Mahjong Solitaire

How to Play Mahjong Solitaire

What Is Mahjong Solitaire?

Mahjong Solitaire is a single-player matching game played with a set of 144 beautifully decorated tiles. It borrows the tiles from the traditional four-player Chinese game of mahjong, but the rules are completely different and much simpler: there are no opponents, no scoring hands, and no turns. The tiles are stacked into a layered pattern on the table, and your goal is to clear the whole board by removing tiles two at a time in matching pairs. It is a calm, thoughtful puzzle that rewards patience and a good eye.

The Tile Set

A full mahjong set contains 144 tiles, and every one of them appears on the board. The set breaks down into a few easy groups:

• Dots (also called Circles). Nine tiles numbered 1 to 9, each showing that many circles. There are four copies of each, for 36 tiles.
• Bamboo. Nine tiles numbered 1 to 9, decorated with bamboo sticks (the 1 of Bamboo traditionally shows a bird). Four copies of each, for another 36 tiles.
• Characters. Nine tiles numbered 1 to 9, marked with Chinese number characters. Four copies of each, for 36 more tiles.
• Winds. Four different tiles named East, South, West, and North, with four copies of each, for 16 tiles.
• Dragons. Three different tiles, Red, Green, and White, with four copies of each, for 12 tiles.
• Flowers. Four tiles, each showing a different flower. There is only one copy of each.
• Seasons. Four tiles, one for each season of the year. Again, only one copy of each.

Add it all up and you get 144 tiles: 108 suit tiles, 16 Winds, 12 Dragons, 4 Flowers, and 4 Seasons.

The Turtle Layout

The tiles are arranged in the classic layout known as the Turtle, named for its shape: a wide body with stubby legs at the corners and a head and tail sticking out at the sides. The Turtle is built in five layers. The bottom layer is the largest, and each layer above it is smaller, ending with a single tile resting on the very top of the pile, like the peak of a small pyramid. Because tiles sit on top of other tiles, many of them are hidden or trapped at the start, and part of the puzzle is peeling the layers away in the right order.

Which Tiles Can You Play? The Free-Tile Rule

You may only remove tiles that are free. A tile is free when two things are true at the same time: no tile rests on top of it, and at least one of its two long sides, the left side or the right side, is fully open. A concrete example makes this clear. Picture a row of three tiles sitting side by side. The tile in the middle has a neighbor pressed against its left side and another against its right side, so it is locked, even though nothing sits on top of it. The tiles at the two ends of the row each have one open side, so they are free. And the single tile on the very top of the Turtle has nothing above it and nothing beside it, so it is always free from the first moment of the game.

Matching Pairs

Tiles are removed in pairs, and a pair must match. For most of the set, matching means identical: a 3 of Bamboo only matches another 3 of Bamboo, an East Wind only matches another East Wind, and a Red Dragon only matches another Red Dragon. There is one friendly exception. The four Flower tiles are all different, but any Flower matches any other Flower. The same goes for the Seasons: any Season tile matches any other Season tile. This special rule exists because there is only one copy of each Flower and each Season in the set.

Solvable Deals and the Reshuffle Button

Every deal on this site is generated so that it can be solved from the start; there is always at least one path that clears the whole board. However, you can still trap yourself by removing pairs in the wrong order and burying a tile you needed. If that happens, the Reshuffle button rearranges the tiles that are still on the board so you can keep playing. Using Reshuffle counts against a perfect game, but it is far better than abandoning a puzzle you have nearly finished.

How You Win, and How You Get Stuck

You win by removing all 144 tiles from the board. You get stuck when no two free tiles match. Since every deal starts out solvable, running out of moves always comes from removal order, and choosing the right order is the whole skill of the game. When you hit a dead end, you can Undo your way back to the wrong turn, or use Reshuffle and press on.

Playing on This Site

The controls are simple. Tap or click a free tile to select it, then tap its matching tile to remove the pair. If you change your mind, tap the selected tile again to deselect it. The buttons above the board give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint that points out a matching pair, and Reshuffle for emergencies. Undo is unlimited, so you can rewind as far as you like and try a different order. Every deal also has a seed number, so you can replay the exact same layout later or share it with a friend to see who clears it first.

Mahjong Solitaire Strategy & Tips

Attack the Big Obstacles First

Not all tiles are equal. A tile sitting alone at the edge of the board blocks nothing, while a tile in the middle of a long row or at the top of a tall stack holds many others hostage. Give your early moves to the tiles that free the most neighbors.

• Work the top of the pyramid early. Every tile you remove from the upper layers uncovers tiles below it, and the single peak tile should almost always go as soon as you can pair it.
• Chip away at the far left and far right ends of the long middle rows. These rows are the slowest part of the Turtle to clear, because each tile only becomes free when its outer neighbor leaves. Starting them early keeps them from becoming a bottleneck late in the game.
• When two possible pairs are on offer, prefer the one that opens up stacked or rowed tiles over one that only clears loose tiles at the edges.

Choose the Right Pair When Three Are Free

Every tile has four copies, so you will often see three copies of the same tile free at once. You can only remove two of them, and the choice matters. Look at what sits underneath and beside each copy, and remove the two tiles that unlock the most new tiles. The third copy will still be waiting when its twin appears later.

The Four-of-a-Kind Rule

Here is the one situation where you should slow down and count. If all four copies of a tile are visible on the board, do not pair them carelessly. Pair them so that no copy ends up buried or blocked by your own choice: match each copy with the partner that leaves the remaining two in a playable position. When all four are free at the same time, take all four off in two quick pairs; that removes the tile from the puzzle entirely and can never come back to haunt you. Removing one wrong pair from a visible four can leave the last two copies stacked on top of each other or locked in the same row, which is a dead end you built yourself.

Look Before You Match

• Scan the whole board before each move rather than grabbing the first pair you spot. A slower pace costs nothing in this game; there is no clock pushing you.
• Try to keep several different tile types in play among your free tiles. A board full of free tiles that all belong to different pairs is healthy; a board where your free tiles are all singles is a warning sign.
• Use Hint sparingly. It will show you a legal pair, but it does not know your plan, and leaning on it teaches you very little. Save it for the moments when you are sure you have missed something.

Before You Reshuffle, Think One Pair Ahead

When the board looks dead, check twice. Ask whether removing any available pair, even an unappealing one, would free a new tile and restart the chain. Often one modest match reopens the game. If you truly have no pair at all, Undo back a few moves and try a different order; that keeps your perfect game alive. Treat Reshuffle as the last resort, not the first, and your win rate, and your satisfaction, will climb.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Solitaire Games