Mahjong Solitaire rules.
One player. 144 tiles. Remove matching pairs until the board is empty.
When can you select a tile?
Both of these conditions must be true:
- Nothing covers it. No tile on a higher layer may overlap any part of its face.
- At least one side is open. Its left or right edge must be free of neighboring tiles on the same layer. It does not need both sides open.
An opening above or below a tile is not enough. You cannot slide a tile out, move it to another position, or select a tile just because its face is partly visible. Both tiles in a pair must be free at the time you remove them.
Which tiles match?
| Tile family | Tiles in the set | Matching rule |
|---|---|---|
| Dots | 1–9, four of each (36) | Same number of dots |
| Bamboo | 1–9, four of each (36) | Same number of bamboo marks |
| Characters | 1–9, four of each (36) | Same character number |
| Winds | East, South, West, North, four of each (16) | Same wind |
| Dragons | Red, Green, White, four of each (12) | Same dragon |
| Flowers | Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, Chrysanthemum (4) | Any two flowers |
| Seasons | Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (4) | Any two seasons |
That is 144 tiles: 108 suit tiles, 28 winds and dragons, and 8 flower and season tiles. The flower depicting bamboo belongs to the flower family; it does not match a numbered bamboo tile. Flowers do not match seasons.
Small numbers help you read the tiles
Numbered suits include a small Arabic numeral in the corner. Character tiles also show a Chinese numeral above the red character 萬. The red dragon shows 中, the green dragon shows 發, and the white dragon is drawn as a blue frame. Each tile has an accessible label that identifies its face.
Winning and running out of moves
You win after 72 successful matches, when no tiles remain. A board can become blocked before that: if none of the free tiles form a matching pair, there are no legal moves. The game tells you when this happens.
Our starting deals are generated with a complete legal removal sequence. This guarantees that a solution exists at the start; it does not mean every sequence of choices wins. Undo lets you revisit earlier choices. Shuffle produces a solvable arrangement from the remaining tile faces; a difficult remaining shape may be rearranged into an open board.
House rules on Mahjong.host
- No time limit and no time penalties.
- Unlimited hints and undo within the current shuffle history.
- Shuffle keeps the remaining faces and match count; it clears Undo history.
- Changing the layout starts a new game.
- Games run in your browser. Reloading or closing the page starts over.
Mahjong Solitaire versus traditional Mahjong
Although they use similar tiles, these are different games. Mahjong Solitaire is a single-player matching puzzle and has no drawing or discarding. Traditional Mahjong is usually played by four people building a hand, with rules and scoring that vary by version. The game on this website is Mahjong Solitaire.