Where does solitaire come from?
The card game most Americans call solitaire, and most of the world calls patience, is older than you might think - and its journey from candle-lit parlors to the Windows Start menu is a genuinely good story.
The 18th-century origins
The earliest written references to single-player card games appear in northern Europe in the late 1700s, most likely in Germany or Scandinavia. Some historians link the pastime to fortune-telling with cards, others to solitary amusement during long winters. By the early 1800s, patience was well established across the continent.
Patience books and the Victorians
The game spread through printed collections. Lady Adelaide Cadogan's Victorian patience books and the many Games of Patience volumes that followed codified dozens of variants, including the ancestors of today's Klondike, Canfield and Forty Thieves. For over a century, solitaire was a quiet, physical hobby played with a real deck.
Microsoft and the digital explosion
Everything changed in 1990, when Microsoft bundled a Klondike game called simply "Solitaire" with Windows 3.0 - partly to teach nervous new users how to drag a mouse. It became one of the most-played computer programs in history. For hundreds of millions of people, the words "solitaire" and "Klondike" now mean exactly the same thing. Read the full history of solitaire for the complete timeline.
Related questions
Is solitaire good for your brain?
Solitaire exercises genuinely useful mental skills: planning several moves ahead, remembering which cards have appeared, weighing risk against reward, and spotting patterns quickly. It is not a miracle brain trainer, but it is engaging mental activity many people find calming and focusing.
What is the hardest solitaire game?
Russian Solitaire, Forty Thieves and 4-suit Spider are the hardest common variants - under one deal in ten falls even to strong players. Russian demands same-suit builds with free-wheeling moves; Forty Thieves gives one pass through the stock; 4-suit Spider needs eight full same-suit runs.
Which solitaire game is best for beginners?
Klondike Turn 1 is the classic starting point - simple rules and a high share of winnable deals. 1-suit Spider is even more forgiving. TriPeaks and Golf are fast, casual picks. Once comfortable, FreeCell teaches real planning, and Russian or Forty Thieves await when you want a challenge.