How to Play Yahoo! Mah Jong

Mah Jong is one of the oldest puzzle games in the world, with its origins being traced back to around 500 B.C. Some myths give credit to the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius, for the creation of Mah Jong because the game appeared during his lifetime and surfaced in areas he was known to frequent. Today, a virtual Mah Jong can be enjoyed at the Yahoo! Games website.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Yahoo! account
• Java-applet program

1. Go to the puzzle section of the Yahoo! Games site, and scroll down to the options for the games to be listed (see Resource below). Click "All."
2. Scroll down about halfway through the games to find Mah Jong Solitaire, and click its name or icon to get started.
3. Enter your Yahoo! account id and password in the appropriate boxes. Click the "Sign in" button.
4. Check out the advertisement for a brief second (ads make Yahoo! Games free to play), and then click the blue words above the ad to continue on to the game.
5. Choose one of the game rooms to play Mah Jong by clicking the name of the room.
6. Type the numbers and letters in the graphic into the box provided to continue to the game room.
7. Start the game by clicking the "Play Now" button.
8. Look for matching tiles you can remove from the stack. Tiles must not be covered with other tiles. Either the left or right side of the tile must not be touching another tile.
9. Select a tile to remove by clicking it, and then click the matching tile to take both tiles from the stack.
10. Continue removing two tiles at a time until you don't see any more moves, and then take advantage of the "Get a Hint" button to find a move.
11. Use the "Shuffle" button to change the tiles around when you are stuck and don't have a match. You can only shuffle the tiles three times.
12. Clear all of the tiles to advance to the next puzzle.
13. Quit a board by clicking the "Give Up" button, and then try again.
14. Win as many levels as possible to set a personal high score.

Tips & Warnings

• Score more points by multiplying the number associated with the tile by the remaining pairs: season (seven), flower (six), dragon (five), wind (four), bamboo (three), circle (two) and character (one).