How to play Mahjong solitaire
- Find two identical tiles and tap them one after the other. A matching pair disappears from the board.
- You can only take a free tile: nothing may lie on top of it, and its left or right side must be open. Tiles that are not free look slightly darker.
- Any two flowers match each other, and so do any two seasons. All other tiles must be exactly the same.
- Clear all 144 tiles to win. Stuck? Hint shows a good pair, Undo takes a move back and Shuffle rearranges the tiles that are left.
- Choose another layout under New game. Turtle is the classic; Tower is tall and narrow, so its tiles are larger on a phone.
Free Mahjong solitaire that can always be solved
Mahjong solitaire is a one-player matching game played with the tiles of the classic Chinese game of Mahjong. There is no hand to build and no opponent: you take the tiles off a stacked layout in pairs until the table is empty. The skill lies in choosing which pair to take, because every move frees some tiles and leaves others buried.
The tiles
A full set has 144 tiles. Three suits run from 1 to 9: Dots (circles), Bamboo (sticks, with the 1 drawn as a bird) and Characters (a Chinese numeral above the red sign for ten thousand). Each of these appears four times. Then come the honors, also four of each: the four Winds (East, South, West and North) and three Dragons (red, green and the white dragon with a blue frame). Finally there are eight bonus tiles, four flowers and four seasons. The small corner marks on Characters and Winds help if you do not read Chinese; you can turn them off in Settings.
Every deal can be won
Purely random deals often end in positions that cannot be cleared at all. Here each deal is built backwards from an empty table, two free tiles at a time, so at least one winning sequence always exists. Shuffle works the same way: it rearranges only the tiles still on the table into an order that can be finished. A careless move can still lock the board, and that is what Undo is for. When no open pair is left, the game tells you and offers a shuffle.
Tips for clearing the board
Take tiles that free the most other tiles first: the top of a stack and the ends of long rows. When three identical tiles are free, think before you choose two of them, because the third may be the only way to reach a hidden fourth. When all four copies are free, take both pairs straight away. Keep an eye on the Moves counter, which shows how many matching pairs are open right now.
Score and time
Each pair is worth 10 points. Pairs taken within four seconds of each other build a combo worth up to 10 extra points. A hint costs 20 points and a shuffle 50. If you clear the board in under 15 minutes, every second you save adds 2 bonus points. Your best time on each layout, your win rate and your win streak are kept only in this browser.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Mahjong game free?
Yes. You can play as much as you like with no sign-up and nothing to install. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers.
Can every game be solved?
Yes. Every deal is built so that at least one winning order exists, and Shuffle also rearranges the tiles into a solvable order. A wrong move can still block the board, so use Undo or Shuffle when you get stuck.
Which tiles match each other?
Two tiles match when they are exactly the same, for example two 5 of Dots or two East Winds. The bonus tiles are the exception: any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season.
What is a free tile?
A tile is free when no tile lies on top of it, even partly, and at least its left or its right side is open. You can only pick free tiles. Turn on the darkening option in Settings to see them at a glance.
Is my game saved if I close the page?
Yes. An unfinished game, your settings and your statistics are stored in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent to a server.