Mahjong solitaire rules: how to play

Not the four-player game

Mahjong solitaire uses the tiles of mahjong, but it is a different game. Mahjong itself is played by four people, who draw and discard tiles to build a winning hand, a little like rummy. Mahjong solitaire is a puzzle for one: the tiles are stacked in a layout, face up, and you remove them two at a time. Hands, discards and the scoring of four-player mahjong play no part in it. When an app or a website says just "mahjong", it usually means the solitaire.

The tiles

A full set has 144 tiles:

Which tiles match

• An ordinary tile matches only a tile that is exactly the same: the 5 of bamboo with the 5 of bamboo, the east wind with the east wind, the red dragon with the red dragon. The same number in two suits is not a match.
• Any flower matches any other flower, although the four pictures are different. In the same way, any season matches any season.
• A flower never matches a season.

There are four of every ordinary tile, so each one gives two pairs. The four flowers make two pairs, and so do the four seasons: 72 pairs in all.

When a tile is free

You may only take tiles that are free. A tile is free when both of these are true:

1. 1.Nothing lies on top of it, not even partly. A tile that lies half across two tiles covers both of them.
2. 2.Its left side or its right side is open: on at least one of the two sides, no tile touches it on the same layer.

The edges at the top and the bottom of a tile, as you look at the board, do not count. A tile with neighbours on both its left and its right is blocked, even if nothing lies on it.

How to play

1. 1.Look for two free tiles that match.
2. 2.Select both. They are removed from the board.
3. 3.Removing tiles frees others. Keep finding pairs.
4. 4.You win when every tile is gone. You are stuck when no two free tiles match.

The Turtle

The Turtle is the classic layout, and the one most people picture. It uses all 144 tiles in five layers:

The single tile on top lies across all four tiles below it, so none of those four is free until it is gone. The end tiles sit half a row down, between the two middle rows, and block the left or right ends of both. Other layouts, often called things like the Pyramid, the Fortress or the Butterfly, differ from app to app.

Dead ends and shuffles

In a traditional deal the tiles are placed at random, so a board can become impossible to clear. The classic trap: the last two tiles of a kind lie one on top of the other. They can never both be free at the same time. Often you cannot see that coming until it is too late.

Most computer versions offer a shuffle when you are stuck. The tiles still on the board are rearranged on the same positions, and play goes on. Many also count shuffles and hints against you in some way.

Scoring

Mahjong solitaire has no standard scoring. In the tile game itself you have either cleared the board or you have not. Apps add points, timers and stars in their own ways.

Tips

• Take pairs that free the most tiles: tiles at the top of stacks, and tiles at the ends of long rows.
• Work long rows from both ends at once, so the middle does not stay locked.
• When three tiles of a kind are free, think about which two to take. Take the pair that frees the tile blocking the fourth copy. When all four are free, take both pairs.
• Watch for a tile lying on top of another of its own kind. Free the lower one early, with a copy from elsewhere.
• A pair that frees nothing can usually wait. Keep it as a reserve for when you need a move.
• Flowers and seasons are easy to match because any two of a group fit, so they are rarely urgent.

Playing in Mahjong Classic

Mahjong Classic is EU Studio's mahjong solitaire for iPhone and iPad. It uses the rules above, including the flower and season rule, and this is exactly what it adds:

Every board is dealt from a solution. The game builds a board by taking the layout apart two free tiles at a time and putting matching pairs on the tiles in that order. Every board can therefore be cleared from the start, although your own moves can still lead into a dead end.

• Campaign: 120 levels across six places on a map, 20 in each. A level is generated from its number, so every player gets the same level 37. Every tenth level is a classic layout: Turtle, Fortress, Pyramid (120 tiles) and Butterfly in turn. Difficulty comes in four bands: levels 1 to 10, 11 to 30, 31 to 60 and 61 to 120. Clearing a level, with any number of stars, opens the next.
• Daily challenge: the same board for everyone, changing at your local midnight.
• Hints: the game ranks the pairs by how much each opens the board, then solves the position after each of the best ones and shows a pair it has proven keeps the board clearable. If it cannot prove that for any of them, it shows the best-ranked pair. When your hints run out you can watch an ad for one more; with Premium there is no ad. On your very first board, a pair is shown for free if you go 12 seconds without a match.
• Shuffle: rearranges only the tiles still on the board, over the same positions, into an arrangement that can be cleared from where you are.
• Undo is unlimited and takes back exactly the points that pair earned.
• No moves left: when no two free tiles match, or the game finds that none of the pairs left can lead to a cleared board, it says so and offers Shuffle or Give up. Giving up, or leaving a board, counts as a loss. In Challenge the game also ends when the clock reaches zero.
• Points: each pair is worth 100. A pair taken within 4.2 seconds of the previous one builds a combo: the second quick pair is ×2 and worth 200, the third ×3 and worth 300, and so on up to ×99. A slower pair, an undo or a shuffle starts the count again. Hints and shuffles cost no points.
• Stars: one for clearing the board, one for clearing it within 2.5 seconds per tile (six minutes on the Turtle) and one for using no hint, shuffle or undo. On the campaign map a level keeps its best result.