National Solitaire Day

Although the game of solitaire has a history that goes back for centuries, National Solitaire Day is more recent. In fact, the day was first celebrated in 2018 when it was established by the Microsoft company. National Solitaire Day was established in honor of their original computer solitaire game, also known as Klondike, that was released in 1990 with Windows 3.0. This was back in the days when people would play with an actual mouse that had a roller ball!

It would be difficult to estimate the number of hours that have been spent by millions of people all over the world playing computer games. But one of the simplest and most basic games that came standard on most PC computers throughout the 1990s and even into the new millennium is an undisputed classic.

In 2020, National Solitaire Day gained quite a bit of traction when it set its own record for the most number of solitaire games played in one day. In other years, Microsoft has acted as a sponsor for the day by offering special bonuses and double XPs when the game is played on Windows or iOS mobile devices.

Solitaire is a card game played by an individual that can be traced back to somewhere around the 17th century. Some folks assert that the game got its start as a way for an individual to tell their own fortune, using something like tarot cards. This type of game may have originated in the Baltic countries, moved on to Sweden and then eventually throughout the rest of Europe.

Another story claims that the game of solitaire was invented by a French aristocrat who was imprisoned in the Bastille. Still others say that the game was invented by a French mathematician to entertain King Louis XIV. What is known for sure is that a piece of French engraving artwork from 1697 depicts a famous princess playing a game of solitaire.

The first reference to the term “solitaire” in the Oxford English Dictionary was recorded in 1801. By 1826, the first book about the game was published in Russia, featuring a collection of solitaire games. By 1864, when the work Great Expectations was published by Englishman Charles Dickens, one of the characters is playing a game of solitaire which was, at the time, known as Patience.

While several versions of solitaire can be played with cards, the traditional version, Klondike, uses all 52 cards in a traditional deck. The game is played from seven piles and has four foundation rows where cards must be stacked in order, from Ace to King.

National Solitaire Day offers a bit of nostalgia to celebrate this unique and interesting card game – for the competition, for the thrill, and really just for the fun of it!

Solitaire may seem like a simple solo card game, but its history is rich with cultural influence, surprising origins, and even a role in shaping modern technology use.

From European “patience” games to its digital evolution, these facts reveal how solitaire became one of the most enduring games in the world.

Card games recognizable as solitaire appear in Northern European sources from the late 18th century, but the fashion for “patience” games truly took off in the 19th century, especially in France and Britain.

Early printed collections such as “Illustrated Games of Patience” (1870) codified many layouts that are still played today, and English dictionaries started using the term “solitaire” for these one-player card games in the early 1800s.

The familiar solitaire layout most people know as “Solitaire” in the United States is formally called Klondike, and historians generally link its name to the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s in Canada’s Yukon.

Although the exact origin is undocumented, contemporary references and later rulebooks repeatedly associate the game with prospectors and the era’s fascination with the remote Klondike region, suggesting the theme of “digging” for buried winning sequences appealed to players at the time.

When Microsoft bundled Solitaire with Windows 3.0 in 1990, the game was not just a time-killer.

Former Microsoft developers have explained that its drag-and-drop card motion was deliberately chosen to train new computer users to use the mouse, build comfort with clicking, double-clicking, and dragging, and make the graphical interface feel less intimidating.

Over time, this simple training tool became one of the most-played computer games in history.

The digital descendant of the original Windows game, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, still attracts huge numbers of players worldwide.

For its 30th anniversary in 2020, Microsoft reported that the collection had been installed on more than 1 billion devices and that players complete more than 100 million games of solitaire on a typical day, underscoring how a simple patience game has become a global digital pastime.

Klondike looks like a game of pure skill, but computer scientists who simulate billions of deals have shown that many starting positions are mathematically unwinnable because key cards are buried in ways that make it impossible to reach them.

Estimates vary by rule set, but studies using standard “draw three” rules often find win rates under 20 percent even with optimal or near-optimal play, which helps explain why experienced players still lose a majority of their games.

Psychologists sometimes use simple card or digital solitaire-style tasks in studies of attention, mind wandering, and relaxation because the game is low in stakes but requires sustained focus and working memory.

Research on casual computer games suggests that short sessions of these repetitive, structured activities can reduce subjective stress and help people recover from demanding mental tasks, which may contribute to solitaire’s enduring appeal as a “mental break” activity.

Long before computer screens, artists and writers used the image of a lone card player to suggest introspection, boredom, or private obsession.

Nineteenth‑century European paintings often depict women absorbed in patience games, and literary works such as Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations” use solitary card play as a quiet character detail.

These scenes helped cement solitaire as a cultural symbol of contemplation and private pastime rather than public competition.