Mahjong Solitaire
Click two matching free tiles to remove them. H hint, S shuffle, Ctrl+Z undo, V 3D.Tap two matching free tiles to remove them.
Board cleared
- Time
- Best time
- Shuffles
- Hints
- Games won
About the game
Mahjong Solitaire
Mahjong Solitaire is a one-player matching game played with mahjong tiles: clear a stacked layout by removing pairs of identical free tiles. It borrows the tiles of four-player mahjong but none of its rules. Every deal here can be cleared, on 40, 88 or the classic 144-tile Turtle layout.
- First computer version
- 1981
- Tiles
- 40, 88 or 144
- Hard layout
- The Turtle
- Every deal here
- Can be cleared
How to play
On Hard the 144 tiles are stacked in five layers in the classic Turtle shape; Easy has 40 tiles in two layers and Medium 88 in three. Remove all of them by matching pairs of identical tiles: click one free tile, then its match, and both are removed.
- Free tiles: a tile can be taken when nothing lies on top of it and its left or right side is open.
- Matching: the same suit and number, or the same wind or dragon.
- Flowers and seasons: any flower matches any flower, any season any season.
- Shuffle: when no pairs are free, Shuffle rearranges the remaining tiles into a position that can still be cleared.
The tiles
- Dots, Bamboo and Characters (一 to 九 above 萬), nine of each with four copies; the corner number shows the value.
- Winds: 東 East, 南 South, 西 West, 北 North.
- Dragons: 中 red, 發 green, and the white dragon (an empty blue frame).
- Flowers 梅 蘭 菊 竹 and Seasons 春 夏 秋 冬, one of each.
Picture tiles
The pictures only change what the tiles look like; the rules stay the same. Animals, Fruit & Veg, Food, Halloween, Sports, Vehicles and Space each have 36 pictures, and the flowers and seasons each share one picture, so all four look alike. New players start on Easy with Animals: ten kinds of animal, four of each. In October, Halloween Mahjong opens straight on the Halloween tiles.
Strategy
- Open the long rows first. Removing the end tiles of the longest rows frees the most tiles behind them.
- Clear the top of the stack early. The centre tower covers many tiles; the sooner it is gone, the more options you have.
- When three of a kind are free, check which pair unblocks more before choosing.
- When all four of a tile are free, removing them in either order is safe.
- Don’t strand a pair on top of each other. If the last two copies of a tile are stacked in one column, one can never be reached.
Origins
Mahjong Solitaire borrows the tiles of mahjong, the four-player Chinese game, but the play is unrelated: it is a single-player matching puzzle. Brodie Lockard created it in 1981 on the PLATO computer system, played on a touch-screen terminal.
Activision turned it into a hit in 1986 as Shanghai, released for the IBM PC, Amiga, Macintosh, Atari ST and Apple IIgs; around ten million copies were sold. The default stack was marketed as the Turtle, the name the layout still carries. Windows later shipped its own versions, first as Taipei and much later as Mahjong Titans.
History
- 1981 Brodie Lockard creates the game on PLATO.
- 1986 Activision releases Shanghai; around ten million copies are sold.
- 1990 Taipei in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows 3.x.
- 2007 Mahjong Titans ships with premium editions of Windows Vista, and later Windows 7.
- 2026 This version on Zippi, where every deal can be cleared.
Why it’s fun
- Calm and visual. No clock pressure, just a board that slowly opens up.
- Search, then decide. Finding a pair is easy; choosing the right pair is the game.
- Beautiful pieces. The tiles carry centuries of design, and matching them is a pleasure in itself.
- A clear goal. An empty table at the end is unmistakable.
What it trains
Mahjong Solitaire exercises visual search and pattern matching, and it rewards looking beneath the surface: the right pair is the one that frees the most tiles, not the first one you see.
FAQ
Is this the same as mahjong with four players?
No. It uses the same tiles, but it is a single-player matching puzzle.
Can a game get stuck?
Every deal can be cleared, but picking pairs in the wrong order can leave you stuck. Shuffle rearranges the remaining tiles into a solvable position, and Undo takes back moves one pair at a time.
Does shuffling cost anything?
No. Shuffles are unlimited and counted in your results.
This version
- Classic 144-tile Turtle layout; every deal is dealt so the whole board can be cleared.
- Unlimited shuffles that keep the position solvable, hints and undo one pair at a time.
- Shade blocked tiles on request; larger tiles on phones in landscape.
- Three levels: Easy (40 tiles, two layers), Medium (88 tiles, three layers) and Hard, the classic 144-tile Turtle. Each keeps its own game and best time.
- Eight tile sets: Classic, Animals, Fruit & Veg, Food, Halloween, Sports, Vehicles and Space. Picture tiles suit children and anyone new to mahjong.
- A 3D table: tiles stacked in real layers with shadows, or the flat board. V switches.
- Original tile art; best time and games won are kept on this device.
Updates
- Easy and Medium levels with fewer tiles and bigger pictures.
- Picture tile sets: Animals, Fruit & Veg, Food, Halloween, Sports, Vehicles and Space. New players start on Easy with Animals.
- 3D view: stacked tiles with shadows, matched pairs lift away, shuffles turn the tiles.
- First version on Zippi: solvable deals, shuffles, hints and undo.
Page last reviewed .