ONE SUIT. ONE EXIT.
Russian Solitaire
Play Russian solitaire free online — no download, no sign-up, works on any device. Russian solitaire is Yukon with one merciless change: tableau sequences build down in the same suit, not just alternating colors. Same open deal, same move-any-group freedom, and one of the hardest patience games ever devised. Undo and hints are built in.
✓ SAME SUIT 
× WRONG SUIT 
× WRONG SUIT Learn Russian Solitaire in 90 seconds: rules and why only 7% win
The no-stock deal, the group move, the same-suit-only twist that makes it brutal, and five habits for surviving. Full written rules follow below.
In this video
01 · THE WHOLE DECK IS ALREADY YOUR PROBLEM
How Russian solitaire works
The deal is identical to Yukon’s: 52 cards across seven columns — one face-up card on the first, one to six face-down cards under five face-up on the rest, no stock, no waste. Any face-up card moves with everything stacked above it, ordered or not, and only the bottom card of the group is checked against its destination. The check is the hard part: a card may only land on the next rank up in its own suit. The 6♠ goes on the 7♠ and nowhere else. Foundations build Ace to King by suit, one card at a time, and taking all 52 up wins.
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7 02 · EVERY CARD HAS ONE TABLEAU HOME
Why same-suit building is brutal
In Yukon a 6 has two legal homes — either red 7 or either black 7 gives you four targets across the deck. In Russian it has exactly one: its own suit’s 7, which may be buried face-down, already spoken for, or sitting uselessly on the foundations. Every placement decision carries three times the commitment, and mistakes compound — parking a card in the wrong suit line can lock a column for the rest of the game. Expect to lose often; among traditional patiences Russian is widely regarded as one of the toughest to bring home, which is precisely its appeal.
03 · ONE RULE APART. WORLDS APART.
Russian vs Yukon
One rule apart, worlds apart in feel. Yukon is a forgiving excavation — most tangles can be hauled somewhere. Russian is a precision instrument: the same scrambled stacks, but each card has a single legal destination, so you plan whole suit-lines rather than single moves. If you are new to the family, learn the group move on Yukon first; when its freedom starts feeling roomy, Russian will fix that. Alaska solitaire sits between the two — same-suit building that may run up as well as down.
04 · BUILD BACKWARD FROM THE FOUNDATIONS
Strategy: protect the suit lines
Winning Russian games are built backward from the foundations. Trace each suit’s sequence early: where is the 7♠ that the 6♠ will need, and what is on top of it? Moves that flip face-down cards still come first, but never at the cost of wrecking a suit line you will need intact. Kings claim empty columns here too, and choosing the right King matters more than in Yukon — its whole suit follows it. The Hint button runs a complete search of the deal — Russian’s strict rule shrinks the game tree enough that our solver examines every reachable position: if your deal has a winning line, hints follow it move for move. And we can finally put a number on the game’s reputation: we solved 2,000 random deals exhaustively, and only about 7% can be won by any line of play. Losing most Russian games is mathematics, not you.
≈7 of 100 deals are winnable even with perfect play. Losing is the mathematical default; finding the rare line is the game.
05 · TWO FIXED LESSONS
Find the one move. Then move the whole problem.
Both lessons restart to the same verified deal. First expose a hidden card under the same-suit rule. Then use the family’s unusual freedom to carry four loose cards together.
01 Expose one hidden card Same-suit building, live: this deal opens with a legal move that frees a face-down card. Find it — there are far fewer candidates than in Yukon. +
02 Move a loose group of four Russian keeps Yukon’s strangest freedom: the Q♠ can carry three loose cards onto K♠. Only the bottom card must match rank and suit. +
06 · FIVE SURVIVAL HABITS
Five habits for surviving Russian solitaire
Russian punishes improvisation. These habits are how experienced players convert the few deals that can be converted.
- 01 Map every suit chain
Map each suit’s chain before moving — every card has exactly one tableau destination, so find the blockers on day one.
- 02 Reveal while space remains
Flip face-down cards early, while your board still has slack to absorb what comes up.
- 03 Do not park on a foreign suit
Never bury a card on a foreign suit without a plan to move it again — in Russian, wrong-suit parking is usually permanent.
- 04 Reserve the right King lane
Spend empty columns on the King whose suit line is closest to complete, not the first King you can move.
- 05 Restart without guilt
Restart without guilt. Strong players fold bad Russian deals quickly and spend their effort where a line exists.
07 · QUICK ANSWERS
Russian solitaire FAQ
01 What’s the difference between Russian solitaire and Yukon? +
Exactly one rule: tableau building is same-suit descending in Russian, alternating-color descending in Yukon. The deal, the move-any-face-up-group freedom, the King-to-empty-column rule, and the foundations are identical. That single change makes Russian far harder.
02 How hard is Russian solitaire, really? +
The hardest game on this site, and now we can prove it: our solver searched 2,000 random deals exhaustively (Russian’s single-destination rule makes a complete search possible), and only about 7% can be won by any line of play. That is the mathematical ceiling with perfect information — human rates run lower, and our measured one is tracked on the win-rates page, publishing once enough real games are logged. Losing here is the default; the wins are the story.
03 Can I move cards that aren’t in sequence? +
Yes — the Yukon family’s group move applies. Any face-up card moves with everything above it, however scrambled; only the bottom card must land on the next rank up in its own suit.
04 Are the hints reliable? +
Yes — uniquely so. Russian’s strict rule lets our solver search a deal completely, so the hint knows whether your deal can be won at all: on a winnable deal, every hint is a move from an actual winning line; on the ~93% that cannot be won, it plays the strongest continuation (most cards freed and banked). Following hints on a winnable Russian deal is watching a full solution play out.
05 Why is it called Russian solitaire? +
The name is traditional and its origin is murky — card historians record it as an established name for this Yukon variant rather than a documented Russian invention. The same game occasionally appears in old collections under other names.
06 What goes on an empty column? +
Kings only, alone or with their stack. With same-suit building above them, an empty column claimed by the wrong King can freeze a suit for the whole game — spend them carefully.