Mahjong: Bridge
How to play Mahjong Bridge
Mahjong solitaire is a tile-matching puzzle for one player in which you clear a stacked layout of mahjong tiles by removing free tiles in matching pairs.
A deck narrowing as it rises, carried by two pylons.
144 tiles, 4 layers
About Mahjong Bridge
The Bridge is 144 tiles in four layers. The deck is two rows of 18 on the floor, 16 on the second layer and 14 on the third, with four tiles on top lying across both rows in the middle. Standing clear of the deck are two pylons of 22 tiles each, three layers high, and every layer of a pylon sits half a tile off the one beneath.
Only 22 tiles are free at the start, against the Turtle's 35, and 104 are covered. Each pylon opens only from its top four tiles, and the deck only from its ends, a step at a time, since every layer stops a tile short of the one below. Open both pylons early: their floor tiles are the most deeply buried on the board.
The layers hold 60, 44, 36 and 4 tiles, and the deck's floor rows of 18 are the longest rows on any layout here. If all free tiles could vanish at once, again and again, the Bridge would need nine such waves, one more than the Turtle. The deck goes last: its rows shrink from both ends, layer by layer, until only the four floor tiles under the middle of the deck are left.
The goal of Mahjong
Mahjong solitaire is a tile-matching puzzle for one player, not the four-player game. Clear the board by removing its tiles in matching pairs; you win when no tile is left.
How to set up Mahjong
A full set has 144 tiles: bamboo, characters and dots from 1 to 9, four winds and three dragons, four of each, plus four flowers and four seasons. Some layouts use fewer tiles. A new board is dealt at random and may be impossible to clear, unless you turn on Winnable under New game. Even a winnable board can be lost by matching the wrong pairs.
Mahjong rules
Select two free tiles that match and both leave the board. Tiles match when they show the same face, but any flower matches any flower and any season matches any season.
A tile is free when nothing lies on top of it, even partly, and its left or right side is not touching another tile on the same layer. Only the left and right sides count. You can have free tiles highlighted in the settings.
Hint shows a pair to take, chosen to keep the board winnable when a winning line can be found. Undo takes back a match, and Restart deals the same board again. There is no reshuffle: if tiles remain but no free pair matches, you are stuck and can undo, restart or start a new game.
The full Mahjong guide, with strategy tips and common questions