Which tiles are free
A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and either its left or right edge is open. Everything else has to wait until a neighbour is removed.
Mahjong Solitaire — the classic turtle layout
This is the turtle: 144 tiles stacked in the familiar shell shape, cleared by matching identical free pairs. It is a tile game rather than a card game, and it rewards reading the stack before you touch it.
Play Mahjong SolitaireMatching pairs
Match two identical tiles to remove both. Flowers match any flower and seasons match any season — those are the only tiles that do not need an exact twin.
Hints and shuffles
A hint highlights one legal pair. If no pair is left but tiles remain, a shuffle reshuffles the board so the game can continue rather than ending in a dead position.
Tips that actually help
- Clear the long top row and the tall stack early — they block the most tiles.
- When four identical tiles are free, take the pair that unlocks new tiles, not the easy one.
- Look at what a match exposes before you take it, exactly as you would in Solitaire.
- Save shuffles for genuinely dead boards, not for impatience.
Common questions
- Is this the same as real Mahjong?
- No. Mahjong Solitaire is a one-player matching puzzle that borrows the tiles from the four-player game.
- How many tiles are in the turtle?
- 144 tiles, arranged in the traditional turtle or dragon shell layout.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes. The board scales down and scrolls sideways on narrow screens.