Mahjong Tiles Match

Mahjong tile matching has almost nothing to do with the four-player gambling game of the same name. It is a solitaire puzzle built from mahjong tiles, and the entire ruleset is one sentence: remove pairs of identical free tiles until the board is empty. What makes it hold up is that the tiles are stacked, so removing one changes which others become available, and a board that looks half-finished can be completely stuck. The art on the tiles does real work here too — bamboos, circles and characters are distinguishable at a glance in a way that abstract coloured shapes are not, which is why this format has survived unchanged for decades.

Find two identical tiles that are both free and click them to remove the pair. A tile is free when nothing is stacked on top of it and at least one of its left or right sides is open. Clear the whole board to complete the level. Each level rearranges the layout, and the stacking gets deeper as you go.

Never match a pair just because you can. When four identical tiles are visible and two are free, removing the wrong two can bury the other pair for good. Clear from the top layers downward — tiles underneath are worthless to you until whatever sits on them is gone. Scan the edges of the board before the middle, because edge tiles are the ones most likely to be blocking a whole row. And when you have a choice, take the match that frees the most new tiles rather than the one you noticed first.