How to Play Mahjong Solitaire
Mahjong Solitaire is a relaxing single-player puzzle played with 144 traditional Chinese mahjong tiles. Despite the shared name, it has nothing to do with the four-player gambling game — there are no opponents, no dice, and no scoring hands. Your only job is to clear every tile from the board by removing matching pairs.
The goal
Remove all 144 tiles. Tiles are stacked in four layers in a turtle shape. You win the moment the board is empty.
What makes a tile "free"?
A tile can only be selected when it is free. A tile is free when:
- No other tile is stacked on top of it, and
- At least one of its left or right long edges is not touching another tile.
A tile sandwiched between a left and a right neighbour on the same layer is blocked — even if nothing sits on top of it. Free tiles are shown brighter; blocked tiles are slightly dimmed.
Matching tiles
Click a free tile to select it, then click a second free tile that matches. The pair is removed. Most tiles must be identical to match — the 5 of bamboo only matches another 5 of bamboo. There are two special groups:
- Flowers (plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum) — any flower matches any other flower.
- Seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter) — any season matches any other season.
The tile set
- Circles / Dots (Pin) — numbered 1 to 9, four of each.
- Bamboo (Sou) — numbered 1 to 9, four of each.
- Characters (Man) — numbered 1 to 9, four of each.
- Winds — East, South, West, North, four of each.
- Dragons — Red, Green, White, four of each.
- Flowers & Seasons — eight bonus tiles, matched by group.
Controls
- New Game — deal a brand-new, guaranteed-solvable board.
- Restart — replay the current board from the start.
- Undo — take back your last move (as many times as you like).
- Hint — highlight one available matching pair.
- Shuffle — rearrange the remaining tiles if you run out of moves.
Strategy to win more often
- Take tiles off the top layers first to expose what is underneath.
- Open the long bottom rows from the ends; corner tiles unlock the most options.
- When you can remove a tile in more than one way, keep the match that frees the most new tiles.
- Watch the "Pairs open" counter — if it drops toward zero, slow down and plan.