How to play Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire is a quiet game of matching. The 144 tiles of a mahjong set are stacked in a shape, and you take them away two at a time. Find two tiles with the same picture, tap one and then the other, and they leave the table. Clear every tile and you win. It shares its tiles with the four-player game of mahjong, but nothing else: there are no hands to build and no rules to memorize.

Which tiles you can take

Only free tiles can be taken. A tile is free when two things are true:

Nothing lies on top of it, not even a corner of a tile on the floor above.
It could slide out to the left or to the right. A tile with neighbors on both sides is stuck until one of them is gone.

Tiles above and below do not block a tile, only the ones on its left and right. Blocked tiles look a little darker, so you can see at a glance which ones are free. You can turn that off under Settings.

What makes a pair

The same picture. Two 3 of Dots, two East Winds, two Red Dragons. There are four of each, so every picture makes two pairs.
Any two flowers. The four flower tiles (plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo) are all different, and any two of them match.
Any two seasons. Spring, summer, autumn and winter work the same way.

The tiles

Dots, Bamboo and Characters run from 1 to 9. The small number in the corner tells you which is which.
Winds: East, South, West and North, with a letter in the corner.
Dragons: red, green and white. The white dragon is the empty blue frame.
Flowers and seasons: one of each, with pictures.

Two layouts

The Turtle is the classic shape that most people know: 144 tiles in five floors, with a single tile on top and one tile at each end of the middle rows. The Pyramid is shorter, 82 tiles in four floors, and narrow enough to give you bigger tiles on a phone. Pick one under Settings.

Every board can be cleared

Every board is dealt so that it can be cleared all the way. Whether you do depends on the pairs you pick: the order matters, and a careless pair can leave a tile sitting on its own partner. If you get stuck with no free pairs, Shuffle gives the tiles that are left new places, arranged again so the rest can be cleared. You can also Undo as far back as you like.

Tips that clear more boards

Open up the tall stacks first. The tiles on the higher floors cover the most tiles below them.
Work the long rows from their ends. A long row frees one tile at a time from each end, so start early.
Mind the three of a kind. When three matching tiles are free, the fourth is often under or beside one of them. Take that one in your pair and keep the other free.
When all four are free, take both pairs. Nothing else can need them.
Prefer pairs that set other tiles free. A pair at the edge of the table opens up less than a pair from the middle of a stack.
Use Hint when you are unsure. It looks ahead for a way to clear the whole board and lights up the next pair on that way.

Today's board

Every day there is one Daily Board, a Turtle that is the same for every player. Clear it as fast as you can and see how your time compares with everyone else who played today. Your first finish of the day is the one that counts.

Questions

Is this the same as mahjong? It uses the same tiles. Mahjong itself is a game for four players with hands, draws and scoring. This is a solitaire game: just you and the tiles.

Why can I not take this tile? It is either covered by a tile on the floor above, or it has tiles on both its left and right. Tap it and we will tell you which.

Does Shuffle cost anything? No. It is counted and shown at the end, but there is no penalty.

Do I need an account? No. Your games, streak and settings stay in this browser. A free account keeps them on every device.