The History of Solitaire

As with many popular card games, the true origins of solitaire have never been confirmed. Many historians credit the first record of solitaire to European roots, more specifically to 18th century Scandinavia before the game gained traction in 19th century France and England where it was known as ‘Patience.’ Many sources state that solitaire was a favourite pastime of the French military leader, Napolean Bonaparte, during his exile on the island of St. Helena after his defeat to the British at the Battle of Waterloo, however, there is no real proof for this. There are now many variations of the game that are named after Napolean and the island of St. Helena.

Although solitaire’s European ancestry is widely accepted, Europe has only ever been confirmed as the “first known record” of the game. The actual origins of solitaire could actually trace back to the Tang dynasty in China, where the first playing cards were developed around the 9th or 10th century. The very concept of playing cards made its way over to Europe some 300 years later, after passing through the important trade routes of India, Persia and Egypt, meaning it is very difficult for historians to correctly estimate an exact time period and geographical location for the invention of the solitaire game.

Nonetheless, as communication began to increase across the globe, solitaire became a true staple in the ranks of legendary card games as it gave players the ability to play by themselves for long periods of time, whilst making refinements to their technique and ultimately improving their speed. Today the most popular version of solitaire is also known as Klondike Solitaire and Classic Solitaire.

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It wasn’t until 1990 that the game truly became a global phenomenon when Microsoft Intern,   Wes Cherry, created the script for the game which was released to the world via the Microsoft Windows operating system. The original author of the game is Wes Cherry and the initial release date was May 22, 1990. Microsoft included free solitaire card games in their Windows product line. The intention of Microsoft Solitaire was to ease users into the operating system as at the time, many people were not used to graphical user interfaces. The game allowed users to get accustomed to the mouse and familiarized them to general methods needed to play the game such as clicking and dragging and dropping. This also took the pain out of manually laying out cards and put solitaire in the hands of the wider public, who then also had a method to cure their boredom and effectively procrastinate. They enjoyed endless hours of the card game whilst comfortably playing via a graphical user interface on their desktop machines.

This much-loved version of solitaire by Microsoft is no longer played as much since Microsoft stopped it from being an integral part of the Windows release as of Windows 8 in 2012.

Solitaire is a fantastic way to pass time. Although it’s a relatively old game, thousands of people still love playing. Play Spider Solitaire, FreeCell, and other online solitaire card games now!