How to Play Mahjong Connect
To play Mahjong Connect, remove matching tiles two at a time until the board is empty. Two tiles can go only if they are identical and a line of at most three straight segments — no more than two turns — joins them without crossing another tile. The line may run round the empty border outside the board. When no pair can be joined, shuffle; you have three.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal a full boardEvery cell of the rectangle holds a face-up tile — 60, 112 or 144 of them — and every face appears exactly four times.
- 2Join two identical tilesTwo identical tiles come off together when a line of at most three straight segments — two turns at most — joins them through empty cells.
- 3Use the borderThe ring of cells just outside the board is always empty, so a line may leave the board, run along its edge and come back in.
- 4Never cross a tileA line runs along rows and columns only, never diagonally, and never through a cell that still holds a tile.
- 5Shuffle when stuckWhen no pair can be joined, a shuffle deals the faces left into a layout that can be cleared. There are three per game.
- 6Clear every tile to winThe game is won when the board is empty, and lost if no pair can be joined once all three shuffles are spent.
Try it — the rules above, running
New game deals a fresh board at the size you last chose. Hint rings a pair that can be joined now, taken from a known way to clear the board whenever there is one, and is counted. Shuffle deals the tiles left into a layout that can still be cleared; there are three per game. The three-dot menu holds the board size and today’s shared game.
Your statistics · Medium board
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
Each board size keeps its own record. A game you abandon, or one that runs out of moves with every shuffle spent, counts as a loss. Kept in this browser only.
Today’s game
One Medium board a day, the same for everyone — every tile in the same place — from midnight to midnight UTC.
Keyboard
- Arrows
- Move between cells
- Enter / Space
- Pick the tile under the cursor
- Esc
- Put a picked tile back
- H
- Hint
- S
- Shuffle
- N
- New game
- F
- Full screen
How do you connect two tiles?
- 1Pick a tileClick or tap it, or move the cursor with the arrow keys and press Enter. It lifts to show it is picked; pick it again to put it back.
- 2Pick its twinOnly an identical tile can pair. Picking a different face, or a twin with no legal route, gives the second tile a shake and leaves the first one picked.
- 3Check the routeA line must run between them along rows and columns, crossing only empty cells, with at most two turns. The empty border round the board counts.
- 4Watch them goBoth tiles pop off and the route they took flashes across the board, so you can see why the pair was legal.
What blocks a connection?
- A tile in the way. Every cell a line crosses must be empty; only the two tiles at its ends are occupied.
- A third turn. A route that needs three corners is not allowed, even through wide-open space.
- A diagonal step. Lines run along rows and columns only, so twins touching corner to corner still need an empty cell beside them.
- Different faces. Only identical tiles pair — a Flower with a Flower, a 3 of Dots with a 3 of Dots.
When does a game of Mahjong Connect end?
When the board is empty, which is a win, or when no pair can be joined and all three shuffles are spent, which is a loss. Until then a stuck board is only a pause: a shuffle deals the tiles left into a layout that can still be cleared.
How do you win more often?
- Pair the right copiesEvery face appears four times, and choosing which two copies go together is the only decision that can spoil a board that could be cleared. When three or four of a face are in view, pair the two that leave the others easiest to reach.
- Take a whole face at once when you canIf all four copies of a face can be cleared as two pairs right now, take both pairs. That can never hurt: removing tiles only opens routes, and those four had to go sooner or later.
- There is no rush for a pair that already joinsA pair that can be joined now will still be joinable after any other move, because the board only ever loses tiles. Open up the crowded middle first and leave the easy pairs for later.
- Treat the edges as a reserveTwo tiles on the same outer edge can always be joined through the border, however full the board. They are the moves that will still be there when everything else is blocked.
- Search outward from one tileA route can only leave a tile along its row or its column. Follow the open cells in those four directions: the tile's twin can be joined only if it can reach one of those cells with a line that turns once at most — or if it is a neighbour.
Common questions about mahjong connect
- What does the dashed line round the board mean?
- It marks the empty border that routes may use. A line can leave the board, run along that border and come back in, as long as the whole route turns no more than twice.
- How many turns can the connecting line make?
- Two at most, which means three straight segments. A straight line with no turns and an L with one turn are both fine; a route that needs a third turn is not allowed.
Ready to stop reading? Play mahjong connect on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.