Mahjong Connect: Play Mahjong Connect Online Free

Mahjong Connect is the flat cousin of the solitaire pile. Instead of a mound of stacked tiles, every tile sits in one layer on a grid, and the question is not what is holding a tile down but whether you can draw a clear line between two of them.

The game is also known as Shisen-Sho, which is where the rule about the line comes from: a pair can go only if the path joining the two tiles turns at most twice and never crosses a tile that is still on the board. That one rule is the whole game. It makes the middle of the grid slow and awkward at the start, and it makes the board open up fast once the edges are gone.

How to play

Click a tile, then click a tile with the same face. If a legal path joins them, the path flashes on the board and both tiles disappear.

What counts as a legal path?

All three of these have to be true:

• The two tiles show the same face.
• The line between them runs only through empty cells, never through a tile that is still standing.
• The line turns at most twice, so it is a straight line, an L, or a Z or U shape.

The path is allowed to leave the grid and come back, which is why two tiles sitting on opposite edges can often be taken even when the middle is packed solid. Travelling around the outside counts as going through empty space.

What matches what?

Only identical faces. Bamboo 5 goes with bamboo 5 and nothing else. There are no flowers or seasons here, so none of the group matching from the solitaire game applies: every face on the grid is one of the 34 standard mahjong faces and appears an even number of times.

Winning

You win when the grid is empty. Every deal is built so that a full clear exists, but a few careless pairs can still wall tiles off from each other. Undo as far back as you like, or use Shuffle to redeal the faces of the tiles that are left.

The buttons

• New Game deals a fresh grid and gives it a new puzzle ID.
• Undo puts back the pair you just took, as many times as you want.
• Hint pulses a pair you can legally take right now and draws the path it would use.
• Shuffle rearranges the faces of the remaining tiles into the same positions, and always leaves at least one legal move.

Board sizes

The arrows under the board cycle through four grids: Easy at 10×6, Medium at 12×8, Hard at 14×8, and Expert at 14×10. Bigger grids are not simply more of the same, because a tall grid puts more tiles out of reach of a two-turn path at the start.

The number of distinct faces goes up with the size too, from twelve on the easy grid to all 34 on the expert one. Fewer faces means more copies of each, which means more chances that one of them is reachable. Like the solitaire forms, the size locks once you take your first pair, so choose it before you start.

Questions people ask

How is this different from Mahjong Solitaire?

Solitaire stacks 144 tiles into a three dimensional pile and asks which tiles are free. Connect lays them out flat and asks which tiles can see each other. Same tile faces, completely different puzzle.

Can the path really go outside the board?

Yes, and it is worth remembering. The grid is treated as if it had an empty border all the way around, so a tile on the top row and a tile on the bottom row in the same column can connect around the side even with a full board between them.

Is every grid solvable?

Yes. Each deal is checked by playing it out before it reaches you, so a winning order always exists. Getting stuck means the order you chose blocked something, which is what Undo and Shuffle are for.

Why did nothing happen when I clicked two matching tiles?

The faces matched but the path did not. Something standing between them forced more than two turns, or boxed them in completely. The tile shakes to say so and your selection moves to the one you just clicked.

What is the code in the address bar?

Every grid gets a five character puzzle ID and it lives in the URL along with the board size. Share the link and the other person gets the identical grid, tile for tile.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The grid scales down to fit your screen and tapping works the same as clicking. Nothing to install and no account to make.

About

This is the same plain, fast treatment as the rest of the site: no signup, no popups, no loading screen between you and a board. Open it, clear a grid, close the tab.

The tile art is the same set the solitaire game uses, so the faces stay familiar when you move between the two. If a grid ever misbehaves, the puzzle ID in the URL tells us exactly which one you were looking at.