Home » Play Games » Mahjong Solitaire Classic
Pick a layout above and press Play. A fresh, always-solvable deal is waiting.
👆 Tap a free tile, then tap its match • 🌸 Any two flowers match, and any two seasons match • 💡 5 hints and 🔀 2 shuffles per game
Mahjong solitaire you can play right here, free. This is Mahjong Solitaire Classic, an original GameOLL game. Match pairs of free tiles, peel the stack down layer by layer, and clear all 144 tiles. Every deal is built backwards from an empty board, so every deal can always be cleared. No download. No sign-up. It works on your phone and your PC.
Three layouts, five hints, two shuffles and an undo button for your last pair. Flowers match flowers, seasons match seasons, and a daily deal gives every player the same board each day. Your wins and best scores save in your browser.
Genre
Puzzle · Tile Matching
Players
1 Player
Platform
Browser · Mobile · PC
Price
Free
In this guide
- How to play
- The free tile rule
- Tile families and matching
- Layouts and scoring
- Strategy tips
- Mahjong Solitaire Classic FAQ
- Final verdict
How to play Mahjong Solitaire Classic
The board holds 144 tiles in stacked layers. Your job is to remove them all, two at a time, by matching pairs of free tiles.
- Pick a layout — Pyramid, Fortress or Garden — and press Play. A fresh deal appears.
- Look for free tiles. A free tile has nothing on top of it and at least one long side open. Free tiles look bright. Blocked tiles look dim.
- Tap a free tile to select it. It glows gold. Tap it again to put it back.
- Tap a second free tile with the same face. Both tiles leave the board and you score 10 points. Tiles under them may become free.
- Remember the two friendly families: any two flowers match each other, and any two seasons match each other. A flower or season pair pays 30 points.
- Stuck? Hint makes a matching pair glow (5 hints per game). Shuffle rearranges the tiles that are left, and the board can still be cleared afterwards (2 shuffles per game). Undo brings back the last pair you removed.
- Remove the last pair to clear the board. A time bonus is added to your score, and your win is saved.
There is no clock counting you down. The timer only measures your clear time for the bonus, so a calm player loses nothing by thinking.
The free tile rule, with an example
One rule runs the whole game. A tile can move only when it is free, and free means two things at once. First, no tile sits on top of it, not even partly. Second, its left side or its right side is open, with no tile pressed against that side on the same layer. If either test fails, the tile is blocked and the game shows it dim.
Here is the rule at work. Picture a Bamboo 4 deep inside the Pyramid, with a tile resting on its corner and tiles tight on both sides. It fails both tests, so it cannot move, and it will not match anything until the board opens up. Now picture the tile at the very end of that same row. Nothing covers it, and its outer side faces open space. It passes both tests, so it is free, and the moment you remove it, the tile next to it gets an open side too. That chain effect is the whole game: every pair you remove frees new tiles, layer by layer, until the stack is gone.
Two traps follow from the rule. A tile can have an open side and still be stuck, because a tile above pins it down. And a tile on the top layer can still be stuck, because neighbours on both sides box it in. When you are not sure why a tile refuses to move, check its top first, then its sides.
Controls for phone and PC
| Action | Phone / tablet | PC / laptop |
|---|---|---|
| Select a tile | Tap the tile | Click the tile |
| Match a pair | Tap two free tiles with the same face | Click two free tiles with the same face |
| Ask for a hint | Tap Hint | Click Hint |
| Bring back a pair | Tap Undo | Click Undo |
| Rearrange the tiles | Tap Shuffle | Click Shuffle |
| New deal or layout | Tap Menu | Click Menu |
Tile families and how matching works
The 144 tiles come in seven families. Most families match the simple way: two tiles must show the same face. Flowers and seasons play by the classic friendly rule, and they are worth more points because of it.
| Family | Tiles | How matching works |
|---|---|---|
| Dots 1 to 9 | 36 | Match the same number of dots |
| Bamboo 1 to 9 | 36 | Match the same number of bamboo sticks |
| Characters 1 to 9 | 36 | Match the same number |
| Winds: East, South, West, North | 16 | Match the same wind |
| Dragons: Red, Green, White | 12 | Match the same dragon |
| Flowers: Plum, Orchid, Mum, Bamboo | 4 | Any two flowers match each other |
| Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter | 4 | Any two seasons match each other |
| All tiles | 144 | 72 pairs clear the board |
Every standard face exists exactly four times. That matters for strategy: if you can see all four copies of a face, you know no copy is hiding under the stack. Flowers and seasons exist once each, four tiles per family, and any two of them form a pair.
Layouts and scoring
Pyramid is the gentle start: a broad base of 90 tiles, then three smaller floors and a cap of 6. Fortress is a full square base with a ring wall on top, an inner keep, and four stones on the very top. Garden spreads the tiles across three terraces joined by bridges, with raised beds on top. All three hold the same 144 tiles, and the daily deal picks its layout from the date, so the daily challenge changes shape as well as tiles.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Remove a pair | 10 |
| Remove a flower or season pair | 30 (10 plus a 20 point family bonus) |
| Clear the board | Time bonus: 1,800 minus your seconds, never below 0 |
| Hint | Free — 5 per game |
| Shuffle | Free — 2 per game |
| Undo | Free — takes back the pair’s points |
A slow, careful clear still scores well: the pair points alone add up to more than 700, and the flower and season pairs push the total higher. Fast clears earn the bigger time bonus. Your best score is kept, along with your fastest clear on each layout.
Strategy tips that win games
- Open long rows first. The end tiles of a long row are free, and each removal opens the side of the next tile in. Long rows are chains of future free tiles, so work them before scattered singles.
- Peel the top layers early. A tile on top can cover parts of two or three tiles below it. Removing top tiles reveals what is hidden and frees the most board at once.
- Think in fours. Every standard face has four copies. If three copies of a face are visible and two of them are free, take that pair. The fourth copy is the only one left to find.
- Watch for the four-of-a-kind trap. If two copies of a face are stuck under the other two, the top pair can never match them until something else frees them. Do not spend your other pairs carelessly when you spot this knot.
- Spend flowers and seasons with care. They match anything in their family, which makes them perfect keys for a stuck corner. Using them on an easy pair early can cost you that key later.
- Check what a pair unlocks before you take it. Two pairs may both be free, but one opens a whole row while the other opens nothing. Take the pair that frees the most tiles.
- Save shuffles for true dead ends. You get two per game, and a shuffle keeps the deal solvable. If a few moves remain, play them first. Shuffle only when no free pair is left, or when every free pair leads nowhere.
Is Mahjong Solitaire Classic free and safe to play?
Yes. The game is free. It runs fully inside this page. It asks for no name, no email and no account. It installs nothing on your device. Your wins, your best scores and your daily record stay in your browser only.
Mahjong Solitaire Classic is an original game made by GameOLL. It is the one-player tile-matching game, not the four-player gambling game with the same name. There are no bets, no chips and no prizes — just you, the stack, and a deal that always has a solution.
More games and guides on GameOLL
- Want every game in one place? Visit our Play Games page.
- Match pairs another way in Sudoku Master, our sudoku game.
- Love number puzzles? Play Tile Merge 2048, our 2048 game.
- Prefer careful clicking? Play Minesweeper, our minesweeper game.
- Slide pieces into place in Block Puzzle, our block puzzle game.
Mahjong Solitaire Classic FAQ
Is Mahjong Solitaire Classic free to play?
Yes. Mahjong Solitaire Classic is 100% free. You play it right on this page. There is no download, no sign-up and no payment.
What makes a tile free?
A tile is free when two things are true at once: no tile sits on top of it, not even partly, and its left side or its right side is open. Free tiles look bright on the board. Blocked tiles look dim.
Can every deal be cleared?
Yes. The game builds each deal by reverse removal: it starts from the full layout, takes free pairs away in a recorded order, and only then places the faces. Playing those removals back in that order always clears the board, so a solution always exists. Shuffling repeats the same trick on the tiles that remain, so a shuffled board can still be cleared too.
Do flowers and seasons really match each other?
Yes. That is the classic rule. The four flower tiles (Plum, Orchid, Mum and Bamboo) all match each other, and the four season tiles (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) all match each other. A flower or season pair pays 30 points instead of 10.
What is the daily deal?
Every day there is one shared deal. It is built from the date, and even its layout is picked from the date, so you and every other player get the same board on the same day. Clear it and the game remembers the date, ready for a new challenge tomorrow.
Does the game save my progress?
Yes, in your own browser. It keeps your games and wins, your best score, your fastest clear on each of the three layouts, and the last day you cleared the daily deal. Nothing leaves your device.
Final verdict: should you play Mahjong Solitaire Classic?
Yes — if you like a calm game with real depth. Mahjong Solitaire Classic gives you the full 144-tile game in your browser: three layouts, an honest free-tile rule, hints and shuffles that help without playing for you, and a promise most versions cannot make — every deal can always be cleared. A Garden clear can fill a relaxed half hour. The daily deal takes five focused minutes. Pick a layout, and start peeling the stack.
▶ Play Mahjong Solitaire Classic 🎮 See All Free GamesLast updated: November 4, 2026. Mahjong Solitaire Classic v1.0 — the first release of our original mahjong solitaire game, with three layouts, a reverse-removal deal maker that guarantees a solution, hints, undo, shuffles and a daily deal. An original GameOLL browser game. Found a bug? Tell us in the comments and we will fix it in the next version.
