Freecell Solitaire Power Moves Explained

Most people understand the rules for Freecell, but not everyone understands Freecell PowerMoves. Understanding PowerMoves is one of the most important keys to winning Freecell, and knowing how they work will increase your chances of winning Freecell.

A Freecell powermove (also called a supermove), is simply a shortcut move. It lets you move a sequence of cards in one move, instead of doing lots of individual moves.

It isn't a special move though.

It's just a shortcut, to move all the cards in the sequence in one move, rather than several moves using the available freecells and empty columns.

The number of cards you can move in a supermove sequence is based on how many freecells and empty columns are available. Some freecells games implement this incorrectly, and let you move any number of cards in a sequence.

But this is wrong. If you couldn't move the sequence using individual card moves, then you can't move the sequence using a powermove either.

A freecell supermove uses the empty columns and freecells as efficiently as possible, to ensure you can move the maximum number of cards. To work out how many cards can be moved, the following formula is used:

(1 + number of empty freecells) * 2 ^ (number of empty columns)

This is easier to understand by looking at the following chart...

A: Empty Columns
B: Empty Freecells
C: Card Sequence Length

A - B - C
0 - 0 - 1
0 - 1 - 2
0 - 2 - 3
0 - 3 - 4
0 - 4 - 5
1 - 0 - 2
1 - 1 - 4
1 - 2 - 6
1 - 3 - 8
1 - 4 - 10
2 - 0 - 4
2 - 1 - 8
2 - 2 - 12
2 - 3 - 16
2 - 4 - 20


This assumes you are moving the sequence to a non-empty column. If you are moving into an empty column, then the column you are moving into does not count as empty column.

A freecell powermove can always be broken down into several individual moves. Suppose you have 1 empty column, and 1 empty freecell. From the chart above you can see that we can move a sequence of 4 cards. Suppose we want to move 9,8,7,6 sequence onto a 10.

The moves would proceed as follows:
- Move the 6 to the freecell (Now one empty column, no empty freecells)
- Move the 7 to the empty column (Now no empty columns, and no empty freecells)
- Move the 6 onto the 7 (Now no empty columns, and one empty freecell)
- Move the 8 to the freecell (Now no empty columns, and no empty freecells)
- Move the 9 onto the 10 (Now no empty columns, and no empty freecells)
- Move the 8 onto the 9 (Now no empty columns, and one empty freecell)
- Move the 6 to the freecell (Now no empty column, no empty freecells)
- Move the 7 onto the 8 (Now one empty column, and no empty freecell)
- Move the 6 onto the 7 (Now one empty column, and one empty freecell)

So in this example, the powermove has saved us time by allowing us to do 1 move instead of 9.

There are a few things to notice in this example:
- The freecells and empty columns are used temporarily. At the end of the powermove, the number of empty freecells and columns is the same as at the start of the powermove.
- The freecells and empty columns are used as efficiently as possible. There is no way that any more cards could have been moved.
- Only the empty freecells and empty columns were used. Cards in other stacks were NOT used as temporary storage spaces.

This last point is particularly note-worthy. A supermove will only use the freecells and empty columns. It doesn't account for any other cards in the tableau. This means you can often move a longer sequence by breaking doing the moves yourself, or doing several powermoves.

In the example above, if there had been a spare 9 in the tableau with the right color, a much longer sequence could have been moved. The 8,7,6 sequence would be moved onto the other 9 first. Then we could move another 4 cards using a normal powermove (Because we still have an empty column and freecell). So we could now move 9,10,J,Q onto a King, and then move the 8,7,6 onto the 9 again. So by breaking the sequence up into 2 moves, we are able to move a sequence of 7 instead of 4.

Being aware of this short-coming of supermoves will allow you to move longer sequences, which helps a lot in winning some of the harder freecell deals.

The other thing to be aware of with supermoves is how important empty columns are. If you look back to the chart above, you will see that empty columns are very valuable in freecell. Four empty freecells lets you move a sequence of 5 moves, while two empty freecells and two empty columns lets you move a sequence of 12! So try and empty up columns as soon as you can!

A Winning Strategy For The Game Of Freecell Solitaire

FreeCell Solitaire is an extremely addictive solitaire card game invented by Paul Alfille. It is fun and very skill-dependent. Nearly every game of FreeCell Solitaire can be won with perfect play. Only several FreeCell deals are known to be unsolvable. This makes FreeCell card game much more interesting and popular than solitaire variations like Klondike, where luck is a large factor in the game. With FreeCell, winning depends mostly on skill.

You have a better chance of winning if you plan your strategy carefully. Below you will find several simple rules that can help you to win FreeCell Solitaire on more regular basis.

1. Examine the tableau carefully before making any moves. It is very important to plan several moves ahead. The obvious moves are not always the best.

2. Make it a priority to free up all the Aces, especially if they are deeply buried behind the higher cards. Move them to the home cells as early as possible.

3. Try to keep as many free cells empty as possible. Be cautious! Once all free cells are filled, you have almost no space to maneuver. And your ability to maneuver is the key to this game. Make sure you have no alternative before placing any cards in the free cells.

4. Try to create an empty tableau pile as soon as possible. Empty tableau piles are more important than free cells. Each empty tableau can be used to store an entire sequence instead of a single card. And it doubles the length of an ordered sequence of cards that can be moved from one tableau to another. (If the long sequence move involves both empty tableaus and free cells, it is often called supermove.)

5. If it is possible, fill an empty tableau space with a long descending sequence that begins with a King.

6. Do not to move cards to the home cells too quickly. You may need these cards later to maneuver lower cards of other suits.

Some FreeCell Solitaire deals are solvable very quickly, while others take more time to solve. Replaying the same shuffles in a number of different ways will allow completing the most difficult ones. The more you play the more games you are able to complete. Continue to practice using the strategy above and soon you will find yourself achieving better results and enhancing your enjoyment of playing FreeCell Solitaire.