About

Free Mahjong (Mahjong Solitaire) presents the full 144-tile Mahjong set arranged in elaborate stacked layouts. Your task is to clear the board by matching and removing pairs of identical free tiles — tiles not covered on top and open on at least one side. When no free pairs remain, the puzzle ends.

The strategy lies in sequencing. Some pairs should be taken immediately; others should wait until removing them doesn't block access to the tiles needed to continue. Reading the board three or four pairs ahead is the skill that turns a solvable layout into an actual solution.

Free Mahjong is meditative and satisfying. The tile artwork is traditionally beautiful, each match produces a small visual reward, and a full clear is a genuine accomplishment. Games take 10–20 minutes.

How to Play

• Click a free tile (not covered and open on left or right).
• Click a second free tile with a matching face to remove both.
• Continue until the board is cleared or no free pairs remain.
• Flower tiles match any other flower tile; season tiles match any other season tile.

Tips

• Remove tiles from the top of stacks first — they unblock the most options.
• Avoid removing pairs that leave two identical tiles both blocked.
• Use the hint function rarely — finding matches yourself is the puzzle.

History

The solitaire version was created by Brodie Lockard in 1981 at Stanford and popularized by Activision's Shanghai (1986). It is entirely distinct from the 4-player Mahjong game, despite using the same tiles. Free Mahjong became one of the most pre-installed computer games in history, reaching hundreds of millions of users through Windows bundles and casual game portals throughout the 1990s and 2000s.