Mahjong Solitaire
Play Mahjong Solitaire Online for Free
Empty the table, two matching tiles at a time. A tile is free to take when nothing lies on it and its left or right side is open.
How to play
Choose a layout on the start screen (Medium is already picked) and press Play.
- Tap a free tile, then a free tile with the same face. Both come off.
- A tile that is covered or boxed in can’t be taken yet. Tap it and the game says which.
- Clear every tile. Each layout keeps your best time.
Hint shows a pair that keeps every tile clearable; on Classic it can now and then only show a free pair. Undo goes back as far as the deal.
Shuffle opens only when no pair can be taken or a hint finds no way through, and lays the tiles out again so they can be cleared. When the last few tiles are mostly in one stack, no layout can clear them; use Undo.
On an upright phone, Classic’s tiles take two taps; turn the phone on its side for bigger ones.
Controls
| Action | Touch | Mouse | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pick a tile, then its match | Tap it (a small tile: tap it twice) | Click it (a small tile: click it twice) | Enter or Space on the focused tile |
| Put a picked tile back | Tap it again | Click it again | Enter or Space again |
| Move between free tiles | With small tiles, the arrow buttons, then Pick | With small tiles, the arrow buttons, then Pick | Arrow keys or W, A, S, D; Home and End go to the first and last free tile |
| Hint | Hint | Hint | H |
| Undo | Undo | Undo | Z |
| Shuffle, once it opens | Shuffle | Shuffle | Tab to Shuffle, then Enter |
| Pause or resume | Pause button | Pause button | Esc |
Tips and strategy
A computer player that never undoes or shuffles tried each habit below on 1,000 deals of each layout.
Take the pair that leaves the most open pairs
Open pairs counts the pairs you can take now. Take the one that leaves that count highest. On Medium that cleared 89% of deals, against 81% for random pairs.
Take a face whose tiles are all free
When every tile left of one face is free, the last two or all four, take them first. They can only go with each other, so taking them never turns a board you could clear into a dead end. Added to the first habit, it took Classic from 41% with random pairs to 60%.
On Small and Medium, work from the top
Taking the pair on the highest layer first cleared 92% of Medium deals. On Classic it did worse than random pairs, so use the first two habits there.
About mahjong solitaire
Brodie Lockard wrote the first computer version in 1981, on the PLATO teaching system, and named it after the four-player game whose tiles it uses. Classic here is the full set of 144 tiles in the pyramid many versions call the turtle: 5 layers with one tile on top.
Frequently asked questions
- Can every mahjong solitaire deal here be cleared?
- Yes. Each deal is built backwards from a way to clear it, so if you get stuck, it was the order you took the pairs in. Undo a few moves and try another.
- Why can't I take a tile that has nothing on top of it?
- It is boxed in: tiles on its own layer touch both its sides. A tile half a row up or down counts, so on Classic the tile at the left end of the middle blocks two rows at once.
- Do flowers match seasons?
- No. Any flower matches any other flower, and any season any other season. Every other tile needs the same face.
- When does the daily deal change?
- At midnight UTC. Until then everyone gets the same 72 tiles on Medium, and New game deals them again. A half-done daily is saved, but only until the change.
- Is mahjong solitaire the same game as mahjong?
- No. It uses the same tiles, but you play alone, taking them off in matching pairs, and your result is a time.
