Championship Freecell
Strategy
Below are some tips on strategy that most experienced Freecell players know and use. Following that is a description of how to move a run of cards using open spaces, a fundamental part of Championship Freecell play. Finally, at the bottom of this page we provide a list of shortcuts to playing Championship Freecell.
Tips and Tricks
Keep as many free cells open as possible is the advice heard most often. Free cells give you room to maneuver. More free cells mean that you can move larger runs (See "Moving a Run" below). Once you are down to 1 or 2 open free cells, you become very limited in the number of possible moves that you can make.
Clear whole columns when possible. Empty columns can be more valuable than free cells because you use them to "park" (set aside until needed) a run of cards instead of just a single card. Experienced Freecell players often examine each of the columns to see if they can plan a set of moves that will clear that column entirely without using up any free cells.
Use empty columns to make runs that fill an entire column. A long run in an empty column, without any cards above the run, is called a grounded run. You can stop worrying about all the cards in a grounded run for the rest of the game because a grounded run will never block your progress, since none of the cards in it are blocking other cards of lower rank. Even one grounded run loosens up the board considerably.
Look well beyond the play of a single card. Most good Freecell players will play the game as a series of small sequences of play. They plan the next several moves so that they make some progress, but end up with a reasonable number of free cells still open after the move sequence is done (even though most or all free cells may be in use during the sequence.)
Evaluate the game before you begin moving cards. Look for problem spots early on such as Aces and other low cards that are deeply buried in a column. Generally speaking, an easy game will have lower cards near the bottom of columns and higher cards near the top.
Be patient. It can be tempting to use up a free cell or two to get at a badly desired ace, but this is almost always a mistake. Instead, look for plays that organize cards in runs, even if you don't play any cards on home cells for a while. Improving the organization of your columns is as important as getting cards onto home cells.
Play on the home cells when all else fails. There are some risks to this since the cards can not be taken back off of home cells for future use, but it may get you out of a tight spot now and then.
Moving a Run
Although Championship Freecell rules allow moving only one card at a time, there is a way to move an entire run of cards from one column to another, provided you have sufficient free spaces. Here we illustrate this technique, something you'll use often in playing the game.
The figure below shows a hypothetical game situation where we want to move a run of 5 cards onto a Jack in another column.
In the figure below we've made four card moves to "park" all of the run cards except for the base of the run on the four free cells. Next we will move the base card onto the Jack. (Note: We have just enough free space to accomplish this. If one of the free cells had been in use we would not have been able to accomplish this run move.)
Finally, we make four more moves to bring the parked cards off of the free cells onto the moved base card. The final figure below shows the desired result of the run move.
Shortcuts
Championship Freecell includes a number of shortcuts that make playing the game easier:
Quick Movement to Free Cells: Double clicking on a card at the bottom of a column will move it to an open free cell.
Automatic Movement of Cards to Home Cells: Cards will automatically be moved to home cells when any cards that might legally be played on them are already in home cells. In other words, cards are only moved automatically when there is no further need for them in the game. This is why aces are always automatically played, since no card can be played on an ace in the columns. The option Always Force Cards Home takes this a step further by always playing any cards that can be legally (though not necessarily wisely) played on home cells. Freecell Gold players can also use the option Force Cards Home Once to apply this option one time.
Move a Run of Cards: Championship Freecell includes a shortcut that automatically makes a run move for you. (See Moving a Run, above). Simply click on the bottommost card in the run to select the entire run and then click on the place where you want to move the run. Championship Freecell takes care of the rest, automatically parking cards as needed to move the run. To use this shortcut, you must have enough free spaces to move the run by hand, using the method from Moving a Run. You'll get an error message if you don't have enough space. Even if you use the shortcut, each individual card move adds to your card-move total for the game.
See the full face of a covered card: To see the full face of a card that is not at the bottom of a column, click on the card with your right mouse button.
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