The Mahjong game has two different versions: the traditional Asian version, which is a game for 4 players, and Mahjong Solitaire, which is always played by one person and is mostly popular in the West, this is the game you can play online on Mahjong-Game.com.

When you start, the Mahjong Solitaire game appears as a board with 144 tiles arranged on top of one another in the shape of a pyramid. The tiles all have different characters and images on them. If you look carefully, you’ll see that some of them are exactly the same, this is because each image appears 4 times in the game. The goal of Mahjong is to combine the tiles with matching images. In other words, you are looking for two pairs in each series. There are two exceptions: the flowers series and the seasons series. There are 4 tiles in each of these series, all of which only appear once in each game, so it is not possible to match them precisely. Instead, you need to match the tiles in the series, such as summer and spring or autumn and winter.

According to the rules of Mahjong, it’s not possible to simply match and eliminate any tile that appears on the board. You can only combine tiles that meet the following conditions:

• A tile can only be selected if there are no other tiles on top of it
• A tile cannot be selected if it has other tiles on either side of it
• You can only remove a tile if it is free on at least one side

If you trace the green line 1 in the picture above, you can see that both of these tiles are free on at least one side, this means these tiles can be combined and eliminated. The tiles indicated by line 2 are also free on one side, so they can be eliminated as well.

It’s a different story with the tiles indicated by the red lines. If you look at line 3, you can see that only one tile is free, the other tile is blocked by two other tiles and so it cannot be selected. To be able to remove it, you first need to eliminate the adjacent tiles. Line 4 points to two tiles that are each free on one side. However, you can see that one of them has another tile on top of it, so it cannot be removed.

You continue matching and eliminating tiles until you have cleared the board. This gets easier as the game progresses, as there are fewer and fewer tiles available and fewer open pairs to search for. Sometimes, you will not be able to match any more tiles, this can happen if there are two paired tiles on top of one another; the bottom tile will then not be visible and cannot be selected. The game will then automatically mix the tiles, so you can continue playing. There are also a few tools available to help you play:

The tools

• Mix: shuffles all the tiles so that they end up in different positions and new pairs become available.
• Hint: if you cannot see any matching pairs, you can use the hint tool to generate a suggestion. But beware that the hint may not be the best move; it is usually the first available open pair that the game finds.
• Undo: you can use Undo at any time to go back one step. Use this option if you have made a mistake or want to see what is under another tile.

Mahjong Tips and strategies

It is often assumed that winning at Mahjong is all about luck. But if you apply the right strategies, you will see that you can solve the puzzle more often and more quickly. Our game always has at least one solution, so every Mahjong puzzle can be solved. Here are a few tips and strategies:

Look ahead: study the whole board before making your first move and try to identify as many matching pairs as possible. Next, plan your moves ahead as far as possible and see which open pairs it is best to eliminate to free up new pairs. First, select pairs that are blocking the greatest number of other tiles. For example, at the start of the game, the top tile on the pyramid is blocking 4 other tiles at the same time, so it’s a good idea to eliminate this one first. You can also use the Undo button to plan ahead: eliminate open pairs and see what is under these tiles. If the tiles underneath them are no use, then undo the move and look for a better option.

Triples: If you find three identical tiles that are free, carefully scan the board for the best move. In the example above, there are three free tiles with a green bird. Now, check what combination you can play to release the greatest number of other tiles. You can see that C is not blocking any other tiles, as the one next to it is already free on the right-hand side. So the best option is to combine A and B to release two new tiles.

Clear the top layers: The pyramid is made up of 5 layers, so sometimes several tiles are piled on top of one another. The rules of Mahjong state that you cannot select a tile if there is another tile on top of it; a stack of 5 will contain 4 unusable tiles. So do not leave stacks of tiles on the board if possible, but try to eliminate the top layers to create a flatter board.