Daily FreeCell Solitaire Challenge

Daily FreeCell gives everyone the same deal of FreeCell Solitaire each day. Every deal is checked to make sure it can be won, the deals get harder from Monday to Sunday, and a new one arrives at midnight your time. Win each day’s deal to build your streak, then challenge your friends to beat your time.

How Daily FreeCell Works

The deals are numbered, and they share their numbers with the other daily games, so Daily FreeCell #5 is dealt on the same day as Daily Solitaire #5.

• Your first game is your first try. It starts with your first move, and it’s the game that will count for the daily leaderboard. If you restart or deal again before you win, the rest of your games don’t count for the leaderboard, but they do count toward your winning streak.
• Practice as much as you like. You can replay today’s deal as often as you want, and a practice win still counts toward your streak.
• Undo and Hint are allowed. Use them whenever you like, but each one lowers your score.
• Every past deal stays open. Choose Replay past days under the board to play any deal back to Daily FreeCell #1 as practice. Replays don’t change your streak.

How to Play FreeCell

All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns in the tableau, four of seven cards and four of six. There’s no stockpile, so every card is in view from the start, and you win by moving all 52 cards to the four foundations.

• Build the foundations up by suit. Each one starts with an Ace and goes up to the King.
• Build the tableau down in alternating colors. A card goes on a card one rank higher of the other color, such as the 6♥ on the 7♣.
• Use the four free cells. Each free cell holds one card of any rank while you work on the rest of the tableau.
• Move groups of cards when you have space. You can move as many cards together as you have open free cells, plus one, and each empty column doubles that.
• Fill empty columns with any card. Unlike Klondike, an empty column doesn’t need a King.

Every Daily Deal Is Winnable

Every daily deal comes from our bank of Winnable FreeCell deals. Before a deal joins the bank, a computer solver plays it to a win, and the winning line is replayed with the same rules this page uses.

Winnable doesn’t mean easy, so each deal is also rated for difficulty. We play it two ways. First we follow the Hint button from start to finish, and then we play it many more times by picking sensible moves at random. Deals that the Hint wins in fewer moves and that random play often wins are rated easier, and the week is scheduled from easiest to hardest.

• Monday and Tuesday are Very Easy and Easy. They’re good days to start a streak.
• Wednesday and Thursday are Medium and Tricky. Expect low cards buried deeper and fewer free moves early on.
• Friday and Saturday are Hard and Harder. The free cells fill up quickly, so every card you park there needs a plan to come back out.
• Sunday is the Hardest. Look several moves ahead before you use a free cell, and use Undo when a line doesn’t work out.

Build Your Daily FreeCell Streak

Your streak is the number of days in a row you’ve won that day’s FreeCell deal. Miss a day and your streak starts again from zero, but your best streak is kept. Each daily game keeps its own streak.

The panel under the board shows this week’s deals, marked as won, not won, or not played. Your streak also shows in the game bar here and in the Daily link on our FreeCell page, so you can keep an eye on it while you play something else.

After a win, use Challenge a friend to send your result. It shows the puzzle number, your time, and your streak once it reaches three days, but never the cards, so it won’t spoil the deal for anyone. For now, streaks are saved in the browser you play on, so clearing your browsing data resets them.

Today’s Leaderboard

A daily leaderboard is coming soon, so you can see how your first try compares with everyone else’s. Until then, daily games don’t count toward the regular FreeCell leaderboard or your saved stats.

Tips for a Faster Score

Your score rewards speed and efficiency, so it goes up the fewer moves you make and the less time you take. Every card you move and every Undo or Hint counts as a move, and Undo, Hint, and moving a card off a foundation also count as penalties. For more ideas, see our FreeCell strategies.

• Study the board before your first move. Every card is face up, so find the Aces and Twos and plan how to reach them.
• Free your Aces and low cards first. Cards stuck under a long column block the foundations the longest.
• Keep free cells open. Each open cell lets you move a bigger group of cards at once, so empty them as soon as you can.
• Aim for an empty column. It holds a whole sequence, not just one card, and doubles the size of the groups you can move.
• Don’t rush cards to the foundations. A low card may still be needed in the tableau to hold the next card of the other color.