Mahjong Solitaire — free tile matching in your browser

Mahjong solitaire has nothing to do with the four-player gambling game it borrows its tiles from — it is a one-player clearing puzzle invented for computers in 1981. The board here is a symmetrical three-layer mound of 72 tiles, and the whole game is one rule: a tile can be picked up only when nothing is resting on top of it and either its left or its right side is open. Find two identical free tiles, tap them both, and they are gone. Clear all 72 and you win.

Every deal is built to be solvable, so a board never traps you through no fault of your own, and a hint and a shuffle are there when you stall. The clock starts the moment you touch the first tile and your winning time is the score, so this is a race, not a slog. Free, no download, and it plays with one thumb on a phone.

How to play

• Tap a free tile to pick it up, then tap its match to remove the pair. Tapping the same tile again puts it back down.
• Free means: no tile overlapping it from a higher layer, and no tile touching it on at least one side. Blocked tiles are drawn dimmer and shake if you tap them.
• The 72 tiles are 18 designs, four copies of each — circles 1–5, bamboo 1–5, characters 1–5, and the red, green and white dragons. Any two of the same design match.
• 💡 Hint flashes one pair you can take right now. 🔀 Shuffle re-deals the tiles you have left. Both are counted and shown when you win.
• Run out of moves and the game says so and lights up the shuffle button — you are never stuck for good.

The only skill in mahjong solitaire: matching to unblock, not matching to match

Beginners lose boards by taking every pair they see. That feels productive and it is how most games are thrown away, because a match is only worth what it opens up. Two tiles at opposite ends of the bottom row are already free, they are not blocking anything, and removing them changes nothing about the rest of the board. Two tiles buried under the top layer are free the instant that layer comes off, and taking them can unlock four more. The first pair costs you nothing and gains you nothing; the second one moves the game forward. When you have a choice, always take the pair that leaves the most tiles free afterwards, and when you have no choice, take the pair whose removal opens the deepest part of the stack.

The trap that actually ends most runs is subtler. Each design has four copies, which means you are choosing not one pair but which two of four to take — and the two you leave behind can end up stacked directly on top of each other. When that happens the lower one can never be reached, because the only tile that could free it is the one tile you would need to match it with. So before you take a pair, find the other two copies. If they are sitting in different parts of the board, take the pair freely. If they are in the same column of the stack, take one of those two instead and pair it with either of the ones you were about to remove. That single habit is the difference between clearing a board and needing a shuffle.

The last thing worth knowing is where to look. Tiles in the middle rows of the bottom layer are locked on both sides and buried under the layer above, so they come free last and almost always in a rush — work the middle of the stack down early and the endgame opens by itself. Clear the outside edges first and you spend the last third of the run hunting through a solid wall of tiles that only unlocks two at a time.

More games

More patience for the patient: Solitaire and Memory Match. Or browse all games.