How to play Mahjong Solitaire
The board holds all 144 tiles of a mahjong set, stacked into the classic turtle. Your job is to take them off in matching pairs. A tile is only available - free - when nothing is resting on top of it and either its left or its right edge is clear, so it could slide out sideways.
Identical tiles match. The one exception is the bonus tiles: any of the four flowers matches any other flower, and any season matches any season, which is worth remembering when you are down to the last few.
Reading the board
- Dimmed tiles are blocked. They are covered, or hemmed in on both sides. There is no point hunting for their match yet.
- Work top down. Every tile you take off the upper layers frees several beneath it, while clearing the outer edges first tends to strand the middle.
- Mind the fours. When all four of a kind are visible you can take either pair; when only two are, check whether taking them buries the other two.
- Undo is not cheating. A dead end means the order was wrong, not the board - back up and take a different pair.
Every board can be cleared
A randomly-shuffled mahjong board is often impossible, and you cannot tell until you are stuck with two unmatched tiles - a miserable way to lose. So these boards are dealt by playing the game in reverse: two free spaces are chosen at a time and a matching pair dropped into them, over and over until the turtle is full. Run that sequence backwards and the board clears, so a winning line always exists.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play Mahjong Solitaire?
Remove the 144 tiles in matching pairs. A tile can only be taken if it is free: nothing resting on top of it, and no tile immediately to its left or immediately to its right. Clear every tile to win.
Which tiles match?
Identical tiles match - two 5 of circles, two east winds, and so on. The exceptions are the flowers and the seasons: any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season, even though the four pictures differ.
Why can I not take a tile I can see?
Because one of its long sides is blocked. A tile needs a clear left OR right edge to slide out, so a tile in the middle of a row is stuck even though nothing is on top of it. Blocked tiles are dimmed on this board so you can see at a glance what is actually available.
Can a board be impossible?
Not one of ours. The tiles are laid down by playing the game backwards - taking two free spaces at a time and dropping a matching pair into them - so reversing that sequence always clears the board. You can still reach a dead end by taking pairs in the wrong order, which is the puzzle; undo as far as you need.
What is the strategy?
Work from the top down and take tiles that free up others. Where three or four of a kind are showing, take the pair that unblocks the most, and be careful about removing a pair that leaves its two twins buried under the same stack.
More solitaire
For the card kind try Klondike, Spider or Pyramid. For pegs rather than tiles, Peg Solitaire.