Yukon
Yukon looks like Klondike but plays like nothing else: there is no stock, all 52 cards are on the table, and you may move any face-up card together with whatever lies on top of it.
How to play Yukon
Yukon uses one pack. The first column gets a single face-up card. Columns two to seven get 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 cards: the lowest 1 to 6 of them face down and the top five face up. That puts every card on the table, with 21 of them hidden.
- Build the four foundations up by suit, from Ace to King.
- In the columns, build down in alternating colours.
- The Yukon rule: any face-up card may be moved together with all the cards on top of it, even if those cards are not in order. Only the card you take hold of has to fit where it lands.
- Only a King, with whatever lies on it, may go into an empty column.
- There is no stock and no redeal. Everything you need is already in front of you.
Strategy and tips
Dig where the most cards are hidden
The right-hand columns hide the most cards. Group moves let you lift five or six face-up cards at once to reach the hidden ones underneath, so look for a card deep in a column that fits somewhere else.
Use the freedom, but do not make a mess
Because loose groups may move, it is easy to pile cards in a jumble. A jumbled group is still movable, but only as a whole, and only to a card that fits its first card. Try to keep the cards you will need soon near the top.
Kings are the key to empty columns
An empty column takes only a King, so a King sitting halfway down a column is a natural candidate: moving it to an empty column also moves everything on it, which often opens two columns at once.
Get the low cards home
With no stock to wait for, Aces and Twos that are face up should go home quickly; they only block the cards above them.
Questions and answers
How is Yukon different from Klondike?
There is no stock, so all 52 cards are dealt at the start, and you can move any face-up card with everything on top of it, not only ordered runs. The column rules are otherwise the same: alternating colours, Kings to empty columns.
Can every Yukon deal be won?
No, but a good share can. For the numbered deals our solver won 28 of the 32 seeds it tried; the Yukon library holds only deals it won.
Why can I move cards that are out of order?
That is the defining rule of Yukon. Only the card you pick up has to fit the card it lands on; everything on top of it simply comes along.
