Mahjong Solitaire borrows the tiles of the four-player game of mahjong and uses them for something entirely different: a one-player puzzle of stacked tiles that you take apart two at a time. The rules fit in a sentence: remove matching pairs of free tiles until the table is empty. The skill lies in choosing which pair, because every tile you take out unblocks some tiles and leaves others stuck.
How to play
Free tiles. You can only pick a tile that is free. A free tile has nothing lying on top of it, not even partly, and at least one of its long sides (left or right) is open. Tiles squeezed between neighbours on both sides are blocked, and blocked tiles are drawn a little darker. If you tap one, the message bar explains why it can’t be taken.
Matching. Tap one free tile, then a second free tile with the same face, and the pair disappears. Two groups are looser: any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season.
The counters. The bar shows how many tiles are left, how many matching pairs are available right now (“Matches”), and the time.
Getting unstuck. Hint highlights a sensible pair. Undo puts your last match back. Shuffle redistributes the faces of all remaining tiles; it lights up when there are no matches left, but you can use it at any time. The finishing screen tells you how many shuffles you used.
Layouts. Pick one under Layout. Starting a different layout mid-game asks you to tap it a second time to confirm.
| Layout | Tiles | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pyramid | 84 | low and wide, a good first game |
| Fortress | 124 | walls of tiles around a central keep |
| Turtle | 144 | the traditional shape, uses the whole set |
The tile set
A full set has 144 tiles:
- Dots, Bamboo and Characters, numbered 1 to 9, four copies of each (108 tiles). A small number in the corner gives the value.
- Winds: East, South, West and North, four of each.
- Dragons: red, green and white, four of each.
- Flowers and Seasons: four different flowers and four different seasons, one tile each, matching freely within their own group.
The smaller layouts use part of the set, but always in complete groups of four. If a face appears on the table, all four of its tiles are there.
Every deal can be cleared
The deal is made by taking a full table apart in reverse: the game removes free pairs at random until nothing is left, and assigns matching faces in that order. The result is a layout that is guaranteed to have at least one complete solution. Shuffles are built the same way, so a shuffled table is still solvable.
You can still lose your way by matching pairs in a bad order. There is one true dead end: if the last tiles left are stacked directly on top of each other, nothing can free the lower ones and no shuffle can help. The game tells you so and ends.
How often does a reasonable approach succeed? The game’s simple test player, which never undoes but is allowed to shuffle, cleared about 98% of Pyramid games, 99% of Fortress games and 97% of Turtle games over 200 games each.
Strategy
Free the tiles that block the most. On the Turtle, the loose tiles at the far left and right ends sit beside the two middle rows and keep both of them closed. The cap tile on top covers four tiles beneath it. Removing those opens several new choices at once.
Work top-down. A tile on an upper layer may sit across parts of several lower tiles. Clearing the higher layers early exposes more of the table.
Be careful with three free tiles of one kind. If three of the same face are free, any two you match leave the third waiting for the fourth, which may be buried. Choose the two that are blocking something, and leave the one that isn’t in anyone’s way.
Take all four when you can. When all four copies of a face are free, clear both pairs. No choice is being made, so nothing can go wrong.
Don’t spend matches that change nothing. A free pair that blocks nothing stays available. Use your moves on tiles that unlock others, and come back to the easy pairs later.
Use Undo to test. Undo has no penalty. If a line of play leaves you with no matches, step back a few moves and try a different pair before reaching for Shuffle.
For another quiet logic game, try Nonogram.
If you enjoy Mahjong Solitaire, try Math Cages or Minesweeper next.
