Is every game of FreeCell winnable?
FreeCell has a reputation: if you lose, it’s your fault. That reputation is mostly deserved. Nearly every FreeCell deal can be won with good enough play. Nearly.
The 32,000 deals
When Microsoft put FreeCell into Windows in the 1990s, the game came with 32,000 numbered deals. Players could type in a number and play the same game as anyone else. That turned out to matter, because it let people compare notes on individual deals.
In the mid 1990s, a group of players on the internet set out to solve all 32,000 by hand, sharing results as they went. It became known as the Internet FreeCell Project. They got through every deal, and every one fell except a single game: deal 11982.
Computer solvers later confirmed it. Deal 11982 has no solution. Every other deal in the original set can be won.
Beyond the first 32,000
Later versions of FreeCell offered far more deals, and people ran solvers across them too. In much larger sets, unsolvable deals turn up, but they stay very rare, a handful in every million or so. For practical purposes, a random FreeCell deal is winnable.
Why FreeCell is so forgiving
Two things make the difference:
- Nothing is hidden. All 52 cards are face up from the start, so you can plan a route to every Ace.
- The free cells give you room. Four temporary spots, plus any empty column, let you take apart almost any tangle given enough care.
Compare that with Klondike, where face-down cards and the order of the stock mean some deals are lost before you make a move.
So why do people lose?
Because winnable doesn’t mean easy. The usual ways a FreeCell game goes wrong:
- Filling the free cells too early. With all four full, you can barely move anything. Keep at least one empty whenever you can.
- Not aiming for an empty column. An empty column doubles the size of the runs you can move.
- Forgetting the buried Aces. A low card at the top of a long column blocks everything above it.
Try it yourself
You can play FreeCell here with unlimited undo, which is a good way to learn: try a plan, and if it fails, back up and try another. With the odds this good, the deal in front of you can almost certainly be won.