Match open pairs and clear the layered tile board.
Pick from three boards — Turtle, Fortress, or Bridge — each stacking all 144 tiles three layers deep. Every deal is generated solvable, hints point to a live pair, undo forgives the move that trapped you, and nothing needs installing.
Mahjong Solitaire borrows the 144 tiles of the four-player table game and turns them into a pure solo puzzle. There are no opponents, no draws, and no discards here — just a stacked board and one question asked over and over: which open pair should go next? Remove all 72 pairs and the board is cleared.
Everything hinges on which tiles count as open. A tile can be picked up only while nothing rests on top of it and at least one of its long sides, left or right, is completely clear. A tile pinned between neighbors on both sides stays locked no matter how tempting its twin looks, and a buried tile might as well not exist yet. Training your eye to separate open tiles from blocked ones is the single fastest improvement any new player can make.
The full set breaks down into 108 suit tiles — bamboo, characters, and dots, numbered 1 through 9 with four copies of each — plus 28 honor tiles (16 winds and 12 dragons) and 8 bonus tiles (four flowers and four seasons). Suits and honors pair only with exact duplicates. The bonus tiles are the one exception to that rule: any flower matches any flower and any season matches any season, because each of the eight appears just once per board.
Three boards ship with this game, and all of them stack the complete 144-tile set three layers deep. Turtle spreads 100 tiles across its bottom layer and is the classic place to start. Fortress lines up eight even rows of twelve with clean side lanes to work. Bridge pulls the stack into a compact span where your earliest picks matter most. The layouts guide walks through how each one is built and ranks them by difficulty.
Every deal you see is generated to be solvable: the game places tiles onto the board in reverse, pair by pair, and verifies a winning line exists before the board ever loads. When you misstep anyway, undo restores the last removed pair, hint highlights a match that is live right now, and shuffle rescues a locked position. Wins and games played persist in your browser, with no download, signup, or fee anywhere in the way.
Tiles
144
108 suit tiles, 28 honors, and 8 bonus tiles stacked three layers deep.
Layouts
3
Turtle, Fortress, and Bridge — the same full set in three board shapes.
Pairs to clear
72
Each deal is placed pair by pair and checked solvable before it loads.
Before clicking any tile, run it through two quick checks. Both tiles in a pair must pass both checks at the same moment, or the match is refused.
Turtle is the default and the most forgiving teacher: its wide 100-tile base keeps plenty of edges exposed. Fortress trades that width for long, even rows that reward lane-clearing. Bridge is the sharpest of the three — a compact shape where a careless early pair can seal off the middle.
The eight bonus tiles are singletons, so demanding exact matches would make boards unwinnable. Instead the four flowers form one interchangeable group and the four seasons form another — spot any two of a group open and they can leave together.
When three copies of a tile sit open at once, which two you remove decides whether the fourth ever gets out. The strategy guide covers this and the other habits — opening tall stacks, keeping lanes alive — that turn near-misses into cleared boards.
Mahjong Solitaire is a solo puzzle that borrows the table game’s tiles. If you want draws, discards, and winning hands against three opponents, you can play four-player Mahjong online on our sister site — or read Mahjong vs Mahjong Solitaire: what is the difference? for the side-by-side comparison.