How to Play Chinese Spider Solitaire

A three-suit Spider where you build long runs on the tableau and complete sequences go to the foundations. Fewer suits mean more cards in each run.

Setup

1. Shuffle four decks and deal 72 cards into 12 tableau piles, 6 cards per pile
2. All but the top card in each pile face down
3. The stock holds the remaining 84 cards, dealt one card onto each pile at a time

How to play

• Build tableau piles down by rank, any suit allowed for individual moves
• Only move a sequence as a unit when all cards in it match suit
• Move cards or sequences onto any tableau pile with one rank higher
• An empty tableau pile accepts any card
• Deal from the stock at any time as long as no tableau pile is empty; it adds one card to every pile
• Once you've assembled a complete 13-card run in one suit, move it as a unit to a foundation pile

How to win

Objective: Arrange every tableau pile into one ordered run from King down to Ace; completed runs can then be sent up to the foundations

You win once every tableau pile is arranged into a single ordered run. The game ends if the stock (one pass only) runs out and unresolved sequences remain.

Tips

• Don't rush to separate sequences—keep cards together in suit to move complete runs to the foundations
• Expose face-down cards by strategically removing face-up cards from piles
• Create empty piles near the end to maneuver your final sequences into place

Play Chinese Spider free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Chinese Spider 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 Spider family:

• Spider — Ten tableau piles let you stack cards downward in rank no matter their suit, but a run only travels as a group when every card in it shares one suit.
• Spider Three Deck — This variant scales Spider up to three shuffled decks and twelve tableau piles, giving you a longer haul toward filling twelve suit-ordered foundations.
• Tarantula — A friendlier take on Spider where matching color, not matching suit, is enough to move a sequence together.
• Big Spider — This oversized Spider deals three decks across 13 tableau piles, most cards face down.
• Black Widow — This friendlier take on Spider uses two decks and lets you move tableau sequences even when their suits are mixed.