All 52 cards are face up from the moment the game starts. There's no stock, no drawing, nothing you can't see. Eight columns, four free cells that hold one card each, and four foundations you build up by suit from ace to king.
Because nothing is hidden, it's a pure puzzle. Every deal is solvable or it isn't, and you can tell which by thinking about it rather than by finding out the hard way.
A free cell holds exactly one card. You use them to take a column apart one card at a time so you can get at whatever's buried underneath.
The trap is treating them as storage. A card sitting in a cell is out of play, and worse, it cuts down how much you can move at once. Fill all four and you're moving one card at a time, which is usually where the game ends. Only park a card if you know how you're getting it back out.
FreeCell shows a run moving as one piece, but underneath it's moving them one at a time through the cells. So the number you can move depends on what you have free:
(free cells + 1) doubled for each empty column
Four cells and no empty columns gets you five cards. Empty one column and it's ten. Empty two and it's twenty. This is why an empty column is worth more than a free cell, and it's the most useful thing to know about the game.
Of the original 32,000 numbered deals, exactly one has been proven impossible. Number 11,982, if you want to go look at it.
Which means when you lose at FreeCell, you lost it. The deal was winnable and something you did closed it off. That sounds harsh but it's the reason people like this one so much. There's no bad luck to blame, so getting better is real and you can feel it happening.
The full guide to FreeCell covers the rules, supermoves and the habits that turn losses into wins.
FreeCell was invented in its modern form by Paul Alfille in 1978 and became widely known through the version bundled with Windows. Its defining quality is that nothing is hidden, which turns it from a game of chance into a puzzle.
This version is written from scratch to run in a browser. There's no download and no account, it works on a phone as well as a desktop, and empty seats are filled by bots so a game starts the moment you want one. The full rules, scoring and strategy are on the FreeCell rules page.
Why won't it move my sequence?
You don't have enough free cells and empty columns. Cards move one at a time underneath, so the number you can shift depends on what's free.
Can every deal be won?
Very nearly. Of the original 32,000 deals, exactly one is impossible.
What can go in an empty column?
Any card, unlike Klondike. That's why an empty column is worth more than a free cell.
Does it matter which cell I use?
No. Only how many are free.
If something here is broken, or a rule doesn't match the way you play, email hello@turngames.io. Saying which game and what you were doing helps. Requests for new games are welcome too.