Play Northwest Territory Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Build Klondike-style runs across eight face-up columns while working down a sixteen-card reserve fan, no stock, no redeals, just a 35% win rate to chase.

Northwest Territory Solitaire is a cross between Klondike and Flower Garden, named for the vast stretch of the Canadian North. From Klondike it borrows the familiar staircase deal and alternating-color building; from Flower Garden it takes the idea of replacing the stock with an open reserve. Eight tableau piles are dealt from one to eight cards — thirty-six in all — and every one of them lies face-up, so the entire deal can be read from the very first move.

The sixteen cards left over are spread beside the foundations in a long face-up fan called the reserve. Only the exposed card at the end of the fan is in play, and the fan is never refilled, so planning the order in which you unpack it is the heart of the game. Its sibling Klondike Territory plays the same idea with only seven tableau piles; the eighth column here makes empty spaces a little easier to come by.

Expect a moderately difficult climb here, roughly a 35% win rate with a single deck. Since every card is visible from the start, that outcome rests mostly on how well you read the board rather than on luck.

Klondike Territory Solitaire and Flower Garden Solitaire both share this reserve-instead-of-stock approach.

From here, the natural next stop is the original Solitaire, where the stock replaces this game's open reserve.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Enjoy playing!

How to play Northwest Territory Solitaire

Layout:

4 foundation piles: Build up in suit from Ace to King.

8 tableau piles: Build down in alternating colors. Dealt Klondike-style with one to eight cards, all face-up. Sequences in alternating colors may be moved as a group. Any card can fill a space.

Reserve: The 16 cards left after the deal, spread face-up in a fan. Only the top card is playable. There is no stock and no redeal.

Foundation:

There are four foundation piles.

The foundations are begun with the Aces as they become available. A card can be added to a foundation pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on a 6 of diamonds is a 7 of diamonds.

The top card of a foundation may be moved back to the tableau if you need it.

Reserve:

The last 16 cards of the deck form a single face-up reserve fan.

Only the fan's top card is available; it may be played to the foundations or the tableau. Cards may never be moved into the reserve, and it is never refilled — once it is empty, it stays empty.

Tableau:

Eight tableau piles fan out Klondike-style, holding one to eight cards. Every card is dealt face-up.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower and the opposite color of the pile's current top card, so the only cards that fit on a 9 of clubs are the red 8s.

Cards on the tableau that are not covered by another card are free to be played onto the foundations or any other tableau pile. Groups of cards that form a descending, alternating-color sequence may be moved together.

Any card or movable sequence can fill an empty tableau space.