Mahjong Solitaire
Mouse and keyboard
- Click a free tile to pick it up, then click its match to take the pair.
- Click the picked-up tile again to put it back.
- Hint lights a pair you can take; Shuffle re-deals what is left; Undo takes back the last pair or shuffle.
Touch
- Tap a free tile, then tap its match. A tap that lands just beside a free tile still takes it, and a pinned tile shakes rather than doing nothing.
- Tap the magnifier to enlarge the board to 1.5× or 2×, then drag it to move around. Tap it again to go back to the full board.
- Tap Hint for a pair, Shuffle when nothing is takeable, Undo to go back a move.
This panel
- F full screen
- M sound on or off
- ? this list
- Esc close, or leave full screen
- The clock stops while the board is off screen
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| Board | Played | Won | Drawn | Win rate | Best | Fastest | Best run |
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Awards for Mahjong Solitaire
- Turtle tamer Clear the mahjong turtle without a shuffle. Needs: the turtle, no shuffle Locked
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About Mahjong Solitaire
144 tiles, one turtle, and a board that can always be cleared.
Mahjong solitaire is not the four-player gambling game; it is the patience game built from its tiles, and it lives or dies on one rule: a tile can only be taken when nothing is on top of it and one of its sides is open.
Most versions pour a shuffled set onto the turtle and hope. Ours is dealt backwards from a finished game, so every board you are given can be cleared — and every board you fail to clear, you failed to clear.
Also searched for as
- mahjong tiles
- mah jong
- mahjongg
- shanghai solitaire
- tile matching
Whichever name you know it by, it is the same game: it runs in this browser, with no download and no sign-up.
Think a rule is wrong?
Tell us and we will check it against the published rules.
How to play Mahjong Solitaire
- The board holds 144 tiles stacked in layers. Take them off two at a time by matching tiles of the same kind.
- A tile can only be taken when it is free: nothing lying on top of it, and no tile against its left or its right long edge. A tile with neighbours on both sides is pinned, however exposed it looks.
- Tap a free tile to pick it up, then tap its match to take the pair away. Tapping a pinned tile shakes it rather than doing nothing.
- Every tile matches its own kind only, with two exceptions: any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season.
- Clear all 144 tiles to win. There is no losing position — if nothing is takeable, shuffle what is left or undo, and keep going.
Strategy that actually helps
- Take from the top and from the ends. A tile in the middle of a long row is pinned even when it is on the top layer, so the pairs that open the most board are the ones on the edges of the highest rows.
- Count before you take. If three of a kind are showing and one of them is buried under a tile you will need to lift later, take the pair that leaves the buried one reachable.
- Keep pairs in reserve. When two identical tiles are both free and neither blocks anything, they are a free move you can spend later — take the pair that is blocking something instead.
- Watch the long rows in the bottom layer. The turtle's base row is twelve tiles wide, and its middle ten can only be freed from the ends, so a pair you take there early is worth more than one from the top.
- Use the Matches counter as a warning, not a target. When it drops to one, look for the move that opens a new pair rather than the one that scores the fastest.
Controls
Mouse and keyboard
- Click a free tile to pick it up, then click its match to take the pair.
- Click the picked-up tile again to put it back.
- Hint lights a pair you can take; Shuffle re-deals what is left; Undo takes back the last pair or shuffle.
Touch
- Tap a free tile, then tap its match. A tap that lands just beside a free tile still takes it, and a pinned tile shakes rather than doing nothing.
- Tap the magnifier to enlarge the board to 1.5× or 2×, then drag it to move around. Tap it again to go back to the full board.
- Tap Hint for a pair, Shuffle when nothing is takeable, Undo to go back a move.
Questions
When can a mahjong tile be taken?
When it is free: no tile rests on top of it and at least one of its long edges, left or right, has no tile touching it. That is the whole rule — everything else in the game follows from it.
Can a mahjong board be impossible to finish?
Not here. The deal is built backwards from a solution: tiles are placed onto positions that are free at the same moment, in pairs, so the order they were placed in is a way to clear the board. If you run out of moves, the shuffle re-deals the survivors the same way.
What do the flower and season tiles match?
Any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season. There are four of each, and they are the only tiles that do not have to match exactly.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The turtle is fifteen tiles wide, so a tile is about 23px on a phone: the magnifier enlarges the board to 1.5× or 2× and you drag it to move around, a tap that lands just beside a free tile still takes it, and the faces switch to bold numerals and letters to stay readable. The pyramid layout is bigger again, and a half-finished board is kept on your device.