Klondike
Screen shot of the game Klondike from Pretty Good Solitaire.
Klondike is the classic solitaire game with 7 tableau piles. It is the game called just "solitaire" in Windows. Klondike has long been one of the most popular of solitaire games. Some people don't even know that any other solitaire game exists.
Klondike is more than 100 years old, dating back at least to the Klondike gold rush. It is also known by other names, such as Triangle, and is sometimes called Canfield in England (there is another game more commonly called Canfield, which is often called Demon in England). There are many different solitaire games similar to Klondike and there are even many different ways to play Klondike itself.
In its purest form, Klondike is very difficult to win. Cards are turned over from the stock to the waste in sets of 3 and there is no redeal. Playing this way you can win at best around 3% of the time. Most computer implementations of Klondike, including the one that comes with Windows, allow unlimited redeals. This makes the game considerably easier.
To make the game easier yet, it can be played turning cards from the stock one at a time instead of three at a time. And finally, Pretty Good Solitaire's Klondike has a "KingOnly" option. In normal Klondike, only Kings or groups of cards headed by a King can be played to an empty tableau pile. By turning off KingOnly, you can play any card to an empty tableau pile. With the rules relaxed in this way it is possible to win virtually every game. Thus there is something for everyone in Klondike - you can make the game as easy or as hard as you like.
Klondike is one of the 740 games in Pretty Good Solitaire, one of the 101 games in Goodsol Solitaire 101, one of the 30 games in Most Popular Solitaire, and one of the 16 games in Solitaire Wizard.
There are several interesting 2 deck variations of Klondike. These include Double Klondike, Gargantua, and Harp.
