Klondike SolitairePuzzle·Free to play
Mahjong Solitaire
Clear the whole tile mountain by matching free pairs before you run out of moves.
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Mahjong SolitaireScore0
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Keyboard & touch controls
Tap a tileSelect itTap its twinClear the pair↑ / SpaceHintZ / XShufflePPause
How to play Mahjong Solitaire
Find free tiles
Free tiles are drawn bright with colored faces; blocked ones are dimmed. Free means nothing on top and an open left or right side.
Match identical pairs
Tap one free tile to select it, then tap its identical twin to clear both. Tapping a mismatched tile moves your selection there instead.
Read the tile kinds
Blue numbers with dots, green numbers with sticks, and letter honor tiles (N, E, S, W plus the red and green dragons). Only exact twins match.
Chain for combos
Clears within a few seconds of each other build a combo multiplier that fattens every pair. Hesitate and the chain resets.
Clear the mountain
Remove all ninety-six tiles to win a finish bonus plus time bonus. If no matches remain, the run banks what you cleared.
This is our browser edition, adapted from ARCADENOW. Its artwork, tuning and controls may differ from other games with similar rules. Guest personal bests stay in this browser. Signed-in players can also save scores and play history to their private dashboard; there is no global leaderboard. Read about controls and local storage.
Choose a related challenge
A visible matching pair may still be blocked. In Klondike Solitaire, uncovering cards and arranging the tableau determine what can move toward the foundations.
What Mahjong Solitaire is like to play
Mahjong Solitaire solitaire stacks ninety-six tiles into a four-story mountain and asks you to take it apart the only way it allows: two identical free tiles at a time. A tile is free when nothing rests on top of it and at least one of its left or right sides is open, which means the mountain hides most of its choices under its own weight. Every pair you clear opens new faces and closes others, and that is the whole elegant trap: the obvious match is frequently the wrong one, and a careless clear can lock the last two copies of a tile under each other forever. Quick consecutive matches chain into combo bonuses for players who can read the mountain at speed, a win pays a big finish plus time bonus, and running out of matches ends the run with whatever you salvaged. Every deal here is generated backwards from a solved mountain, so a winning line always exists, and every new deal builds a different mountain to take apart.
Mahjong Solitaire at a glance
| Genre | Puzzle Games |
|---|---|
| Challenge | Pattern-matching with consequences |
| Pace | Meditative, then suddenly tight |
| Original era | 1981 (tile-matching solitaire) |
| Players | Single player |
| Controls | Tap a tile, Tap its twin, ↑ / Space, Z / X |
| Cost | Free, with no account and no download |
Where Mahjong Solitaire came from
Mahjong Solitaire solitaire was born in 1981, when a systems programmer arranged the beautiful tiles of the Chinese table game into a stacked formation on a PLATO mainframe and invented pair-matching rules to dismantle it. The idea spread through 1980s shareware under many names, its turtle-shaped layout becoming one of the most recognized silhouettes in casual gaming, and by the 1990s the game shipped on practically every computer sold.
Our Mahjong Solitaire keeps the classic mountain philosophy with a modern conscience: every deal is generated solvable, the free-tile rule is enforced honestly, and and combo scoring plus a freshly built mountain each deal give the meditative classic an arcade pulse and a score worth beating.
Ways people play Mahjong Solitaire
- Classic mountain
- The stacked-layout pair-matching game on this page, direct heir of the 1981 original.
- Layout packs
- The same rules across different silhouettes: turtles, dragons, fortresses and towers, each with its own choke points.
- Timed sprints
- Score-attack rules where the clock is the enemy and combos are the weapon; the spirit our combo bonus borrows.
- Shanghai-style variants
- Rule twists that add shuffles, hints or wildcard tiles, trading purity for forgiveness.
Mahjong Solitaire questions and answers
Is every deal actually solvable?
Yes. Deals are built by placing pairs onto the layout in a reverse removal order, so at least one perfect line to an empty board always exists. Finding it is your problem.
Why can't I select a bright-looking tile?
Blocked tiles show dimmed faces. A tile needs a completely open top and at least one open long side; being visible is not the same as being free.
What are the letter tiles?
Honor tiles: the four winds (N, E, S, W) and two dragons. They match only their exact twins, like every other kind.
How does the combo work?
Each clear within about four seconds of the previous one raises the multiplier, adding bonus points per pair. The chain resets when you pause.
Is this the same game as four-player mahjong?
No, it shares only the tiles. This is the solitaire tile-matching game invented on computers in 1981; the four-player table game is a different sport entirely.
If you like Mahjong Solitaire, try these next
Four games from the same shelf, each with its own pace. The one-line summaries are how their own pages describe them.
| Game | What it is like | Pace | Play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Klondike Solitaire | Fifty-two cards, one tap at a time, all the way home. | Your pace, until the deck fights back | Play |
| Columns | Three gems fall as one - Line up any three that match. | Columns fall faster per level | Play |
Puzzle games: less guessing, more solving.
Separate deduction, information gathering and board planning before choosing your next move.
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