Russian Solitaire
Yukon's strict sibling. The deal and the big group moves are the same, but every column must be built in a single suit, which turns a friendly game into a real puzzle.
How to play Russian Solitaire
- Build four foundations. Move each suit from Ace up to King onto the four spaces at the top right. Fill all four and you win.
- Build down in the same suit. A card can go only on the next higher card of its own suit, like the 6 of hearts on the 7 of hearts.
- Move any face-up card, with everything on top of it. The cards on top come along even if they are out of order.
- Fill empty columns with a King. An empty column takes only a King, together with any cards on it.
- Hidden cards turn over by themselves when the cards covering them move away.
How the cards are dealt
The deal is the same as Yukon. All 52 cards go into seven columns: a single card in the first, then columns of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 cards. The top five cards of each of those six columns start face up, and the cards under them start face down. There is no stock.
Russian compared with Yukon
| Yukon | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Building in columns | Down, alternating colors | Down, same suit |
| Places a 6 of hearts can go | Either black 7 | Only the 7 of hearts |
| Deal and group moves | Same | Same |
| Difficulty | Moderate | Hard |
Tips that win more games
- Every card has exactly one home in the columns, so check where it is before you bury it.
- Get the Aces and 2s out early. The foundations are often the only place to put a low card.
- Moving a card to its foundation is always safe in Russian, because the only card it could hold is already there.
- Use the group move to dig out face-down cards in the right-hand columns.
- Undo often. Many deals turn on one early choice.
Can every Russian Solitaire game be won?
Far from it. When we ran our solver on random deals, only about 1 in 16 could be won. Every deal on this page is one the solver has already won, so each game you play here has a solution.
Related games
For the gentler version, play Yukon Solitaire. Alaska Solitaire keeps the same-suit rule but lets you build up or down, and Scorpion builds same-suit runs from a different deal.