How to Play Thoughtful Solitaire

A see-everything take on Klondike: every card starts dealt face up in the tableau, so there's nothing hidden to plan around. The goal: Move every card to the foundations, building each suit from Ace to King.

Setup

1. Deal all 52 cards face up across the 7 tableau piles.
2. Set up 4 empty foundation piles above.
3. There's no stock or waste to deal from—every card is already in play.

How to play

• Move cards from the tableau to foundations (building up in suit from Ace).
• In the tableau, build piles downward by alternating color (e.g., red 7 on black 8).
• Move single cards or entire sequences together.
• Empty tableau spaces accept only Kings or sequences topped with Kings.
• The app automatically moves a card to the foundation once no other card can be built on it; you can change this in Settings.

How to win

Objective: Move every card to the foundations, building each suit from Ace to King.

Win by moving all cards to the foundations. The game is much more winnable than standard Klondike because you can see and plan for all cards.

Tips

• With all cards visible, plan several moves ahead before executing them.
• Focus on exposing Kings early to create empty spaces for flexible maneuvering.
• Build long sequences when possible to clear space and simplify the board.

Play Thoughtful free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Thoughtful alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the Klondike family:

• Titan — A challenging two-deck variant where eight tableau piles start with three face-up cards each.
• Triple Triangle — This three-deck variant challenges you to build foundations by moving cards from a large triangular tableau.
• Whitehead — This tableau is dealt entirely face up, so you can see every card before you begin.
• Willow — This Klondike-style layout adds four fan piles on the side, each stacking cards of one matching rank.
• American Canister — American Canister uses a single deck distributed across 8 tableau piles in a balanced pattern.