Russian Solitaire

How to Play Russian Solitaire

In a nutshell: Yukon's brutal sibling - Builds must follow suit. You play with 1 deck (52 cards), it's rated very hard, and under 10% of deals fall.

Russian Solitaire is Yukon with one merciless change: tableau builds must be the same suit instead of alternating colors. The same free-wheeling group moves, a fraction of the legal landings. Widely considered one of the toughest single-deck games worth playing. That one rule change is dramatic. Where Yukon gives every card two possible landing spots, one of each color, Russian gives each card exactly one - The next card up in its own suit - So the number of legal moves collapses and a single blocked card can freeze an entire line of play. Many enthusiasts play it with undo as an open puzzle, savoring the long, careful sequencing that a rare win demands rather than expecting to clear most deals.

Russian at a glance

Goal	Build the four foundations from Ace to King by suit.
Decks used	1 standard 52-card deck - 52 cards in play
Difficulty	Very hard
Chance of winning	Under 10% of deals fall
Family	Klondike Family

Step by step

History of Russian

Russian Solitaire is a direct offshoot of Yukon, and its history is inseparable from that game. It keeps Yukon's entire structure - All fifty-two cards dealt across seven columns, no stock, and the ability to move any face-up card together with everything piled on top of it - And changes a single rule.

That one change is severe. Instead of building the tableau down in alternating colors, Russian Solitaire requires building down in the same suit. Because every card therefore has just one legal landing spot rather than two, the number of available moves at any moment collapses, and long stretches of the game can hinge on freeing a single blocked card.

The game circulated through the same twentieth-century patience literature and later software collections that popularized Yukon, and it earned a reputation as one of the toughest single-deck solitaires worth attempting. Estimated win rates sit in the low double digits even with strong play, so many enthusiasts treat it as an undo-assisted puzzle, savoring each hard-won victory as a small feat of sequencing.

How to Win Russian: Strategy

💡 Top tip: Each card has exactly one legal landing spot (the next card up in its suit) - Trace those chains before touching anything.

Winning tips, in order of importance

1. Unburying face-down cards is even more valuable than in Yukon; you have fewer ways to recover from a block.
2. Foundation aggressively - Unlike alternating-color games, tableau cards rarely serve as landing pads for other suits.
3. If two cards of a suit chain are stacked in the wrong order in one column, plan the crane-lift to fix it early.
4. Expect to lose most deals. Winnable ones reward long, careful sequencing - Take your time.
5. Delay committing to a big group move until you have confirmed every card in the chain has a same-suit home waiting, since a stalled relay is very hard to reverse.
6. Treat undo as a planning tool: try a promising line, and if it dead-ends, back it out and use what you learned to find the one workable order.

Advanced tactics for Russian

1. Map each suit's descending chain across the whole board before moving anything, because with only one legal landing per card a single misstep can freeze the game.
2. Prioritize unburying face-down cards even more aggressively than in Yukon, since same-suit rules leave you far fewer ways to recover from a block.
3. Foundation cards more readily than in alternating-color games; tableau cards seldom serve as useful landing pads for other suits, so parking value is low.
4. When two cards of the same suit are stacked in the wrong order in one column, plan the crane-lift that repairs the sequence early, while spare space still exists.
5. Keep a King with a clear route to an empty column in mind, because Kings anchor the only same-suit runs that can grow to full length.
6. Sequence your moves to open the deepest columns first; once the board tightens, same-suit restrictions make late rescues nearly impossible.
7. Accept that many deals are simply unwinnable and use undo to explore lines; the game rewards patient experimentation over speed.

Common Russian mistakes to avoid

• Playing it like Yukon - builds must follow suit here, so each card has only one legal landing spot, not two.
• Moving a group without a same-suit home - park a jumbled stack only where its bottom card lands legally in suit.
• Foundationing a card another column still needs in suit - one missing same-suit link can freeze a whole line of play.
• Leaving deep face-down cards for last - reach them while you still have flexible columns, before the board tightens up.

Russian Variations

Yukon

The parent game, identical except that it builds down in alternating colors instead of the same suit, which makes it dramatically easier and higher-scoring.

Alaska

A Russian-family variant that allows building up or down within a suit sequence, adding flexibility to the strict same-suit rule.

Moosehide

Builds down in any suit other than the card's own, a middle ground that is easier than Russian's same-suit rule but harder than Yukon's colors.

Relaxed Russian

Rule sets that let any card fill an empty column rather than only Kings, giving beginners a foothold in an otherwise brutal game.

Double Russian

A two-deck extension with more columns for players who want a longer same-suit challenge.

Russian FAQ

Russian guides & strategy

• Are all solitaire games winnable? The odds
• The complete solitaire glossary
• More solitaire strategy guides on the blog

Still have a question about Russian Solitaire? Browse the full solitaire FAQ, look up a term like klondike family or very hard in the solitaire glossary, or compare Russian with the other games in the rules for every solitaire.

Last updated 2026-07-03.