About Mahjong Solitaire

Clear the board by removing matching pairs of tiles. You can only take a tile that is free: nothing may rest on top of it, and at least one of its long sides, left or right, has to be open. A tile boxed in on both sides stays put until one of its neighbours goes, which is what turns a simple matching game into a puzzle about order. In the classic set the four flowers match one another, as do the four seasons.

Every layout here can be cleared. Tiles are dealt so that a complete solution always exists, so a stuck board is the result of an earlier choice rather than a deal nobody could have finished. If you do run out of moves, the shuffle re-deals the remaining tiles so the board can still be cleared, and undo takes back as many moves as you like.

The daily challenge uses a compact 72-tile layout that plays comfortably on a phone. Everyone gets the same one each day, with a leaderboard for the fastest clear, and the classic 144-tile turtle is there for a longer sitting.

Tips to win

• When three identical tiles are free, stop before matching: the pair you take decides which one stays buried
• Clear the tall stacks in the middle early, since the tiles trapped beneath them are the ones that end games
• Work long rows from their ends, because each end tile you remove frees the next one along
• When all four copies of a tile are free, any two can go without risk