How to use
- On the first screen, tap Easy (24 tiles), Medium (48 tiles) or Hard (72 tiles). If you are new to the game, start with Easy.
- Tap two tiles with the same picture, one after the other, and both disappear. The first tile you tap rises and gets a thick outline.
- A tile cannot be tapped if another tile lies on top of it, or if both its left and right sides are blocked by other tiles. These tiles look faded, and tapping one shows a short reason.
- Hint outlines a pair you can match in blue. Shuffle lays out the remaining tiles again. Undo takes back the last pair you matched.
- When every tile is cleared, “All matched!” appears. Next game starts a new board at the same level, and Change level goes back to the first screen.
- Sound is off at first. Turn it on with the sound button at the top, and the page remembers your choice.
- On a phone the board fills the screen. Use the back button to close it and return to the first screen.
It is a good game for a short break or a commute. There is no score and no time limit. A game in progress is saved, so you can close the page, come back later and tap Resume on the first screen.
To settle who goes first or who takes a turn by chance, try the ladder game instead.
Rules: which tiles can be tapped
- Two tiles with the same picture make a pair. Easy uses 12 different pictures, Medium 24 and Hard 36. When a board has more than two tiles per picture, the same picture appears in several pairs.
- A tile can be tapped when both conditions hold. Nothing lies on top of it, and at least one of its left and right sides is open. If both sides are blocked, it cannot be tapped.
- Every board can be solved. The game builds a board by placing pairs one at a time, starting from an empty board. So there is always at least one order of clearing that empties the board. A new board is never unsolvable.
- You can still get stuck. Even if a solving order exists, clearing tiles in another order can leave no pair to match. Then “No pairs left to match. Shuffle?” appears, and a shuffle lays the remaining tiles out so that they can be solved again.
- Rarely, a shuffle is not possible. If the game cannot find a solvable layout for the remaining tiles, “Can’t shuffle any more” appears. Use Undo or start a new game.
- A hint shows a pair you can match. It does not mean that pair is the best move for solving the whole board.
Example: one Easy game with 24 tiles
The Easy board is stacked in 4 rows, and the two middle rows are two tiles high.
- The tiles on top and at the left and right edges can be tapped right away. A tile in the lower middle has another tile on top, so it cannot be tapped yet.
- If you see two tiles you can tap with the same picture, tap them one after the other to clear them. The tiles that were underneath become available.
- If you cannot see a match, tap Hint. Tap the two tiles with the blue outline and that pair is cleared.
- Clearing all 12 pairs ends the game. If you run out of pairs in the middle, shuffle and carry on. If you think you made a bad move, use Undo to step back one pair at a time.
The number of pairs left is shown at the top, so you can see how far along you are. On bigger boards, clearing the tiles that are covered by many others first matters most, so look for the pairs of the most buried tiles.
Edge cases: resuming, sound and small screens
- A saved game stays on this device and in this browser only. It does not carry over to another device or another browser. Clearing the site data in your browser also deletes the saved game.
- Starting a new game discards the game in progress. If you have a game in progress, you are asked before it is discarded.
- Finishing a game clears the saved game. Only unfinished games can be resumed.
- Tiles never get smaller than a set size. On a very small phone, about 320 px wide, Medium and Hard boards may not fit entirely. You can scroll the board area up and down, and the button row stays where it is.
- If you hear no sound, check that the sound button is on. It starts off. If your device is on silent, you will not hear anything even when it is on.
- You can play with a keyboard. Use Tab to move between tiles you can tap, and Enter or Space to select one.
- Tapping the same tile again clears your selection. Tapping a tile with a different picture changes your selection to that tile.
Frequently asked questions
Can a board be impossible to solve?
A new board can always be solved. But depending on the order you clear tiles in, you can run out of pairs to match. When that happens, shuffle and keep going, or use Undo to step back.
Is this the same as the real mahjong game?
No. It borrows the look of mahjong tiles for a one-player matching game. It uses easy-to-tell pictures instead of the traditional faces, and there are no scores or opponents.
Are there scores or time records?
No. The page shows only how many pairs are left, and when you finish it shows “All matched!”.
Can I continue a saved game on another device?
No. A game in progress is stored only in this browser on this device, and it is not sent to a server. When you open the page again on the same device, Resume appears on the first screen.
What does the site count in its visit statistics?
Only that a new game was started, that a game was finished, the level you picked (Easy, Medium or Hard), and the language of the page. It does not send which tiles you tapped, how many times you got blocked or how long a game took. Resuming a saved game is not counted as a new game.
Does turning sound on download anything?
No. The browser makes the sounds on the spot instead of downloading files.
How it works
Boards are built backwards so they can always be solved. Starting from an empty board, the game picks two spots that can be tapped, puts a pair with the same picture there, fills those spots in, and repeats until every tile is placed. Clearing the tiles in the reverse of that order empties the board, so a new board can always be solved. Shuffle places the remaining tiles the same way, so a shuffled board can be solved too. A tile can be tapped when no tile lies on top of it and its left or right side is open. All of this is calculated in your browser, and the tests for it are in this site's repository.
- Last checked
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