Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire (Shanghai) is a single-player matching game using Mahjong tiles. Unlike the real four-player Mahjong, this is a puzzle game where you clear tiles by matching pairs. Tiles must be 'free' to be selected.

Remove all 144 tiles from the board by matching pairs of identical tiles.

144 Mahjong tiles (four copies each of 36 different tiles) are stacked in various patterns. The classic layout is the 'Turtle' - a multi-layered arrangement. Tiles are placed randomly.

1. Find and click/tap two matching tiles to remove them.
2. Tiles must be 'free' to be selected: no tile touching on the left OR right side, and nothing stacked on top.
3. Matching tiles must be identical (same suit and number, or same honor/bonus tile).
4. Seasons match with seasons, flowers match with flowers (as a group).
5. Keep matching pairs until the board is cleared or no more matches are possible.
6. If stuck with no available matches, the game is lost.
7. Some versions offer shuffle or hint features.

Win by successfully removing all 144 tiles. A clean board is a perfect victory. Getting stuck with unplayable tiles means defeat.

• *Prioritize tiles with the most duplicates in play - removing one frees options.
• *Don't just take the first match - consider what tiles your move exposes.
• *Avoid uncovering tiles you can't immediately match - they block the board.
• *Keep the board balanced between left and right sides.
• *Look for triplets of the same tile visible - matching two leaves the third blocked.
• *Use hints sparingly if available - think before clicking.
• *Some layouts are unsolvable due to random shuffling - don't feel bad about restarting.

Mahjong Solitaire was created for early personal computers, first appearing in the 1981 game 'Shanghai' by Brodie Lockard. It introduced Mahjong tiles to Western audiences as a single-player puzzle.