Deal numbers

What the number means

A FreeCell deal is not shuffled fresh each time: a number is fed to a generator and the same number always produces the same board. Jim Horne's Windows version shipped 32,000 of them, and later versions extended the range to a million. This site uses that same generator, so a deal you remember is the deal you get here.

That matters more than it sounds. Deal numbers are how players talk to each other about FreeCell at all — a solution is worth nothing if your 617 is not my 617.

Deal 11982

Of the original 32,000, exactly one cannot be won: number 11982. It needs five free cells and the game gives you four. Volunteers worked through the whole set in the mid 1990s and it was the only board left standing.

Open 11982 if you want to see it. Our solver will tell you it cannot be won rather than letting you hunt for a line that is not there.

Which deals this site hands out

When you press New game you get a board our own solver has already finished within a hundred moves. Of the first 309 deals, 300 passed and 9 were set aside. A board that is left out is usually not a bad board — it is one our solver took too long a route through, and that bar moves as the solver improves.

Typing a number here bypasses that filter, which is the point: if you want 11982, you should be able to have 11982.

Deal numbers by difficulty

Graded by our solver: 66 deals need one free cell or none, 54 need three or four, and the other 174 need two. Tap a number to play it.