Mahjong Connect, also called Onet or Shisen-Sho, clears the board in pairs: two matching tiles go when a line with at most two turns joins them through empty space, around the edge if need be. Play Mahjong Connect free in your browser — no download, no account.
Why play Mahjong Connect here?
Every board is dealt only after a solver has cleared it, and when nothing connects you can reshuffle for free into a board that can still be cleared — no lives, no countdown, no ads to watch. The hint follows that clearing order, a pair that cannot join tells you why, and you can play with new fruit, vegetable and animal pictures or with mahjong tiles.
How You WinClear every tile. Each move takes two matching tiles, as long as a line of straight segments with no more than two turns, passing only through empty cells, joins them.
- Line
- At most two turns · empty cells only · may go around the edge
- Boards
- Easy 6×10 · Medium 8×12 · Hard 8×17 (8×14 on a phone)
- Levels
- Ten levels per difficulty, each shifting its own way; plus one daily
Playing Mahjong Connect here: common questions
Is Mahjong Connect here free, and do I need to download anything?
It is free, with no download, no account and no ads. It runs in any phone or desktop browser, and if you leave in the middle of a run, the same browser brings back the same board, with the time you had played, when you return.
Is there a timer, or a limit on hints and reshuffles?
No countdown and no lives. The clock only counts up, to record your time and your best run. Hints, undos and reshuffles are unlimited and only counted in the result. When no pair can be joined, you can reshuffle for free into a board that can still be cleared, or undo instead.
Is this the classic Mahjong Connect with levels that shift?
It plays by the same classic rules: pairs join with a line of at most two turns, the line may run around the outside, and on later levels the tiles fall, rise, split or close in after every pair. What is different is that nothing counts down, every board has been cleared by a solver before it reaches you, and you can play with new picture tiles or with mahjong tiles. It is our own version, not the original program.
Can I play Mahjong Connect on my phone?
Yes. Held upright, the board turns a quarter turn to run down the long side of the screen, the four buttons sit in the bottom bar, and the tiles sit edge to edge so the pictures get the room. The Hard board is 112 tiles on a phone instead of 136, so the tiles stay big enough to tap.
What is the Daily board?
One Medium board of 96 tiles a day, the same for everyone on that date, with the way the tiles move changing from day to day. It follows the date on your device. Clearing it records your time for the day, and you can share a one-line result.
How the board is laid out
- Tiles fill the whole rectangle, face up, with nothing hidden. Each kind has four tiles (mostly six on the warm-up board), so every kind pairs off exactly.
- Easy is 60 tiles of 15 kinds; Medium is 96 tiles of 24 kinds; Hard is 136 tiles of 34 kinds, or 112 tiles of 28 kinds on a phone, where 136 would be too small to tap. Easy uses the fifteen faces that are hardest to confuse.
- The deal is a random shuffle, but only a shuffle the solver has cleared is used. Held upright, a phone shows the board turned a quarter turn — the same board, drawn the other way.
- The clock counts up and never runs out. It only records your best time.
Complete Rules
- Pick two tiles with exactly the same face: the same fruit or animal, or the same mahjong tile (a 3 of Characters pairs only with a 3 of Characters).
- A line must join them: straight segments along rows and columns, at most two turns, every cell it passes empty.
- Cleared cells are empty, and the ring around the board is always empty, so a line can go around the outside.
- If two matching tiles cannot be joined, nothing happens except a note saying so; pick another tile of the same kind.
- On a level that shifts, the remaining tiles move once after every pair.
- An empty board clears the level. After the tenth level, the next one is the first level of the next difficulty; the tenth Hard level (or the daily) ends it.
- When no pair on the board can be joined, you can reshuffle for free, and the reshuffled board can always still be cleared — or undo.
The ten levels
- Level 1: still, a warm-up with mostly six of a kind — it hardly ever gets stuck.
- Level 2: splitting apart. The top half rises and the bottom half falls, so the middle opens up — the gentlest shift.
- Level 3: still, four of a kind, where pairing choices begin to matter.
- Level 4: splitting sideways. The left half moves left and the right half moves right.
- Level 5: closing in. Both halves press toward the middle and the outer rows empty first.
- Levels 6 and 7: falling and rising. Whole columns pack down or up — the real test of where to start.
- Levels 8–10: closing in, falling and rising once more, the hardest three of the ten.
- Held upright, a phone shows the board turned, so the same shift appears on screen as drifting right or splitting sideways; the rule is unchanged.
Your First Game
- Scan the edges first. Tiles on the edge can connect around the outside and are the easiest pairs to find.
- When all four tiles of a kind can be joined, take all four, not just two.
- Stuck, press Hint. It comes from the solver's clearing order, so the pair it shows never walks you into a dead end.
- If a pair will not join, the line under the board says so: no path with two turns or fewer reaches between them. Try another tile of the same kind.
- A wrong tile is no problem — tap a different kind and the selection simply moves to it.
Practical Strategy
- With four of a kind and only two pairs open, think about which two go together: taking the tile that walls others in is usually the better pair.
- On shifting levels, clear the side the shift will pile onto first: the top and edges when tiles fall, the bottom when they rise, the outer rows when they close in.
- Keep a couple of easy pairs in reserve instead of spending every open pair at once — one shift can narrow the board suddenly.
- A combo is only rhythm: join the next pair within three seconds. Once the faces are familiar, catch the next pair out of the corner of your eye.
Winning and Special Rules
- Every board has been cleared by the solver first. About one random deal in twenty cannot be cleared at all; here only deals the solver clears are used, the daily included.
- A stuck board can be reshuffled for free, and stays clearable. Checking only that a move exists is not enough — a plain reshuffle left an unclearable board about 4% of the time in testing — so each reshuffle is solved too.
- The hint tells the truth. It takes the first pair of the solver's clearing order, and when the board has been proven impossible to finish, it says so: undo a few pairs, or play on until nothing joins and reshuffle then.
- Two tile sets, two looks. Pictures are fruit, vegetables and small animals — 34 chosen from 48 for how easy they are to tell apart at small sizes. Mahjong tiles are characters, circles, bamboos and honours. Switching does not touch the board in play.
- No lives, no countdown, no ads. Undo as often as you like; it is only counted.
Common Mistakes
- Taking the most obvious pair. The easiest pair to see is not always the one to take now.
- With four of a kind, taking the easy two and leaving the other two blocking each other.
- Ignoring the shift. On a falling level, taking a bottom tile drops the whole column above it, which can split the pair you wanted.
- Treating a reshuffle as failure. It costs nothing; it only means the last pairing could have been better.
How hard is Mahjong Connect?
The rule is one sentence; the difficulty is in finding and pairing. On the Medium board, random tapping clears about six still boards in ten without a reshuffle, and only two or three shifting ones in ten — which is why reshuffles exist.
Fewer tiles of a kind make it harder: on the same 96 tiles, random tapping clears nearly every board with six of a kind and about six in ten with four. So the warm-up uses six and the rest use four.
Bigger boards are harder: on the 136-tile board random tapping clears fewer than half, and a shifting level usually needs a reshuffle or two.
Mahjong Connect FAQ
How do I know whether two tiles connect?
Trace a path from one tile to the other along rows and columns, turning at most twice, over cells that are empty. Cells you have already cleared count as empty, and so does the ring just outside the board — which is why two tiles on the edge often connect around the outside even with tiles between them. A path that needs a third turn does not count.
Can every board be cleared?
Here, yes: before a board is shown, a solver has cleared it from start to finish, and deals it could not clear are thrown away. That does not mean any order works. With four of a kind, which two you pair together matters later, and a poor choice can still lead to a dead end.
What happens when no pair can be joined?
A small card comes up over the board: Reshuffle redeals the tiles that are left, moving them only among the cells that already hold tiles, and the reshuffled board is cleared by the solver before you get it. No lives are lost, nothing is charged, no ads — the result only records one more reshuffle. To try a different pairing instead, close the card and undo.
What do Falling, Splitting apart and the rest mean?
That is how the level moves. After each pair, the other tiles shift: Falling drops the tiles above; Rising lifts the tiles below; Splitting apart sends the top half up and the bottom half down, opening the middle; Closing in pushes both halves toward the middle; Splitting sideways sends the left half left and the right half right. A shift can block a pair that joined a moment ago, or free one that was walled in — so where you take pairs from matters.