Mahjong Solitaire

The single-player tile-matching puzzle. Clear the Classic Turtle by removing matching pairs of free tiles — 144 tiles, 72 pairs, and a board that always starts with at least one way through. Free, in your browser, with hints and unlimited undo.

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How to play Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire is a puzzle for one player. The 144 tiles of a traditional Mahjong set are stacked into a formation — here the Classic Turtle — and you remove them two at a time by matching a tile with another of the same face. Clear all 144 and you have won.

It is not the four-player game of Mahjong. The two share a tile set and nothing else: there is no wall, no hand, no drawing or discarding, no melds and no scoring here. If you came looking for the rules of the four-player game, this is a different game that happens to use the same beautiful tiles.

What makes a tile free

This is the rule the whole game turns on. You may only remove a tile that is free, and a tile is free when both of these are true:

Nothing on top: No tile anywhere above it overlaps it — not even partly, and not even a tile that sits half-over the join between two others.
One long side open: Its left edge or its right edge has no tile against it. Only the long sides count: neighbours above and below it in the same layer do not block it.

A tile boxed in on both sides is stuck until one of its neighbours leaves, and a buried tile is stuck until everything resting on it is gone. Tap a blocked tile at any time and the table will tell you which of the two is the problem.

What matches what

Circles, Bamboo, Characters, Winds and Dragons match only their exact twin: Seven of Bamboo goes with Seven of Bamboo, East Wind with East Wind. There are four copies of each of those faces.

The Flowers and Seasons are the exception, and it catches everyone out the first time. Only one of each exists — one Plum, one Orchid, one Chrysanthemum, one Bamboo Flower; one Spring, one Summer, one Autumn, one Winter — so they could never be removed under the ordinary rule. Instead:

Any Flower matches any Flower: Plum with Orchid is a legal pair. So is Chrysanthemum with Bamboo Flower.
Any Season matches any Season: Spring with Winter is a legal pair. So is Summer with Autumn.
A Flower never matches a Season: They are two separate groups of four. Plum with Spring is not a pair.

Every board starts solvable

Tiles are not scattered onto the Turtle at random. Each board is built backwards from a complete solution, so every new board has at least one way to clear it. You are never handed a puzzle that cannot be finished.

That promise is about the starting position, and the distinction matters. Your own choices can still paint you into a corner: take the wrong pair early and two tiles you needed can end up stacked one on the other, where they can never both be free at once. When that happens the table says No moves — not that you lost, because the board was always winnable — and Undo takes you back to try a different line.

There is deliberately no Shuffle button. Rearranging a stuck board without proving the result can still be finished would quietly break the promise above, and it would take away the thing that makes the puzzle a puzzle. Undo and Restart are the honest ways out.

Hint and Undo

Hint: Points at one legal pair, chosen for how much of the board it opens up. It never removes anything for you, and asking twice about the same board gives the same answer.
Undo: Takes back one pair at a time, as far back as you like. This is the way out of a dead end.
Restart: The same board again from the beginning — useful when you want to solve the puzzle you were given rather than a different one.
New game: A different board, freshly dealt.

If you are just starting

Work from the top down. A tile high on the pile is blocking several beneath it; a tile at the edge of the bottom layer is usually blocking nobody.
Prefer the pair that opens the most. Two removals that free four other tiles are worth far more than two that free none, even if the second pair is easier to spot.
Count before you take. When three or four copies of a face are showing, taking two is safe. When only two are left, look at where they are — if one sits on top of the other, removing anything that traps them there ends the board.
Keep your options wide. Having several possible matches at once is what lets you choose a good one. Spending your only available pair to no purpose is how boards get stuck.
Use Hint when you are stuck, and Undo when a line dies. Neither costs you anything — there is no score here to protect.

None of this guarantees a clear. Good play makes a dead end much less likely, not impossible.

The rules at this table

Tile set: The full traditional 144: Circles, Bamboo and Characters 1–9 with four copies each, four Winds, three Dragons, four Flowers and four Seasons.
Layout: Classic Turtle — 144 tiles over five levels.
Score: None. Clearing the board is the whole objective.
Timer: Counts up, for interest only. Nothing is ever timed out.

More solo puzzles: Solitaire, Spider Solitaire and FreeCell — all free, all in the browser.