Mahjong Minute

Mahjong Minute is a free mahjong solitaire game you can play online in your browser. The classic tile matching puzzle (often spelled mahjongg) is laid out as a stack of thick ivory tiles: tap two identical free tiles to lift them off the board, and keep going until the board is clear. Then the next board slides in, and the next, climbing from two layers to five and from no traps to many. There is no clock: like real mahjong solitaire, a run ends when you are out of moves. It sits with our other puzzle games, solitaire games and mahjong games, and it is one of our calm, relaxing games.

A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and its left or right side is open. Locked tiles are dimmed, so the bright tiles are the ones you can take. Numbered tiles come in three suits, dots, bamboo and characters, each with its number in the corner, and they match only the identical tile. Winds and dragons match their twins, while the four flowers match any flower and the four seasons match any season. The boards are stacked in layers: a pair taken from the top uncovers the tiles beneath it, and taking the tile at the end of a row opens its neighbour.

The first two boards are made for learning: whatever free pairs you take, you can never get stuck on them. From the third board, think before you take a pair. When three tiles of a kind are free, the two you choose matter, because the last two of a kind can end up locked under or beside each other. When no free pair is left, the game tells you so, spends one of your three shuffles and deals the remaining tiles into a solvable position again. Every third board you clear gives a shuffle back. Run out of free pairs with no shuffle left and the run is over: no moves left.

The boards climb a fixed ladder: Lotus with 48 tiles on two layers, then Pagoda, Fortress, Tower, Temple and Summit, 88 tiles on five layers, with ever more traps for a careless pair, brought in a few at a time from the third board. Every deal is solvable by construction, and every run plays the same boards with fresh faces and mirrored layouts, so no run is luckier than another. Every pair scores 100 points times your combo: make the next pair within 3.5 seconds and it climbs to ×5. Each cleared board pays a bonus that grows with the board, plus a speed bonus of 50 points for every second under its par of three seconds a pair. Top runs are verified by replaying every move, and the best scores go on the leaderboards of our competitive games.

Want a quick game instead? A 90-second timed version of Mahjong Minute plays in the Daily, where a stuck board shuffles itself, costing a second and a half, and the clock decides. Mahjong Minute plays the same on a phone and a computer: tap the tiles on a touch screen, or click them with the mouse on a PC, and press P to pause on a keyboard. If eight seconds pass without a pair, a free pair glows to get you moving again. Find more brain games and casual games for adults, browse our mobile games and PC games, or keep a tab open among our free games to play at work.