Play improved versions of popular solitaire games including FreeCell, Solitaire, Spider, and Pyramid. The improvements usually consist of rule changes which introduce more opportunity for skill into the game. Other improvements include throwing out unwinnable games and flagging cards that are important to the outcome of the game. These new versions of solitaire games are included in the Solitaire Games of Skill collection whose demo can be downloaded for free below. Twenty of these new games are described below.

• FREECELL
  
  FreeCell has the disadvantage that most of its games are too easy for the experienced player. Free Kings is a version of FreeCell which is more difficult to win. Free Kings has the same rules as FreeCell except that at the start of the game, three of the four cells contain a king. Thus three of the four cells are useless until spaces can be created in the tableau where the cell kings can be moved.




• EIGHT OFF
  
  Eight Off also has the disadvantage that most of its games are too easy for the experienced player. Kings Off is a version of Eight Off which is more challenging. Kings Off has the same rules as Eight Off except that at the start of the game, three of the kings and their corresponding queens fill six of the eight cells as seen in the screenshot at the right. Thus six of the eight cells are useless until spaces can be created in the tableau where the cell kings and their queens can be moved.




• GOLF
  
  Golf is difficult to win and winning depends a lot on luck. The game Wormhole is an easier version of Golf and gives the player more control over his own destiny. Wormhole has all the cards dealt out into nineteen tableau columns with the foundation empty. After studying the layout, the player gets to pick the card which starts the foundation. Thereafter the game is played just like Golf except that there are no hand cards to be dealt to the foundation. Wormhole is an easier variant of Black Hole.




• SOLITAIRE (KLONDIKE)
  
  Solitaire is also known as Klondike. The standard rules for Klondike do not allow any redeals. This restriction makes Klondike very difficult to win. Most if not all online versions of Klondike try to make the game more appealing by allowing three or more redeals. While making the game easier to win, the increase in the number of redeals changes the game radically and does little to increase the quality of play. Selective Klondike stays true to the standard rule of no redeals but has two cells which can be filled by any card from the hand or wastepile. Cards in the two cells can be built on the tableau or foundations. Generally they should be cards that could be used to uncover facedown cards. Along the left margin of the screenshot at the right, the two cells contain the five of clubs and the ten of diamonds. The five of clubs might be used to move the four of diamonds in column 3 of the tableau. The ten of diamonds might be built of the queen of diamonds in column 2 and then used to move the eight of hearts in column 4. The Selective Klondike rule change introduces some skill into the game while making the game easier to win.




• PYRAMID
  
  The game Accordion Pyramid is easier to win than regular Pyramid and involves more skill. Accordion Pyramid is like the usual game of Pyramid except all the hand cards are immediately visible and available to pair with any adjacent hand card or an available pyramid card. In the screenshot at the right, the hand cards are placed in a strip along the bottom margin. The third card from the right of the strip is the ten of spades which can be paired and removed with the three of diamonds right next to it. This leaves the nine of spades between the queen of hearts and the ace of clubs. After the nine of spades is paired and removed with a pyramid card, the queen and ace are brought together. The queen and ace can then be paired and removed. The emphasis is on pairing and removing the cards in the strip.




• SPIDER
  
  Spider lovers will be intrigued by Scorpion Spider which is identical to Spider except that as in Scorpion most of the cards are already dealt at the beginning of the game with only one deal remaining. Also as in Scorpion a card may be built down on a card of the same suit regardless of the sequence of cards above the card being built. For example in the screenshot at the right, the two of hearts in column 5 can be built upon the three of hearts in column 6. Cards which can be moved like the two of hearts are marked by blue squares. The four of spades in column 6 might be built on the five of spades in column 2 at some point. Buried cards which can be used to make spaces or uncover facedown cards are marked by orange. Thus the five of spades is marked by an orange strip. The blue squares and orange strips make the complex layout more manageable. Right clicking on the eight of spades will send that card and all the cards above it to various positions in the tableau. Card columns can also be swapped in order to assemble cards of the same suit together. Less than half the normal amount of card moves would be required to play a game.




• ACES UP
  
  Winning Aces Up is difficult and largely a matter of chance. Aces Up and Away is the same as Aces Up except that play does not stop after all the cards are dealt. When all the cards have been dealt, any card at the top of its tableau column except an ace can be moved to a cell. The cell card can be used to remove any tableau cards or a tableau card can be used to remove the cell card. The cell card cannot be placed back on the tableau. If the three of diamonds in the screenshot at the right is moved to the black cell position under the table, this will expose the jack of heart which will cause the seven of hearts to disappear which will expose the jack of diamonds. The jack of diamonds will make the three of diamonds in the cell position disappear. All card removal is automatic. The player is notified when the game is lost so that time and effort are not wasted.




• RUSSIAN SOLITAIRE
  
  Russian Solitaire is one of the most difficult games to win. Part of the problems is that there are many scenarios under which the game is unwinnable. One such scenario is if three consecutive cards in a column all having the same suit have consecutive ranks with the middle card having the smallest rank and the lowest card having the largest rank. For example a card sequence in a column of five, three, and four of hearts would make the game unwinnable since the cards could not be separated by building on the tableau or foundation. Also if the faceup card covering a column of facedown cards covers a card of the same suit and one rank higher and also a card of the same suit and a lower rank, the game is unwinnable since the faceup card cannot be built anywhere. These and other unwinnable games are thrown out when playing Russian Scorpion which follows the rules of Russian Solitaire except that there are fewer facedown cards as seen in the accompanying screenshot.




• MISS MILLIGAN
  
  Miss Carlton is a game like Miss Milligan except that spaces can be filled by any card sequence not just a sequence headed by a king. To offset this advantage the tableau starts the game with 36 cards in triangular shape as seen in the accompanying screenshot.




• FORTY THIEVES
  
  Devotees of Forty Thieves may favor the game called Forty Senators which is like Forty Thieves except that instead of a single wastepile the cards are dealt to four wastepiles from which they can be played on the foundations or tableau. Thus Senate Thieves gives the player more control over his destiny and more opportunity for skill than Forty Thieves. To offset the advantage of four wastepiles, Forty Senators has only eight tableau columns rather than the usual ten.




• CANFIELD
  
  The win rate for the standard Canfield game which requires dealing the cards three cards at a time is very low. If all the thirteen cards in the stock cannot be uncovered the game is unwinnable. For example if the eight of spades is a stock card which covers both black nines and a card of lower rank which is a spade, the eight of spades cannot be moved since it cannot be built anywhere. The version of Canfield offered here throws out many unwinnable games without throwing away any winnable games. Thus about half the games can be won even when dealing cards by threes. Having to go through the deck many times can be tedious. The wastepile displayed for this Canfield game tries to duplicate the dealing process while reducing the amount of card manipulation. An example of the wastepile is the column of cards along the left margin of the accompanying screenshot. The wastepile cards seen by the player are the wastepile cards he would see when counting off the cards by threes. In the regulation game, if a player plays a wastepile card he would not be able to retrieve covered wastepile cards until the next redeal. This rule is duplicated here by not allowing access to cards above a played card that would not be acessible in a regulation game. A black bar divides the accessible cards from the inaccessible. In the screenshot this bar is between the four of clubs and four of diamonds.




• BAKER'S DOZEN
  
  Online versions of Baker's Dozen move all the kings to the bottom of the columns. This version of Baker's Dozen ceases to be challenging to the experienced player. This version of Baker's Dozen does not automatically move all the kings to the head of their respective columns or just below cards of the same suit. Kings are moved down in their column in order to prevent a block in the layout that would make winning impossible. The Baker's Dozen screenshot below shows a table. The first column of the table lists the all the card ranks except ace. The second column gives the number of cards of the indicated rank which are not covered by cards of the next lowest rank. For example the number zero next to the jack rank indicates that every jack is covered by a card of rank ten. This means that none of the jacks can be moved unless one of the tens is sent to a foundation. Therefore the cards underneath the jack in column 5 of the tableau are inaccessible. Notice that for rank five in the table the number of cards not covered by a card of the next lowest rank is in red. This results from the king in column 13 covering a rank six card. With the king covering a six there are not enough cards of rank six to move all the cards of rank five. Therefore the player must chose which rank five card he can afford not to move. Columns which have two or more cards of the same rank are potential trouble spots since both cards could be easily trapped as discussed above. These columns are marked with a yellow asterisk as are columns 1, 4, 6, 7, and 8 in the screenshot.
  A card with a dark blue square can be built on another tableau. A card with a light blue square can be built on a foundation card. Right clicking on the lowest dark blue card in a column will send that card and all the cards above it to different positions in the layout.




• BUFFALO BILL
  
  Buffalo Bill has a large complex layout which is difficult for the average player to manipulate. Consequently, Buffalo Bill with its eight cells is made fairly easy to win in order to keep its appeal. Bison Bob is Buffalo Bill played with half the cells and is shown in the screenshot at the right. With the blue squares indicating which cards can go on foundations, the increase in challenge is not overwhelming.




• LA BELLE LUCIE
  
  When playing La Belle Lucie, it can be very frustrating to go through all the work involved in three deals only to find that the layout for the last deal is unwinnable. La Belle Draw is like La Belle Lucie without the redeals. The player gets to draw any card out and place it on the top of its column. This can happen twice.




• NESTOR
  
  Vertical is a version of the game Nestor. The object of the game is to remove all the cards from the tableau. Cards can be removed in pairs if they have the same rank. Nestor and Vertical are generally thought of as games won almost entirely by luck. But when cards crucial to the outcome of the game are flagged as described below, Vertical becomes a tense, breathtaking game of skill. In the screen shot at the right, there is only one pair of cards with rank seven left. These two cards are in columns two and five. The seven in column two covers a six while the seven in column five is covered by a six. There are also cards of rank six in columns one and three. If the sixes in columns one and three are paired and removed, the game is lost. This is because as a result of pairing the sixes, the sevens in columns two and five can never be paired and removed. In order to pair the sevens, the six in column five must be removed. But in order to pair the six in column five with the six in column two, the seven in column two must first be removed which is impossible. To indicate the potential danger the sevens are marked with an orange strip while the sixes are marked with dark blue squares. In other online versions of Vertical, the player can keep on playing a game long after it has been lost. This version of Vertical stops the game the instant the game is lost. Furthermore, if only two cards of a given rank are left in the layout, these cards are automatically paired and removed when they are both available.




• LITTLE SPIDER
  
  Generally Little Spider, also sometimes called Scarab, is considered a very difficult game to win with very little skill involved in the play. The standard rules require that only the top cards of the tableau are visible. This version of Little Spider seen in the screen shot overlaps the cards so that all the cards are visible. Potential blocks in the layout that could cause the game to be lost are marked with orange. In column 1 of the screen shot, the seven of diamonds is in a dangerous position since it covers the eight of diamonds. When building cards on the foundation of the king of diamonds at the top, the eight of diamonds must be built before the seven of diamonds. Thus if a situation arises where the seven of diamonds cannot be moved to another location on the tableau, the game is lost. Therefore the seven of diamonds is marked with orange. With cards overlapped and crucial cards marked with orange, Little Spider becomes an intense game of skill that can be won about half the time. Finally, groups of cards in sequence or not can be moved with a single mouse click. Clicking on the eight of diamonds in column 1 will send the eight of diamonds and all the cards above it to various locations in the tableau. Therefore the game can be played with less than half the normal amount of mouse clicks.




• OSMOSIS
  
  All the play consists of moving cards to the foundations when playing Osmosis. If a card covers the card it must be built upon on the foundations, the game is lost. Also if two cards of the same rank occur in the same stockpile and the higher of the two cards goes on a lower foundation row than the other card, the game is lost. About half of the Osmosis games are unwinnable as a result of the above two scenarios. Free Osmosis is not affected by these scenarios. Free Osmosis is played like Osmosis except that all the cards start in the seven stockpiles with no cards being dealt. To offset this disadvantage the player gets to choose the first card to go on the foundations. Also stock cards can be moved to three cells or can be used to fill a space in the stockpiles. In the screenshot the seven stockpiles are the seven columns at the left. The foundations are the fifty-two card positions on the right. In the middle between the stockpiles and the foundations are three cell positions. On the second stockpile of the screenshot, the seven of spades can be moved to a cell and the three cards underneath which are marked with light blue can be moved to the foundations creating a space. This space can be filled by any available stock card.




• ACCORDION
  
  This version of Accordion starts the game with all 52 cards visible in a row as seen in the screen shot at the right. Actually this version of Accordion can be found elsewhere, but it is more common to see the version where the cards are dealt one at a time which is extremely difficult to win. The object of the game is to get all the cards into one pile. Cards may be built on cards one or three positions to the left, if the cards are of the same rank or suit. Cards marked with light blue in the screen shot can be built upon the card immediately to their left. Cards marked with dark blue can be built upon the third card to their left. If all the cards of a given rank can be moved to the right of all the rest of the cards, they can be used to consolidate all the cards into one pile. These cards moved to the right of all the cards are called sweeper cards. In order to win Accordion, it is crucial to pick the best rank for the sweeper cards. The Choose Sweeper Rank dialog box shown in the screen shot lists the ranks with their scores. The scores are a measure of how far to the right the cards of given rank are. Generally the lower the score, the better the rank is for sweeper cards. The cards having the highlighted rank in the dialog box are marked with orange strips so that the player can easily spot their locations. Looking at the location of the cards for various ranks could indicate that the best sweeper rank is not the rank with the lowest score. After the sweeper rank is chosen, the sweeper cards keep their orange strips. This version of Accordion is the only one which aids in the selection of the sweeper card rank with scores and flags the sweeper cards.




• CRUEL
  
  Kind is the similar to Cruel except that the cards are overlapped so that the player can see all the cards. This increases the opportunities for skill. For example in the screenshot, if just the seven of hearts in column 6 is built on the eight of hearts in column 11, then the two of spades in column eight will be brought to the top and can be built on a foundation. But if the six of hearts in column one and the seven of hearts are both built on the eight of hearts then the two of spades will stay buried. Sometimes when playing Cruel, a card in the first column covers two cards of the same suit. If one of the covered cards is one rank higher than the covering card and the other covered card is any rank lower than the covering card, the covering card cannot be moved and the game is unwinnable. The same thing happens when a king covers a card of the same suit in the first column. These patterns which can occur at the start of the game make Cruel unwinnable about 10 percent of the time. These unwinable games are thrown out when playing Kind. Kind also allows the player to draw any card out and place it on the top of its column. This can happen only once.




• GAPS
  
  The typical online Gaps game has three or more deals and is easy to win. Extra Gaps is Gaps with just one deal and three cell positions. In the screenshot the cell positions are in the first column. Black positions indicate gaps in the layout. The four of spades in the top cell can be restored to the tableau by moving the five of diamonds in column one of the tableau to a cell. This would create a gap underneath the three of spades into which the four of spades could be moved. With Extra Gaps luck is less of a factor in winning.