Spider is a type of

patience or forbearance, is the ability to endure difficult or undesired long-term circumstances. Patience involves perseverance or tolerance in the face of delay, provocation, or stress without responding negatively, such as reacting with disrespect ...

game, and is one of the more popular two-deck solitaire games. The game originated in 1949, and its name comes from a spider's eight legs, referencing the eight foundation piles that must be filled in order to win.

Rules

The main purpose of the game is to remove all cards from the table, assembling them in the

tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; : tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled '' Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * '' Tableau ...

before removing them. Initially, 54 cards are dealt to the tableau in ten piles, face down except for the top cards. The tableau piles build down by rank, and in-suit sequences can be moved together. The 50 remaining cards can be dealt to the tableau ten at a time when none of the piles are empty. A typical Spider layout requires the use of two decks. The tableau consists of 10 stacks, with 6 cards in the first 4 stacks, with the 6th card face up, and 5 cards in the remaining 6 stacks, with the 5th card face up. Each time the stock is used, it deals out one card to each stack.

Variants

Given its popularity, numerous Spider variants exist: SpideretteByTesseractMobile

* Spider 2 Suit: Same as classic Spider solitaire, except this game is played with only 2 suits instead of 4, usually Spades and Hearts. * Spider 1 Suit: Same as classic Spider solitaire, except this game is played with only 1 suit instead of 4, usually Spades. * Relaxed Spider: Does not require all spaces to be filled before redealing * Spiderette: Only one pack, a Klondike layout with 7 stacks ranging from 1 to 7 cards in each * Will o' the Wisp is another solitaire card game which was invented by

Geoffrey Mott-Smith The Mott-Smith Trophy, named for writer and cryptographer Geoffrey Mott-Smith, is awarded to the player with the best overall individual performance in the Spring Nationals, the spring event of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North Ame ...

and is played the same way as Spiderette. The exception is that on the onset, twenty-one cards are dealt into seven columns of three with only the top card of each column face-up. * Simple Simon is another common one-deck variant of Spider. *

Mrs. Mop Mrs. Mop is a Patience_(game), patience or Solitaire (game), solitaire card game which is played using two decks of playing cards. Invented by Charles Jewell, it is a relative of the solitaire game Spider (solitaire), Spider in which all of the c ...

is a Spider relative in which all the cards are dealt face-up.

Software

Implementations

Common software versions of Spider are included with versions of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Vista Vista may refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 * VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) a medical records system of the United States ...

, ME and XP as Spider Solitaire. Spider Solitaire was introduced in the

Microsoft Plus! 98 Microsoft Plus! is a discontinued commercial operating system enhancement product by Microsoft. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications. The Mic ...

addition pack for

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

. The game comes in three versions of difficulty: 1, 2, or 4 suits. These play modes are equivalent to disregarding suit difference, either within the colors or altogether, and thus can be simulated in the physical card game, though the computer version aids visibility by representing all cards as spades and/or hearts. An earlier version was written for Windows 3.x in 1991 by John A. Junod, the original developer of

WS_FTP WinSock File Transfer Protocol, or WS_FTP, is a secure file transfer software package produced by Ipswitch, Inc. Ipswitch is a Massachusetts-based software producer established in 1991 that focuses on networking and file sharing. WS_FTP consis ...

. The final version was Windows Spider Solitaire version 92.01.04. He also wrote a

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

version called EGA-Spider with version up to 93.07.05. A similar game called Arachnid was also written for Windows 3.x in 1991 by Ian Heath, a computer science professor at the University of Southampton in the UK. The latest known version is 1.2. This game was also re-written for 32-bit operating systems and is referred to as Arachnid 32. On

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

operating systems, an early version was developed around 1989 at

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

. A version of Spider Solitaire typically comes bundled with both the

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma gra ...

and

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

desktop environments on other

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X, *nix or *NIX) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Uni ...

operating systems such as Linux and BSD, under the names KPatience and

AisleRiot An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible. Definition and differentiation Not all open-source games ...

Solitaire, respectively.

Scoring

Different software implementations of spider offer alternative scoring rules. The version from

from 1989 defines the following rules in the manual: 10 points for each initially face down card that gets turned over; 15 additional points for each column where all the face-down cards have been turned over (even if you don't manage to get a space); 2 points for each card that is sitting atop the next higher card of the same suit; 50 points for each completed suit removed from the tableau (in which case you do not also score for the 12 cards sitting atop next higher cards). This yields a maximum score of 990. If you win the game with 4 or more completed suits still in the tableau, add 2 points for each suit after the first three. Thus winning with all eight suits still in the tableau yields a score of 1000. In the Windows versions of Spider Solitaire, the scoring is calculated with a starting score of 500. One point is subtracted for each move (including any use of an

undo Undo is an interaction technique which is implemented in many computer programs. It erases the last change done to the document, reverting it to an older state. In some more advanced programs, such as graphic processing, undo will negate the las ...

); 100 points are added for each in-suit stack completed.

Solvability

A detailed study has been done on the solvability of Spider solitaire games using software. Winning chances in a normal game with good play are considered to be about 1 in 3 games."Spider" (p.205) in ''Hoyle's Rules of Games'' (3rd edition) by Philip D. Morehead (ed.), 2001.