How to Play Chinese Solitaire

A Scorpion variation with a small reserve that adds cards to the tableau. Build descending, alternating-color sequences in the tableau and move completed cards up to the foundations.

Setup

1. Deal cards into 7 tableau piles with a custom pattern: the first three piles are fully face up, while the last four piles have a growing number of face-down cards (3 up to 6) beneath their face-up cards.
2. Place the remaining 3 cards in a reserve; clicking it deals a card face up onto the tableau.
3. Foundation piles await Aces.

How to play

• Move face-up cards in the tableau by stacking them in descending order with alternating suit colors (red 6 on black 7, black 5 on red 6).
• You can move groups of face-up cards together, even if they're not in sequence; only the bottom card of the group matters for placement.
• Empty tableau spaces accept only Kings.
• Click the reserve to deal from its 3 cards onto the tableau; this can help expose face-down cards.
• Matching cards automatically move to the foundations once they can no longer help in the tableau; you can change this behavior in Settings if you prefer manual control.
• Build each foundation pile upward in suit sequence (Ace through King).

How to win

Objective: Move every card to the four foundation piles, one suit per pile, starting with Aces.

You win when all cards are on the foundations. You're stuck when remaining cards are blocked and no moves are available.

Tips

• The reserve deal is limited (3 cards total)—use it strategically to expose face-down cards that unlock sequences.
• Work to clear at least one tableau column early by moving a King and its sequence off; an empty column is valuable since only a King can start it again.
• Exposing face-down cards is often more important than advancing the foundations.

Play Chinese free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Chinese alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the Scorpion family:

• Scorpion — Scorpion blends Spider's strict sequences with Yukon's flexible group moves.
• Sevastopol — Sevastopol is an easier variant of Kiev.
• Chelicera — A Scorpion-style solitaire where you arrange each tableau pile into a same-suit descending run starting from a King.