How to play Mahjong Solitaire

Clear the turtle by matching free tiles in pairs — 144 tiles, five layers, always solvable.

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Mahjong Solitaire uses the tiles of the four-player game for a puzzle for one. A hundred and forty-four tiles are stacked five layers deep into the classic turtle layout, and you take them apart two at a time.

When a tile is free

A tile can be taken only when nothing rests on top of it and at least one of its long edges — left or right — is clear.

That is the whole rule, and it is why most of the board is locked at any moment. A tile in the middle of a row with neighbours on both sides is unavailable even though you can see it perfectly well. Every pair you remove changes what is reachable, which is what makes the order of removal the entire game.

Matching

Take two identical free tiles to clear them.

The set is the standard one: three suits numbered one to nine — circles, bamboo and characters — plus four winds, three dragons, four flowers and four seasons.

Flowers and seasons are the exception to "identical". Any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season. The rest must be exact.

Winning and losing

Clear all one hundred and forty-four tiles to win.

You lose by running out of legal moves with tiles still on the board, which happens more easily than beginners expect. Shuffle rearranges what is left, and undo steps back so you can take a different line.

The one habit that decides most games

Do not take the first pair you see.

Because removing a tile only ever frees others, it is tempting to clear greedily. The trap is that many tiles exist in four copies, and taking the wrong two of the four can strand the other two under a stack you can no longer reach.

So before matching a pair, look for all four copies. If three are free and one is buried, take the two that unlock the most rather than the two nearest your cursor — and if two of the four are stacked directly on top of one another, that pair is the one to take, because they can only ever be matched with each other or wasted.

Reading the board

Work top down and outside in. The upper layers block everything beneath them, so a tile on layer five is worth more than a tile on layer one even when the layer-one match is more obvious.

Long rows are the other thing to watch. The turtle has rows where only the two end tiles are free, so a row of eight releases its tiles two at a time and is the slowest structure on the board. Starting those rows early keeps options open later.

Pay attention to what is left rather than what is available. Late in a game the question is never "what can I match" but "what will still be matchable in five moves".

Controls

Click or tap a free tile to select it, then click its match to clear the pair. H hint, S shuffle, U undo, N new game.

Strategy tips

Find all four copies before you take a pair. Matching the wrong two can strand the other two under a stack and lose the board.
When two copies of a tile are stacked directly on top of each other, take that pair. They can only match each other, so leaving them costs you both.
Work from the top layer down. Tiles on the upper layers block everything under them, so freeing them is worth more than an easy match at the bottom.
Start the long rows early. A row where only the ends are free gives up two tiles a turn, so it is the slowest part of the board and the worst thing to leave until late.
Ask what will be matchable in five moves, not what is matchable now. Greedy clearing is how a winnable layout becomes a dead one.
Leave flowers and seasons for when you need them. Any flower matches any flower, so they are your most flexible tiles and worth holding as a way out.
Undo rather than shuffle when you can. Undo takes you back to a real decision point; a shuffle changes the puzzle and throws away what you had worked out.
Scan the whole board before every match. The free tiles change completely after each pair, and the best move is rarely next to the last one.