far as they will go. The cards cascade off the table, and the results screen shows your moves, time and final score, with your statistics for that level: wins, losses, win rate and streaks.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new deal or turns the sound off. The "?" button opens this guide. The deal is saved after every move, so you can close the page and press CONTINUE next time - even your undo history comes back. A deal you abandon by starting a new one counts as a loss at its level.

Rules

The layout. The cards are dealt into seven columns as in Klondike: one card in the first column, two in the second and so on up to seven, with only the last card of each column face up. Then the remaining 24 cards are dealt face up, four onto each of the columns two to seven. The first column is a single card; the others hold from six to eleven cards, the face-up ones overlapping so you can read them all.

Building on the columns. A card can be placed on a column's last card if it is one rank lower and of the same suit: the 9 of hearts on the 10 of hearts, the 4 of spades on the 5 of spades. Colour alone is not enough.

Moving groups. You may pick up any face-up card in a column, wherever it sits, and every card on top of it moves along. Only the card you pick up has to fit on its new place; the cards riding on it can be in any order.

Empty columns. On Hard, the classic rule: only a King can be moved into an empty column, with any cards on top of it. On Easy and Normal any card may fill an empty column.

Turning cards over. When a face-down card is left uncovered at the bottom of a column, it turns face up automatically.

The foundations. Each foundation is built up in one suit, starting with the Ace: A, 2, 3 and so on to the King. Cards go up one at a time. The top card of a foundation can be moved back down onto a column if you need it there.

Scoring. Each card you send to a foundation scores 10 points. Every 30 seconds of play costs 30 points, although your score never drops below zero. When you win, a time bonus of 600,000 divided by the seconds you took is added. Undoing a move takes its points back, and an undo counts as a move.

Winning. You win when all four foundations hold their thirteen cards.

Strategy tips

• Every card has one home. Since a card can only go on the next higher card of its own suit, find that card first. If it is buried, the question is how to dig down to it, not where else the card could go.
• Uncover the face-down cards. Columns six and seven hide five and six cards each. A move that turns one over almost always beats a move that only tidies a pile.
• Use the piles as luggage. Any face-up card can carry everything above it. When the card you need is under a tangle, look for a place where the card just above it fits, and move the whole tangle off in one go.
• Free the low cards. Aces and Twos can always go to the foundations, and getting them up early opens the way for the rest of their suit.
• Don't send cards up too fast. A Five on its foundation is fine once the Four of its suit is there and no Four of that suit is still waiting for a home on the table. Otherwise keep it down: it may be the only place that Four can go.
• Empty columns are gold. On Easy and Normal any card can go into one, so an empty column is a parking space for a tangle while you work underneath. On Hard only a King can use it - know which King before you clear one.
• Undo is part of the game. Russian Solitaire punishes a wrong order of big moves. If you reach a dead end, step back and try the other order.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: every deal is one our computer player has already solved under Easy's rules, so each Easy game can be won, and any card may fill an empty column. If you get stuck, the way out is there: undo and look for it.
• Normal: a fully random deal, and any card may fill an empty column. A good share of deals can be won with careful planning.
• Hard (classic): a fully random deal with the classic rule that only a King may fill an empty column. Only a small share of these deals can be won at all, so every win is an achievement.