Freecell Solver Lecture

Description

The Game consists of 4 foundations, 4 reserves (also known as freecells) and 8 stacks of cards. At the beginning of play the 52 cards (without the jokers) are dealt to the eight stacks with their faces up. The first four stacks get 7 cards, and the other four 6 cards.

The foundations are built by suit from Ace to King. Each freecell can hold one card.

Atomic Moves

The following atomic moves are possible:

  1. Move a card from the stacks or the freecells to the foundations. It can only be moved if its rank is higher by one than the rank of the foundation of its appropriate suit.
  2. Move one of the top stack cards to a vacant freecell.
  3. Move a card present in a freecell or in a stack's top on top of a parent card on top of a different stack. A parent card is a card which is higher by one in rank and with the opposite colour.
  4. Move a card present in a freecell or in a stack's top into an empty stack.

Strategies

A sequence of more than one card can be moved by moving the top cards to the freecells or to unocoppied stacks.

Sometimes, it is useful to move cards to the freecells, so the card below them can serve as a basis for a sequence.