How to play your first game

Look before you move

Find the aces first and count how deep each one is buried. A deal with an ace under six cards is not harder because of that ace alone — it is harder because those six cards have to go somewhere, and everywhere they can go costs you space.

Spend free cells last

A card in a free cell does nothing for you until it comes out. Each one you fill halves what you can move in one go, so a full set of cells is usually the moment a game ends. Move onto columns while you can and keep the cells for the card you genuinely cannot place.

Empty a column early

An empty column takes any card and doubles the size of the run you can carry. It is worth more than a free cell and worth much more than a tidy sequence. If you can clear a six-card column by breaking a run you just built, break it.

Send cards home only when they are done

Aces and twos can go up immediately. Anything else may still be needed to hold a lower card of the other colour, so this site sends a card home only once nothing could want it. If you are playing elsewhere and holding cards back by hand, that is the judgement you are making.

Playing without a mouse

Every card and every place is reachable with Tab. Press Enter on a card to pick it up — the run above it comes too — then Enter on a column, a free cell or a foundation to put it down. Press Enter on the same card again and it goes wherever it can.

Finding a card

Hold a key and the matching cards light up. They combine: hold 5 and dtogether and only the five of diamonds is lit.

The hint is on ? rather than h because h lights up the hearts.

When you get stuck

Undo back to the last point where you had two choices and take the other one. Most FreeCell deals are lost several moves before the game actually ends — usually at the move that filled the last free cell.