Mahjong Solitaire

How to play Mahjong Solitaire

The board is a stack of 84 mahjong tiles in four layers. Clear it by removing matching pairs. Tap a tile to select it, then tap an identical tile to remove both.

You can only pick a tile that is free. A tile is free when no tile sits on top of it, even partly, and at least one of its long sides, left or right, is open. Blocked tiles are shaded darker so you can see at a glance which tiles are in play. The two single tiles on the far left and right block the middle rows until you remove them.

Every deal is built backwards from a cleared board, so there is always a way to win. It is still possible to block yourself with the wrong pairs. If no free pairs are left, Shuffle rearranges the remaining tiles into a layout that can be cleared. You get three shuffles per game. Undo takes back a pair, and Hint highlights a match.

The tiles

There are 34 different faces: dots and bamboo numbered 1 to 9, characters 1 to 9 (with a small number in the corner), the four winds (East, South, West and North, marked E, S, W and N), and the red, green and white dragons. Only identical tiles match.

Mahjong Solitaire scoring

Each pair scores 20 points. Match again within four seconds and you build a chain worth 5 more points per pair, up to 40 extra. Clearing the board adds 1,000 points plus 2 points for every second under 15 minutes. A hint costs 20 points and a shuffle costs 30. The daily deal is the same for everyone, so your first clear of the day is saved with its time for sharing.

Mahjong Solitaire strategy and tips

1. Free the long rows first. Removing the end tiles of the widest rows opens more choices than taking pairs from the middle.
2. Work on the top layers early. Tiles under the peak stay blocked until you clear what sits above them.
3. When three of a face are free, think before you choose the pair: leave the one that is blocking the most tiles.
4. If all four copies of a face are free, take them as two pairs right away.
5. Keep a shuffle in reserve for the end, where dead ends are most common.

Common Mahjong Solitaire mistakes

• Taking the first pair you see. When three copies of a tile are free, choose the pair that frees the most tiles and leave the third where it blocks least.
• Leaving the top layers until last. Tiles under the peak stay blocked until the tiles above them are gone.
• Ignoring the single end tiles. The tiles on the far left and right block the middle rows; removing them opens both rows.
• Spending shuffles early. Shuffles are most useful near the end, where dead ends are more common.
• Matching tiles that only look alike. Only identical tiles pair up, so the 3 of dots never matches the 3 of bamboo.

History of Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire borrows the tiles of Mahjong, the Chinese four-player game, but it is a different game entirely. The first computer version, called Mah-Jongg, was created by Brodie Lockard in 1981 on the PLATO system, and Activision’s Shanghai made the idea popular on home computers in 1986.

Traditional layouts such as the Turtle use all 144 tiles. Ours uses a compact 84-tile stack in four layers, so a game fits a short break and stays readable on a phone. Every deal is built backwards from an empty board, which guarantees it can be cleared, and the daily deal is the same for every player.

Mahjong Solitaire: questions and answers