Mahjong Solitaire › All layouts › Well Mahjong

Well Mahjong

Well Mahjong is a square well seen from above: an outer ring and an inner ring, each stacked three tiles deep, with a gap between them and an empty space in the middle.

Every tile is in a stack of three, which is unusual. The sides of each ring are single columns, so they free up fast. The top and bottom of the rings are the long rows to watch.

How to play

The rules are the same on every layout. Click two free tiles with the same face to remove them. A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and its left or right side is open. Any flower matches any flower, and any season matches any season. Clear all 72 pairs to win. The how to play guide has pictures.

How the Well layout is built

The outer ring is ten tiles across and the inner ring six. Both are exactly three tiles high everywhere.

Tips for Well Mahjong

• Take from the side columns first. A side tile has nothing to its left or right, so the top of every side stack is free.
• Work the long top and bottom rows from their ends, together with the sides.
• Every stack is three deep, so watch for two copies of a tile in the same stack.

Well layout at a glance

Difficulty

Medium

Tiles

144 (72 pairs)

Layers

3

Board size

10 tiles wide, 8 rows deep

Free at the start

24 tiles

Cleared in our tests

About 45%

The Well layout stacks its 144 tiles in three layers: 48 on the table, 48 on layer 2, 48 on top.

How we rate difficulty. We had the computer play 200 games on each layout, picking moves the same way our Hint button does. On Well it cleared the board without a shuffle in about 45% of games. That is harder than the classic Turtle, which comes in at about 50%. People who plan ahead do better than that, but the order of the layouts stays much the same. The full list is on the all layouts page.

More medium layouts and favourites

Every layout uses the same 144 tiles and the same rules. The shape is what changes, and the shape decides how hard the game is.

Turtle MahjongClassic The classic 144-tile board. Five layers, a long tail at each end. Pyramid MahjongMedium Four tiers stacked into a solid block. Peel it from the edges. Bridge MahjongMedium A long double-deck span between four towers. Castle MahjongMedium Outer walls, corner towers and a keep in the middle. Crab MahjongMedium A domed shell with claws reaching out at each corner. Fish MahjongMedium A rounded body with a raised middle and a split tail.

See all 24 layouts, sorted by difficulty

Questions people ask

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