Mahjong Solitaire Strategy

Why Thinking Ahead Matters

We had a bot play thousands of games by picking any legal pair at random. On our Pyramid board at Medium, it wins only 39.8% of the time, and when it gets stuck it leaves 35 tiles on the board on average. Every one of those deals could have been won, so everything below is about closing that gap. (See the full data.)

Count the Copies Before You Pair

This is the most useful habit in the game. When you spot a free pair, look for the other copies of that face first.

• All four copies free: take them all, in any order. It can't hurt, and it opens up more tiles.
• Two free, the other two already gone: take them. There's no choice to get wrong.
• Two free, the other two still buried: usually safe, but make sure the buried pair isn't stacked one on top of the other.
• Three free, one buried: this is the real decision. You'll leave one free tile behind for the buried one, so choose the pair that frees the most tiles, especially the one covering the buried copy.

The Trap That Ends Most Games

Suppose there are four copies of a tile. Copy A sits directly on top of copy B. Copies C and D are free elsewhere, and A is free too.

If you pair C and D because they're in your way, only A and B remain. A is on top of B, so B can never be free, and A has nothing left to match. The game is over, even if you still have twenty moves to make.

The fix is to pair A with C or D. That uncovers B, and now the last two can match. Our Hard and Expert deals are built around exactly this pattern. It's why a random bot's win rate falls from 39.8% to 4.3% and 1.3%.

Choose the Pair That Opens the Most

When several pairs are safe, take the one that frees the most tiles.

• Top layers first. A tile on a high layer can be covering up to four below it.
• Then the ends of the longest rows. A tile in the middle of a long row needs everything on one side gone first, so long rows are what block you late in the game.
• Leave short rows for later. They open up quickly anyway, so they make good reserves for when you run low.

Don't Take a Move Just Because It's There

The "Free matches" count above the board tells you how many pairs you have. When it's high, you have room to choose carefully. When it falls to one or two, slow down and think about what each pair will open.

Using Undo, Shuffle and Hints

• Undo has no limit. Use it to test a line of play. If a pair opens nothing useful, take it back and try another.
• Shuffle rearranges the remaining faces into a board that can still be won. It's a rescue, so save it. You get three on Medium and one on Hard.
• Hint shows a legal pair, not necessarily a good one. On Hard and Expert the hinted pair may well be the trap.

Strategy by Board Shape

Layouts reward different plans:

• Fortress: keep the four towers level, so no copies end up deep in the last tower.
• Bridge: alternate between the towers, since clearing one does nothing for the other.
• Stairs: you start with few moves, so work the top step first.
• Turtle: clear the side wings early to open the two longest rows.

Each layout page has more advice for that shape.