Russian Solitaire takes the open, every-card-visible feel of Yukon and makes it much harder with one rule change: instead of building the tableau in alternating colours, you build it by the same suit. You can still move any face-up card with every face-up card on top of it as a group, and there is no stock or waste — but the same-suit requirement means valid moves are far scarcer, which turns Russian Solitaire into one of the more demanding open tableaus you can play.
What is Russian Solitaire?
Russian Solitaire is a single-player card game played with a standard 52-card deck on seven tableau columns, with four foundations built from Ace to King by suit. It uses the exact same deal as Yukon Solitaire: every card is dealt to the tableau at the start, so there is no stock pile and no waste pile.
The defining rule is same-suit building combined with the Yukon group move. You may pick up any face-up card and all face-up cards resting on top of it — even if they are not in order — and move the group onto a card of the same suit and one rank higher. A King, or a group led by a King, is the only thing that can move into an empty column.
That single difference from Yukon — same suit instead of opposite colour — removes most of the easy placements. In Yukon a red card has two black cards it can sit on; in Russian Solitaire it has only one card of its own suit. The result is a game that rewards patience, suit planning, and deep look-ahead far more than luck.
How to play Russian Solitaire
Step 1 — Understand the deal
Column 0 gets one face-up card. Columns 1 through 6 each get a Klondike-style base of face-down cards (increasing by column) with one face-up card on top, then four more face-up cards are dealt onto each. All 52 cards are on the tableau — there is no stock.
Step 2 — Build the tableau by same suit
To move a card or group onto another column, the bottom card of the group must be the same suit and one rank lower than the card it lands on. A 9 of hearts only goes on the 10 of hearts — never on a 10 of diamonds. This is the core rule that separates Russian Solitaire from Yukon.
Step 3 — Move groups regardless of internal order
As in Yukon, when you move a face-up card, every face-up card on top of it travels along, even if those cards form no valid sequence. Only the bottom card of the group has to match the destination. Use this to relocate whole stacks and dig out the cards you need.
Step 4 — Expose face-down cards early
Each column has face-down cards beneath its face-up cards. Exposing and flipping them is your main source of new options, so prioritise moves that uncover face-down cards — especially in the deeper columns 5 and 6.
Step 5 — Build foundations Ace to King by suit
Send Aces up immediately, then build each foundation upward in its suit. Be careful: a card on the foundation can no longer receive tableau moves, and because Russian Solitaire builds by suit, mid-rank cards are often more valuable kept in the tableau as receivers.
Step 6 — Guard your empty columns
Only a King (or a King-led group) can fill an empty column, so an empty column is precious. Plan which King you want there before you clear it — a wasted empty column is one of the most common ways a winnable Russian deal slips away.
The Russian Solitaire play area
Russian Solitaire's board is the same shape as Yukon. Seven tableau columns hold all 52 cards — a few face-down cards at the base of each column with face-up cards stacked on top. The four foundation piles sit in the upper-right corner, one per suit, built from Ace to King.
There is no stock and no waste pile; the entire game happens in the seven columns. When a column is emptied, the open slot accepts only a King or a King-led group.
Face-down cards appear as card backs and flip automatically when the last face-up card above them is moved away. The Mr. Solitaire board lets you drag a face-up card together with everything on top of it, with the whole group shown moving in the drag overlay.
Available moves in Russian Solitaire
Russian Solitaire has a compact move set, but the same-suit rule makes each move count.
Move a face-up card or group to another column. The bottom card of the group must be the same suit and exactly one rank lower than the target card. Every face-up card above it rides along, ordered or not. Kings and King-led groups move into empty columns.
Move a single face-up card to a foundation. Foundations build up by suit from Ace. Only one card moves to a foundation at a time — you cannot send a group.
There are no draws, no stock, and no redeals. Every move is tableau-to-tableau or tableau-to-foundation. The game ends when all four foundations are complete (a win) or no legal move remains (a loss).
Russian Solitaire strategy
Plan one suit per column where you can
Because the tableau builds by suit, the cleanest position is long same-suit runs. When you have a choice, start growing a single suit down a column rather than mixing suits — mixed face-up stacks are hard to unwind when every placement must match suit.
Exposing face-down cards beats tidy building
A neat same-suit run is satisfying but worthless if it buries the face-down cards you need. On each turn, prefer any move that flips a face-down card over a move that just rearranges face-up cards. Information is the scarce resource.
Use the group move to rescue buried cards
A useful Ace, 2, or King trapped under a disordered face-up stack can be freed by moving the whole stack onto a same-suit landing card. Always scan for a same-suit home for the bottom of a blocking group before you give a position up as stuck.
Hold mid-rank cards as receivers
Sending a card to the foundation removes it as a tableau receiver, and with same-suit building you have only one valid receiver per card. Send Aces and low cards early, but keep mid-rank cards in play as long as they are doing useful work catching the next card down in their suit.
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Odds of winning Russian Solitaire
Russian Solitaire is noticeably harder to win than Yukon. Yukon's alternating-colour rule gives most cards two possible landing spots; Russian's same-suit rule cuts that to one, so far fewer deals are winnable and the margin for error is thin. Estimates of the win rate vary by source and by how carefully you play, but it sits well below Yukon's ~70%.
The most common way to lose is a same-suit deadlock: the cards you need to continue a foundation are buried, and every face-up group has no same-suit card to move onto. Once all four suits are partly built and the remaining face-up cards can't find a same-suit home, the position freezes.
Because every card is visible from the start, Russian Solitaire is a game of pure planning rather than luck. Strong players win a meaningful share of deals by thinking several moves ahead, prioritising face-down exposure, and protecting empty columns — but even perfect play cannot win every shuffle.
History of Russian Solitaire
Russian Solitaire is a direct descendant of Yukon Solitaire. It keeps Yukon's deal and its signature group-move rule, changing only the tableau-building requirement from alternating colour to same suit — a small change with an outsized effect on difficulty.
Like many tableau variants, Russian Solitaire became widely known through computer and online solitaire collections, where it is frequently listed right alongside Yukon as the harder, suit-building sibling. It is not part of Microsoft's default solitaire set, which kept it a connoisseur's pick among players who had already mastered Yukon.
The game's appeal is its honesty: with no hidden stock to draw from and every card on the table, a loss is rarely bad luck and a win is genuinely earned. That makes Russian Solitaire a natural next step for players who find Yukon too forgiving.
Frequently asked questions
What is Russian Solitaire?
- Russian Solitaire is an open-tableau card game played like Yukon — all 52 cards dealt to seven columns, no stock — but you build the tableau by the same suit instead of alternating colours. You can move any face-up card along with all face-up cards on top of it, and only the bottom card of the group needs to match the destination by suit and rank.
How is Russian Solitaire different from Yukon?
- The deal and the group-move rule are identical. The one difference is the build rule: Yukon builds the tableau in alternating colours, while Russian Solitaire builds by the same suit. That single change removes most easy placements and makes Russian Solitaire significantly harder than Yukon.
Is Russian Solitaire hard?
- Yes — it is one of the harder open-tableau solitaires. Because each card has only one valid same-suit landing card (versus two in Yukon), far fewer deals are winnable and small mistakes are costly. It rewards patience, suit planning, and looking several moves ahead.
Can you move a group of cards in Russian Solitaire?
- Yes. As in Yukon, any face-up card can be moved together with every face-up card stacked on top of it, even if they are not in order. Only the bottom card of the moving group has to match the destination — same suit and one rank lower.
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