Mahjong Solitaire Layouts Guide
Turtle, Fortress, and Bridge all use the same 144 tiles and the same open-tile rule — but they play like three different puzzles. Here is how each board is built, how they rank, and where to start.
In Mahjong Solitaire, the layout is the difficulty. The matching rule never changes: a tile is free when nothing covers it and its left or right edge is clear. What changes from board to board is geometry — how many tiles start exposed, how deep the stacks go, and how easily a careless pair can wall off a whole region. This site ships three layouts, each stacking the complete set of 144 tiles (108 suits, 28 honors, and 8 bonus tiles) into three layers, and each dealt so that at least one winning sequence always exists.
Because every board holds exactly 72 pairs, the layouts are directly comparable. The numbers below come straight from the boards as this game builds them.
The three boards at a glance
| Layout | Tiles | Layers | Bottom layer | Top layer | Character | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turtle | 144 | 3 | 100 tiles in 8 rows | 8 tiles (2 rows of 4) | Wide, forgiving, classic | Easiest — learn here |
| Fortress | 144 | 3 | 96 tiles in 8 even rows of 12 | 12 tiles (3 rows of 4) | Long straight lanes | Medium |
| Bridge | 144 | 3 | 96 tiles in 8 rows | 12 tiles (4 rows of 3) | Compact, punishing center | Hardest |
Turtle: the classic, and the right place to learn
Turtle is the shape most players picture when they think of Mahjong Solitaire, and it is the default board here. Its bottom layer is enormous — 100 of the 144 tiles, spread across eight rows that swell from 12 tiles wide at the shell’s edges to 14 through the middle before tapering to 10. Above that sits a 36-tile middle tier of four nine-wide rows, capped by a small 8-tile head: two short rows of four.
That pyramid profile is why Turtle is forgiving. With so much of the board in the flat bottom layer, dozens of tiles begin with a free left or right edge, and early mistakes rarely lock the game outright. The classic dangers are concentrated instead: the long 14-tile center rows can trap tiles deep in the middle, so favor matches that eat inward from the row ends, and dismantle the small top cap early — those eight tiles pin the very center of the middle tier. If you are new to the game, play Turtle until clearing it feels routine; every skill it teaches transfers to the other two boards. The strategy guide goes deeper on pair selection once you are comfortable.
Fortress: even walls and long lanes
Fortress squares the board off. Its bottom layer is a strict grid — eight rows of exactly 12 tiles, 96 in all — with a 36-tile middle tier of six six-wide rows and a 12-tile crown laid out as three spaced rows of four. Nothing tapers; the walls are the same thickness everywhere.
The result is a board about lanes. Every row is a corridor you open from both ends, and because the rows are uniformly 12 wide, there are no naturally short rows to give you cheap early progress. The middle tier also covers proportionally more of the base than Turtle’s does, so more bottom tiles start buried. Fortress rewards patient, symmetrical play: work both ends of a lane rather than tunneling from one side, and use its clean side edges to keep at least two rows active at once. If Turtle is about avoiding a few known traps, Fortress is about maintaining steady access everywhere — a genuine step up in planning.
Bridge: compact, top-heavy, and sharp
Bridge is the hardest board on the site. Its 96-tile bottom layer mirrors a suspension span: rows of 10 at the outer edges rising to 14 through the middle. The 36-tile middle tier stretches across six rows of six, and the 12-tile top deck runs as four rows of just three tiles each — a long, narrow spine sitting right over the board’s center.
That tall, narrow core is what makes Bridge sharp. The four-row spine stacks pressure on the same central columns, so the middle of the board is effectively four decisions deep while the wings are shallow. Clear the wings carelessly and you will run out of safe moves with the core still sealed. Strong Bridge play inverts the beginner instinct: attack the spine first, spend your flexible early matches breaking into the center, and save the easy outer tiles as a reserve of guaranteed moves for the endgame. Expect stuck positions while you learn it — undo and shuffle exist for a reason, and there is no penalty for using them.
Same rules, every board
Whichever shape you choose, the fundamentals never move. Only open tiles — uncovered, with a free left or right edge — can be selected. Suit and honor tiles need exact duplicates, while any flower pairs with any flower and any season with any season. And because this game deals every layout by placing tiles in reverse, pair by pair, each board is verified solvable before you see it: a loss is always a sequencing mistake, never a rigged deal. The full matching rules live on the rules page, and you can switch between Turtle, Fortress, and Bridge at any time from the board controls.
A sensible progression
If you want a path rather than a menu, try this. Play Turtle until you can clear roughly half your boards without shuffling — that milestone means you have internalized the open-tile rule and stopped burning scarce matches. Then move to Fortress and practice working two lanes at once; its even rows will expose any habit of tunneling into one corner of the board. Save Bridge for last, and treat your first few attempts as scouting runs: note where the central spine locks up, use undo freely, and expect your clear rate to drop before it recovers.
Coming back the other way is just as useful. After a stretch of Bridge, Turtle feels luxuriously open — and that contrast makes it easier to notice the handful of genuinely dangerous tiles hiding in a friendly board. Rotating through all three layouts keeps your pattern recognition fresh and turns layout reading itself into the skill, which is exactly what separates players who clear occasionally from players who clear on demand.