Yukon solitaire rules
Yukon looks like Klondike and plays like nothing else. There is no stock at all: every card is on the table from the start, and you may grab any face-up card and drag it, together with whatever is piled on it, even if that pile is a mess. Learning to use that freedom without making a bigger mess is the whole game.
Yukon in 30 seconds
- All 52 cards go into seven columns: a Klondike deal, plus four extra face-up cards on each of the six right-hand columns.
- Build foundations by suit from Ace to King. Build columns down in alternating colors.
- You may move any face-up card onto a card one rank higher of the opposite color, taking every card on top of it along, in order or not.
- Only a King (with whatever is on it) may move into an empty column. There is no stock and no redeal.
Dealing
Deal exactly as for Klondike: seven piles of one to seven cards, top card of each face up. Then, instead of keeping a stock, deal the other 24 cards face up, four at a time, onto columns two to seven. Column one stays a single card; the last column ends up with six hidden cards under five visible ones.
The move that makes Yukon different
In Klondike you can only move a run that is already in order. In Yukon you can pick up any face-up card wherever it sits, and everything on top of it comes along as a block. The only check is the card you are moving onto: the card at the base of your block must be one rank lower and the opposite color.
Example: column three shows, from deeper to nearer, 9 of clubs, 4 of hearts, Queen of spades. A red 10 sits at the end of column five. You may move the 9 of clubs onto that 10, and the 4 and the Queen ride along on top of it. The 4 and Queen are just as stuck as before, but whatever was under the 9 is now uncovered.
Everything else works like Klondike. Turn up a face-down card when it is uncovered. Move the end card of a column to its foundation when it is next in suit. Fill an empty column only with a King and the cards on it. You win when all four foundations reach the King.
How often can Yukon be won?
We found no solver study of Yukon that we trust enough to quote, so we will not guess at how many deals are winnable in theory. As for real play, Solitaire Bliss reports that its players win about 12% of Yukon games, against about 33% for FreeCell on the same site. With no stock, every card you will ever get is already on the table; what you cannot see is the order of the 21 face-down cards, and that is where deals are lost.
Strategy
- Count the hidden cards and go after the big piles. 21 cards start face down: none in column one, six in column seven. A move that uncovers a card in column six or seven is worth more than tidying a short column.
- Move the deepest card you can. When two moves are possible, the one that lifts a card from lower in a column usually uncovers more.
- Watch what rides along. Every block you move lands on top of a column. If it carries an Ace or 2 deep under a Queen, you have just buried a card you need soon.
- Do not empty a column without a King ready. Only Kings may use an empty column, so a gap with no King to fill it is wasted.
- Get Aces and 2s home fast, middle cards later. As in Klondike, a mid-rank card on the tableau is a landing spot for the next lower card of the other color.
Play Yukon online or at home
Play at home: one deck and a long table: column seven grows to eleven cards and can get much longer as blocks land on it. Overlap the face-up cards so you can read every one, because any of them can move.
Russian solitaire
Russian Solitaire uses the exact Yukon deal and the same "move any face-up card with everything on it" rule. The one change: columns are built down in the same suit, not alternating colors. Only the 8 of spades may go on the 9 of spades. Kings still go alone into empty columns, and there is still no stock (BVS Solitaire's Russian rules).
That single change makes it much harder, because every card has exactly one possible landing spot on the tableau instead of two. We found no reliable published win rate for it.
Russian tips
- Before moving, find where the next card of that suit is. If the card you need is buried in the same column, the move can only help if it digs toward it.
- Low cards matter even more than in Yukon: an Ace sent home early frees its 2, which frees its 3, all in one suit.
- Expect to lose most deals and play for how many cards you get home. Counting foundation cards gives every deal a score, the way Vegas scoring does for Klondike.