History of Spider Solitaire
Spider Solitaire takes its name from the eight foundation piles required to win — one for each leg of a spider. The game has roots in nineteenth-century patience traditions but became widely known when Microsoft bundled it with Windows 98 in 1998, complete with the three difficulty settings — 1 suit, 2 suits, and 4 suits — that most players still recognize today.
Spider uses two standard 52-card decks (104 cards total). Because all eight foundations must be completed, the game is considerably longer than single-deck solitaires and rewards sustained concentration rather than quick tactical decisions.
Full rules
The 104 cards are dealt into ten tableau columns — four columns of six and six columns of five. Only the top card of each column is face-up; all others start face-down. The remaining 50 cards form a stock that deals one card to each column when the player chooses to draw.
Tableau columns build downward in rank. You may place any card on any card one rank higher, regardless of suit. However, only a same-suit sequence can be moved as a unit. When a complete King-through-Ace sequence of the same suit is formed anywhere in the tableau, it is automatically removed to a foundation. Win all eight suits to finish the game.
1-suit, 2-suit, and 4-suit Spider
The three difficulty modes are genuinely different games. In 1-suit Spider, every legal move tends to be a useful move — suit compatibility is irrelevant, so organizing columns is the only challenge. In 4-suit Spider, the majority of legal moves are traps: building a mixed-suit sequence creates future work that costs empty columns to undo.
Use the Rules button above to switch difficulty or switch to a different Spider variant entirely.
How Spider differs from Klondike
Klondike builds toward four foundations by moving cards upward suit-by-suit. Spider builds toward eight foundations by assembling entire K–A runs in the tableau first, then removing them. In Klondike, the stock provides one card at a time. In Spider, the stock deal adds one card to every column simultaneously — which can bury useful positions if you deal at the wrong moment.
Read the full Spider strategy guide →
How Spider compares
All variants are available from the Rules button above — no need to navigate to a separate page. A brief summary of what each changes:
- Relaxed Spider — stock can be dealt with empty columns, which the new row fills
- Spiderette — one deck, seven columns; faster and tighter
- Will O’ the Wisp — one deck, seven equal-depth columns
- Simple Simon — all cards face-up at the start; no stock pressure
- Mrs. Mop — two decks, all cards face-up; the longest open-information variant
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Spider is part of The Web · Spider & Scorpion.
More Spider & Scorpion games
- Beetle — Two-deck Spider cousin with ten columns.
- Mrs. Mop — Two-deck open Spider, all face-up.
- Relaxed Spider — Spider with relaxed redeal rule.
- Simple Simon — Open-information Spider with no stock.
- Spiderette — One-deck Spider with 7-column layout.
- Will O’ the Wisp — Spiderette-style with a 3×7 opening deal.
Also try
- Babette (Blockade games) — Two-deck blockade with ascending and descending suit foundations.
- Big Ben (Layout, cross & clock-face games) — Clock-face foundations building by suit.
- Miss Milligan (Miss Milligan & row dealers) — Double-deck patience with a weave reserve.
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