Yukon looks like Klondike's twin at first glance, sharing the same seven columns and the same four foundations. But sit down to play and it feels entirely different. Nearly every card is dealt face up, there is no stock pile to draw from, and best of all you can pick up any face-up card together with everything stacked on top of it, ordered or not. That single freedom transforms the game into a rich, luck-free puzzle. Learning the Yukon solitaire rules reveals a game that is both approachable and deep.
This guide explains Yukon's setup, its unusual moving rules, and how it wins, along with how it differs from its famous cousin. Play along on the Yukon table as you read. If you already know Klondike, you are most of the way there; if not, our guide to how to play solitaire covers the shared foundations.
The Objective
Yukon uses a single 52-card deck, and its goal is identical to Klondike's: build all four suits up on the foundations, each from Ace to King. When every foundation is complete, you win. The destination is the same; it is the journey, and the freedom you have along the way, that sets Yukon apart.
Setting Up the Board
Yukon's deal is where the differences begin. It shares Klondike's seven-column shape but distributes the cards very differently.
The Tableau
Deal seven columns as in Klondike, but with extra cards. The first column holds a single face-up card. Each of the other six columns starts with some face-down cards followed by five face-up cards on top. The upshot is that a large majority of the deck, all but a handful of buried cards, is visible from the very first move.
No Stock Pile
Here is the headline difference: Yukon has no stock and no waste. Every card you will ever play is already on the tableau. There is nothing to draw, no reserve to fall back on, and no luck of the draw once the deal is set. What you see is genuinely what you get.
The Foundations
Four empty foundations sit above the tableau, one per suit, built up from Ace to King exactly as in Klondike. Completing all four is how you win.
The Signature Rule: Moving Any Group
Yukon's defining feature is its remarkably free movement rule, and understanding it is the key to the whole game.
In Klondike you can only move a group of cards if they form a neat, ordered, alternating-color run. Yukon throws that restriction out. You may pick up any face-up card along with every card sitting on top of it, regardless of whether those cards are in order, and drop the whole pile onto a target card. The only rule for the landing card is the familiar one: the card you are moving must be one rank lower and the opposite color than the card it lands on. A red 9 and its entire messy tail can move onto any black 10.
The Legal Moves
With that signature rule in mind, here is the full set of moves available in Yukon:
- Move any face-up card with its pile: Grab any face-up card and everything above it, and place it on a card one rank higher and the opposite color.
- Uncover face-down cards: When moving a pile exposes a face-down card, it flips face up and joins the game.
- Play to a foundation: Send Aces up first, then build each foundation up by suit from Ace to King.
- Fill an empty column: Only a King, or a pile headed by a King, may move into an empty column.
- Reorganize freely: Because groups move without needing to be ordered, you can shuffle cards around far more liberally than in Klondike.
That freedom is a double-edged sword. It gives you enormous flexibility, but it also means a careless move can bury a card you needed under a pile you just relocated. Thinking ahead matters more in Yukon precisely because you can do so much.
A Basic Strategy
Because everything is visible and movable, Yukon rewards deliberate planning. Try this approach:
- Uncover face-down cards first, since the few hidden cards are the only unknowns and flipping them opens the board.
- Expose and free your Aces and low cards so the foundations can get started.
- Plan multi-card moves carefully, checking what you will bury before relocating a large pile.
- Work toward an empty column to gain space for a King and greater flexibility.
- Delay foundation moves if a card is still useful as a landing spot in the tableau.
The absence of a stock means there is no bailout; every position is one you created, for better or worse. That makes Yukon a game of consequences, closely tied to the planning ideas in solitaire strategy basics.
Making the Most of Group Moves
The group-move rule is Yukon's greatest gift and its biggest trap, so it deserves special attention. Because you can lift any face-up card with everything above it, you have the power to dig a needed card out from deep in a pile by relocating the cards sitting on top of it somewhere useful. A card that looks hopelessly buried in Klondike is often just a couple of well-chosen moves away in Yukon.
The trap is that the same move can bury a different card just as easily. Before you shift a large pile, look at what sits at the bottom of it and what you are about to cover on the destination column. A good habit is to move piles onto cards you do not urgently need, keeping your important low cards and Aces accessible. Because everything is visible, you can usually see two or three moves ahead, and Yukon rewards players who take that moment to look before they leap. With practice, planning a whole chain of group moves in advance becomes one of the most satisfying parts of the game.
How Yukon Compares to Klondike and Others
Yukon is best understood as Klondike with two big changes: no stock, and the freedom to move any group. That trade removes the luck of the draw and replaces it with pure puzzle-solving. Compared with Klondike, Yukon gives you far more control; compared with FreeCell, it shares the fully visible board but swaps free cells for its group-move rule. Spider, meanwhile, goes bigger with two decks and suit runs. Our comparison of solitaire types maps out exactly where Yukon sits, and a quick game of Klondike alongside it makes the contrast vivid.
Conclusion
Yukon takes Klondike's familiar shape and frees it up: nearly every card is face up, there is no stock to draw from, and you can move any card together with the entire pile on top of it onto a card one rank higher of the opposite color. That freedom makes Yukon a luck-free puzzle where planning is everything. Uncover hidden cards, think before you relocate a big pile, and save empty columns for Kings. Ready to try it? Open the Yukon table now, or explore every free game on the free-solitaire.co homepage.