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How to play mahjong solitaire

Mahjong solitaire is a one-player matching game with 144 mahjong tiles piled in layers. You take matching tiles off two at a time, but only tiles that are free: nothing on top of them, and an open left or right side. Clear every tile and you win; run out of free matches and you're stuck.

By Emre Özen, updated October 8, 2026. These are the rules our free mahjong solitaire game uses. They follow Wikipedia's article on mahjong solitaire and the xmahjongg manual, with the tile set as Wikipedia's "Mahjong tiles" article describes it.

The goal

The tiles start in a pile called a layout. The best known is the turtle, which has 144 tiles on five levels. Remove matching pairs until the table is empty. Wikipedia puts the two endings plainly: you win when every pair is gone, and you lose when the tiles left have no free pairs.

There's no score to keep and no opponent. It's you, the tiles and (here) a clock, if you want one.

Which tiles are free

This is the whole game, so it's worth getting exactly right. A tile is free when both of these are true:

1. Nothing is on top of it. Not even part of a tile. Upper tiles often sit half a tile over, across two tiles below, and that still blocks both.
2. Its left side or its right side is open. One open side is enough. Only tiles on the same level count here; a tile one level up or down never blocks a side.

The xmahjongg manual says it in one line: a tile is free "if its entire top face is unobstructed and either its left or its right edge is open." Tiles above and below don't matter for the sides. Tiles in front of or behind it (higher or lower on the screen) don't matter either.

In our game, tiles that aren't free yet look grayer, and tapping one tells you what's in the way. You can switch the shading off in Settings once you can see free tiles at a glance.

What matches what

That's 144 tiles, which Wikipedia calls the most common set size. The flower and season rule is the one people trip on: the four flowers look different but act as one group, and so do the four seasons. A flower never matches a season.

Every tile, pictured

These are the tiles as they look in our game, with the small corner label that's on by default. The label gives the number and a suit letter, so you can match by reading if the pictures are hard to tell apart.

A few notes for reading them. On character tiles, the top symbol is the number, written as a Chinese numeral, and the red one underneath is the same on all nine. Wikipedia notes that most sets write five as 伍 rather than the everyday 五, and ours does too. The four winds are the Chinese characters for east (東), south (南), west (西) and north (北). The 1 of bamboo is usually a bird, often called the sparrow.

The corner labels

Layouts

The turtle is the standard. Its levels hold 87, 36, 16, 4, 1 tiles from the table up. The bottom level is eight rows of different lengths, plus one tile on the far left and two on the far right, set half a tile down so they sit between the two middle rows. The single top tile rests across the four tiles below it.

Our game also has three layouts of our own, smaller and flatter:

• Quilt (easy): 72 tiles on 2 levels.
• Barn (medium): 94 tiles on 3 levels.
• Hilltop (tricky): 92 tiles on 3 levels.

A smaller layout uses whole groups of four from the full set, picked at random each game, so every tile still has a partner.

Shuffles, undo and hints on this site

Rules differ here from one game to the next, so this is how ours works:

• Every deal can be won. We build each board backwards from an empty layout, so at least one order of matches clears it.
• Undo takes back as many matches as you like.
• Shuffle: 3 per game. It mixes the faces of the tiles that are left, keeps them where they are, and always gives a board that can still be cleared. Undoing a shuffle puts the tiles back, but the shuffle stays used.
• Hints: 6 per game. A hint marks a pair, and it tells you if the board can no longer be cleared from where you are.

Common variations

Wikipedia lists the ways computer versions differ. The common ones:

• Shuffling the tiles that are left when no pairs are free (some games, including ours).
• Undo (many games).
• Different pictures on the tiles, like flowers or jewels, which can be easier to tell apart.
• Many layouts of different difficulty, with names like the ox or the snake.
• A time limit based on the number of tiles.
• Two players taking turns, aiming for the most pairs or the last match.

Glossary

Free tile (open, exposed)

A tile with nothing on top and an open left or right side. Only free tiles can be matched.

Blocked tile

A tile that isn't free yet: covered from above, or with tiles touching both sides.

Layout

The shape the tiles start in. The turtle is the classic one.

Level (layer)

One floor of the pile. The table is level 1. In our game each level has its own edge color.

Suit tiles

Dots, bamboo and characters, numbered 1 to 9.

Honor tiles

The winds and dragons. Wikipedia's tile article groups them under this name.

Flowers and seasons

Eight special tiles, one of each picture. Any flower matches any flower, any season any season.

Shuffle

Mixing up the tiles still on the board when you run out of moves.

Stuck (dead end)

No two free tiles match. Undo, shuffle or start again.

A little history

Wikipedia credits Brodie Lockard with the first computer version, Mah-Jongg, written in 1981 for the PLATO system. Home computer versions followed in 1986, and Windows got one in 1990. The game borrows the tiles from mahjong but none of its rules.

Ready to try it? Play mahjong solitaire online, starting on Quilt if you're new, and read which pairs to clear first when you want to clear the turtle more often.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Mahjong solitaire" (rules, free tiles, winning and losing, variations, history, the 3 percent figure).
• Wikipedia, "Mahjong tiles" (the 144-tile set, suits, honors, flowers, seasons, 伍 for five, the bird on the 1 of bamboo).
• xmahjongg manual page (Ubuntu manpages): free tiles and the flower and season matching rule.
• PySolFC, "Mahjongg" rules page: the flower and season matching rule.

Keep playing

• Play mahjong solitaireFour layouts from easy to the classic turtle, with big tiles.
• Daily mahjongOne new board a day, the same for everyone, with a streak.
• StrategyWhich pairs to clear first, with numbers from 1,000 test boards.
• Daily sudokuThree new number puzzles every day, easy to hard.
• CribbageThe classic card game for two, against the computer or a friend.
• CryptogramsCrack the letter code to reveal a famous saying.
• Large-Print Word SearchBig letters, themed lists, play online or print.