How it plays
A game begins with the tiles arranged face up in a pattern, often several layers high. The traditional layout uses all 144 tiles of a mahjong set in a low, wide shape, but there are hundreds of others. You look for two identical tiles that are both free and remove them. Each pair you take can free new tiles beneath and beside it. Clear every tile and you have won. Reach a point where no free tiles match, and you are stuck.
That is the whole of the rules. The full details, including the tray mode Plum Mahjong plays by default, are in how to play.
The point of the game
Matching two tiles is easy. Matching them in the right order is the game. Most layouts hide tiles under others, and many tiles appear four times, so the pair you take now decides which pairs will be possible later. A careless early move can leave two matching tiles stacked one on top of the other, where they can never be cleared. Good play means looking ahead, opening up the board, and keeping your options wide. Our tips and strategy page goes into the details.
It is also a calm game. There is no opponent, usually no clock you have to beat, and every board can be studied for as long as you like.
Mahjong solitaire vs mahjong
The two are often confused because they share a name and a set of tiles. They are very different games:
| Mahjong solitaire | Mahjong | |
|---|---|---|
| Players | One | Usually four |
| Goal | Clear the table in matching pairs | Be first to complete a winning hand |
| The tiles | All face up in a layout | Hidden in each player’s hand, drawn from a wall |
| Luck | The deal only; then it is pure planning | Draws and other players’ discards |
| Rules to learn | A few minutes | Hands and scoring that vary by region |
| Origin | A computer game, 1981 | China, 19th century |
If you came here to learn the four-player game, you will want a guide to the style your group plays. Plum Mahjong is mahjong solitaire, and does not teach the four-player rules.
The four-player game
Mahjong took shape in China in the second half of the 19th century and spread around the world in the early 20th, arriving in the United States in the 1920s. Four players each hold a hand of tiles, drawing and discarding in turn, and try to be the first to build a complete hand. In most Chinese styles that means four sets, each a run like 4-5-6 of Bamboo or three identical tiles, plus a pair. It is often compared to the card game rummy.
Many styles are played today. Japanese riichi mahjong has its own scoring and usually no flower tiles. American mahjong uses a set with jokers, begins each game by passing tiles between players, and plays to a card of winning hands that the National Mah Jongg League publishes every year. All of them use the same family of tiles. Our guide to mahjong tiles and their meaning explains each one.
A short history
Mahjong solitaire is much younger than mahjong. The first known version is a computer game called Mah-Jongg, written by Brodie Lockard in 1981 for PLATO, an early networked computer system used mainly at universities. It already had the idea that defines the game: a stacked layout of tiles, cleared in free, matching pairs.
In 1986 Activision published Lockard’s game as Shanghai for home computers, and it became a hit. For many years players called any game of this kind “Shanghai”, and some still do.
Microsoft later included mahjong solitaire with Windows. Windows Vista shipped Mahjong Titans, and many people first met the game on an office or family computer. Countless versions followed, first on the web and then on phones and tablets, where daily puzzles, themed tile sets and new layouts became common.
In recent years, mobile tile-matching games have added a tray: the tiles you tap wait in a short row of slots until they can be matched, and a full tray ends the game. Most of those games match three tiles at a time. Plum Mahjong’s tray mode keeps the pairs of classic mahjong solitaire, with a tray of four slots.
Can every board be solved?
Not always. If the tiles are shuffled at random, some deals have no solution, however well you play. Some games avoid this by building each board backwards from an empty table, adding tiles two at a time in places where they could be removed again. Plum Mahjong deals every board this way, so there is always a way through, and its Shuffle only ever rearranges the remaining tiles into another position that can be solved.
Is it good for the brain?
Mahjong solitaire is a game, and we make no claims about memory or brain health. What it does ask for is close attention, an eye for patterns, and a little planning ahead. Many people play it simply because it is a quiet, absorbing way to spend ten minutes, and that is reason enough.
Mahjong solitaire in Plum Mahjong
Plum Mahjong is a free mahjong solitaire game made by Vikolo Dynamics, played in any web browser. It plays in tray mode by default, with classic pairs one switch away in Settings. Its boards fit within six tiles across, so the tiles stay large on a phone, and it adds a few ideas of its own: hidden tiles, ice, locks and keys, a new Daily board each day, and live games with friends.
In English the name is usually said mah-JONG. Some older sets and books spell it mahjongg or mah-jongg.