When Klondike seems stuck, check what can change the position before starting a new deal. A move you missed, a card you can bring back from a foundation, or a different earlier choice may reopen play. Sometimes the current position really has no useful continuation. That still does not prove the original deal had no solution.

This checklist uses PlaySolitaire’s Klondike rules: alternating colors in the playing columns (the tableau), Kings in empty columns, a reusable draw pile (the stock) and undo. The waste is the face-up pile beside the stock; foundations are the four suit piles. Other variants need different checks; a one-pass stock in Forty Thieves cannot be recycled like this.

1. Inspect the exposed cards, including the waste

Scan each column’s playable face-up sequence, then the top waste card. A red 5 needs an exposed black 6; it cannot land on another red card or an arbitrary empty column. A face-up card buried under a valid sequence can move with that sequence. The lower visible cards in the waste are not separately available.

For each legal transfer, ask what it releases. Turning a hidden card or uncovering a needed receiver changes your options. Moving a sequence between two equivalent columns may only change the board’s appearance. The strategy guide explains those priorities in more detail.

2. Check the stock and waste before giving up

In Draw 1, look through the remaining stock for a useful exposed card. In Draw 3, inspect the top card of each packet and remember that playing it can uncover the next waste card. Drawing again immediately may skip a chance to use that newly exposed card.

Recycling does not uncover a hidden tableau card by itself. If the entire stock-and-waste arrangement returns to a previously checked state while the tableau and foundations remain unchanged, another identical cycle adds no new option. Track the complete repeated state rather than assuming that one unsuccessful pass proves every future pass is identical. See the Draw 3 rules for packet access.

3. Check whether a foundation card can help

This implementation lets you move a foundation’s top card back to a legal tableau position. Consider this local example, where all mentioned cards are exposed:

  • The spade foundation ends at 6 of spades.
  • A tableau column ends at 7 of hearts.
  • A different column has 5 of diamonds above a face-down card.

Move 6 of spades from its foundation onto 7 of hearts, then move 5 of diamonds onto 6 of spades. The second move reveals the hidden card. Bringing back that foundation card gave the 5 a place to go. This is a legal two-move fragment, not a claim that the whole deal will now be won.

Only the top foundation card is available. You cannot extract 6 of spades from beneath 7 of spades. Check the destination before pulling a card back, and judge the new access against any progress you undo.

4. Give an empty column a specific job

An empty Klondike column accepts a King or a valid sequence beginning with a King. If no King is available, the space cannot hold a convenient 8 while you rearrange another pile. If two Kings are available, compare what each move uncovers and what opposite-color Queen can follow it.

Do not fill the space merely because a King can move. A King taken from a column with hidden cards may reveal information; a King from the waste may uncover another playable waste card. Neither source is always better.

5. Try an earlier choice, or start again

Undo can return you to a meaningful choice: which King filled a space, which duplicate-rank receiver you covered, or which card you sent to a foundation. Try one changed decision and follow its consequences. The replay routine shows how to keep that experiment focused.

If you keep reaching the same complete state, it is reasonable to begin again. “I found no continuation” is a useful description; “this deal is impossible” requires stronger evidence, such as an exhaustive solver under the same rules. Read the random-versus-winnable explainer for that distinction.

To practice the checklist, play a game of classic Solitaire and pause at the first apparent dead end. Name the card or space you need before changing the board.