Freecell

**OVERVIEW**

**FREECELL** is another solitaire variation but quite different from the standard solitaire game card. The game includes free spaces which are called “free cells”. The function of these free cells is to hold other cards for a while like a temporary de-blocking or maneuvering so that the player can manage to make an important move on the other cards on the Tableau. Using the free cells, players can strategically work on the other cards to be put on the Foundations or to be moved to another card that is lower than its rank.

It is believed that Freecell can be solved almost all the time, and the percentage of unresolvable games is very small. At the beginning of the game, all cards are dealt on the Tableau using a random number generator as the shuffler of the card combination in each game. In History, the Freecell is believed to come from another Patience game which is called Eight Off.  The Freecell game is similar to another variant called Baker’s Game. The only difference is that the Freecell is built in an alternate color scheme and the Baker’s Game follows the same suit scheme.

Paul Alfille is believed to be the first person to program Freecell in 1978 when he was working in a university in Illinois.  The game had several different variants. Up to this day, the most popular variant played by many is the Classic Freecell. Just like the Spider Solitaire, Freecell has been included on Microsoft Windows operating system since 1995 causing the game to be popular and played worldwide.

**CARD LAYOUT AND OBJECTIVE**

Similar to the objective of other solitaire games, Freecell’s goal is to achieve building 4 suits in the Foundation. The cards are to be arranged from aces to kings. Freecell uses a deck of 52 standard playing cards. The cards are arranged on a descending alternate color order. The first card to be filled on the Foundation is an ace then followed by two and so on until king is finally reached.

As the name suggests, there will be four free piles that will temporarily hold the cards which are not really helpful at the moment. Another four empty piles will be for the Foundations at the start of the game. In the Tableau, there will be 8 columns. The first 4 columns from the left have 7 cards dealt face up. The remaining 4 columns have 6 cards also dealt face up. All the cards are dealt in the Tableau so there is no Stock in the layout.

**HOW TO PLAY**

At the beginning, all cards in the Tableau are dealt face up. The combinations of the dealt cards are all determined by the random number generator. The player can start the game by moving a card to a Freecell or it can be moved to another card that is next in rank in descending order following the alternate color scheme. Only one card can be moved to an empty or Freecell. When moving a card from the Freecell going to the Tableau, it can only be placed in an empty cell or on a card next in rank of the card. A card can also be moved from the Freecell going to the Foundations provided that the card is an ace or a card next in rank of the card already in the pile. Sometimes, a card is placed or moved back to the Tableau from the Foundations and that is a legal move. The player must move one card at a time only.

The main objective of the game is to build the Foundations with 4 suits starting with an ace until a king. When all cards are arranged in the foundations accordingly, the game is over and it is a win game.