Play Russian Solitaire — Yukon Layout, Same-Suit Building, No Stock

Russian Solitaire is the harder cousin of Yukon. Same seven-column layout, all 52 cards face-up from the start, no stock pile. The single difference: tableau columns build down by same suit, not alternating colors. That single rule makes the same deal much harder to solve. The lift-anything Yukon move is still in play — you can pick up any face-up card together with every card beneath it. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Russian Solitaire?

Goal: build all four foundations from Ace to King by suit.

Setup

• Tableau: seven columns. The first has 1 card, the second 6, the third 7, up to 11 in the seventh. All face-up from the start.
• No stock, no waste. Every card is on the table from the first move.
• Foundations: four empty piles, top right. Build up by suit, Ace to King.

Rules

• Build tableau columns down by same suit. A 9 of hearts goes on a 10 of hearts only.
• Move any face-up card with everything beneath it as a single group, regardless of order. The Yukon lift-anything rule.
• Only Kings (or any group with a King at the bottom) can fill an empty tableau column.
• Foundations build up by suit, Ace to King. You can move a card back from a foundation to the tableau if needed.

Russian vs Yukon

One rule different. The same deal that's winnable in Yukon often isn't in Russian.

The same-suit rule cuts your placement options roughly in half. Each tableau card now has only one legal target instead of two, which closes off many of the routes that make Yukon winnable. The lift-anything move helps but doesn't fully compensate.

What's the Best Russian Strategy?

• Plan the longest same-suit chain first. Every card is visible. Trace the longest sequence you can build before committing to the first move — short experiments waste mobility.
• Build in one suit at a time. Splitting your effort across all four suits leaves you with four short chains, none re-arrangeable. Concentrate on one suit until it has a clean K-Q-J-10-9 group, then move on.
• Empty a column early. Empty columns are the only way to re-arrange long chains. Only Kings fill them, so plan for both — making the empty column and having a King ready.
• Watch the Aces. Send Aces to the foundations as soon as they're free. They serve no useful tableau role and unlock cards above them.
• Use the lift-anything rule freely. Long messy stacks on top of a target card move as one unit if the top card is a legal placement. This is your main tool against the strict rule.
• Mid-rank cards are harder to send up. Don't rush 4s, 5s, 6s up. They build tableau sequences and are worth keeping in play longer than corner ranks.

A Short History

Russian Solitaire appears in mid-20th-century patience anthologies as a regional variant of the Yukon family — same lift-anything mechanic but with strict same-suit building. The "Russian" label is conventional rather than historical; like many national patience names, it reflects publication tradition more than a verified geographic origin. The variant has remained niche in print but is included in most modern multi-game digital collections.

About This Version

This Russian Solitaire runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day so you can compare times.

Other Solitaire Games to Try

• Yukon — same layout, alternating colors, much easier
• Scorpion — Spider-style same-suit cousin with face-down cards
• Australian Patience — Yukon variant with stock and same-suit building
• Klondike — the seven-column classic with foundations