0:00
Diamond Mahjong is the family of Mahjong Solitaire boards built around a single, instantly recognizable silhouette: a rhombus standing on its point, tapering to a sharp tip at the top, the bottom, and both sides. Instead of the broad rectangular wall most people picture when they think of Mahjong tiles, the diamond sits at a tilt, its rows growing from a few tiles at each apex out to a wide band across the middle and back in again. That shape is not just decoration. Those four points are always exposed, and the long diagonal edges that run between them are studded with free corners, so from the very first move the layout practically hands you tiles to work with.
What keeps players coming back to the diamond is its rhythm. Because the open tiles cluster along the slanted edges, you tend to play in sweeping passes rather than isolated pokes, peeling one ring off the outside and then the next, working inward toward a center that only gives way once its surroundings are clear. Some versions in this collection are flat, single-layer diamonds that are gentle and quick; others stack a raised jewel of tiles in the heart of the board for extra resistance. Across the set you will find sixteen named variations, from the airy Mini Diamond to the dense, multi-tier Royal Diamond, each dressed in its own color and theme but sharing that same flowing, point-to-point logic. Every one is a complete, solvable puzzle, so the appeal is never about luck. It is about reading the shape and moving with it.
Mahjong Solitaire is a tile-matching game, not the four-player gambling game of the same name, and the only rule you truly need is this: you may remove a pair of identical tiles when both of them are free. A tile is free when nothing is stacked on top of it and at least one of its long sides, left or right, is open. Match the pair, it vanishes, and tiles that were trapped underneath or beside it become reachable. Clear the whole board and you win. The shape of the wall decides how easy or hard that is, because the shape controls how many tiles are open at any moment and how the openings shift as you play.
The diamond shape changes the math in a player's favor. A standard rectangular layout has long straight rows where only the two end tiles are open, so the interior stays locked for a long time. Rotate that idea into a rhombus and the staircase edges mean almost every tile along the perimeter has at least one free side. The four points are the extreme case: the topmost tile, the bottommost tile, and the single tiles at the left and right extremities sit alone with open space on either flank, so they are exposed the instant the board appears. From there the diagonal walls feed you a steady stream of corners as you remove pairs, which is why diamond boards feel generous even when they hold the same number of tiles as a tougher rectangular grid.
It helps to picture the diamond as a set of nested rings, like the growth rings of a tree or the cut facets of a real gem. The outermost ring is the perimeter you can touch immediately. Inside it sits a smaller ring mostly hidden behind the first, and inside that another, down to a handful of tiles at the very core. On the layered boards there is also a vertical dimension: a small pile rises out of the center, and its top tile floats freely above everything, an early gift, while the tiles bracing it underneath are some of the last you will be able to touch. Understanding that you are unwrapping the diamond from the outside in, both across the surface and down through the stack, is most of what you need to play it well.
Start at the points. The top, bottom, left, and right tips of the diamond are open before you make a single move, and on the layered versions the tile crowning the central stack is open too. Clearing those apex tiles early does two things: it removes the tiles easiest to forget about, and it begins prying open the diagonal edges that lead back toward the middle. Treat the four points as your opening checklist on every diamond board, and on a layered one add the peak of the center jewel as a fifth.
Once the points are gone, travel along the diagonals rather than driving straight at the center. The slanted edges are where the free corners live, so a tile on a diagonal almost always has an open side, while one in the middle of a flat band is boxed in by neighbors. Resist the urge to dig a hole toward the heart of the board. Instead, shave the whole outer ring evenly, working down both diagonals from each point until that ring is bare, and only then start on the ring beneath it. Peeling the diamond in even layers keeps the most tiles available and stops you from stranding one you will need.
The center is a patience test, and that is by design. On the layered diamonds the core tiles release only after the rings and stacks around them have come down, so a dead-looking middle almost always means an outer tile is still propping it up. Before you panic, scan the perimeter and the slopes of the central stack for a pair you skipped. A useful habit is to never spend your last copy of a tile on a pure surface match if a second copy is buried, since the buried one may be the only key that unlocks a tile you still need; save the matches that crack open new territory for when you actually need the room. And if you genuinely run out of legal moves, you have not lost the run, because Shuffle redeals the remaining tiles into an arrangement that is always solvable.
This hub gathers sixteen distinct diamond layouts, deliberately spread across the difficulty range so there is a comfortable entry point and a real challenge under the same roof. At the light end sits Mini Diamond, a compact single-layer rhombus with far fewer tiles than its siblings. It is the ideal warm-up or coffee-break board, quick enough to finish in a couple of minutes and forgiving enough that the point-first, edge-along strategy clicks into place on the very first try. The plain Diamond is the canonical version of the shape, a full-size flat board that shows you the pure form without any extra stacking, and it is the one to learn on before you reach for the heavier variants.
From there the collection adds bite by stacking tiles. Double Diamond doubles up the structure, roughly twice the tile load arranged so that the diagonals stay generous but the interior takes longer to surrender. Royal Diamond is the showpiece of the set, the tallest and most layered, with a commanding jewel rising from the center that holds out until nearly the end. Sacred Diamond carries a similar weight with a more solemn, ceremonial feel. These are the boards to save for when you want the diamond to genuinely resist you, where the patience phase of working the center becomes the main event rather than a coda.
Most of the variety in the diamond family, though, comes from themed reskins of the core shapes, and three sub-series run through the collection. The Lotus Diamond line spans three boards, Lotus Diamond, Lotus Diamond II, and Lotus Diamond III, escalating in size and density so you can grow into the theme rather than jumping straight to the hardest version. The Autumn Diamond pair, Autumn Diamond and Autumn Diamond II, does the same with a seasonal dress. A run of gem- and color-named boards rounds it out: Verdant Diamond and Emerald Diamond in cool greens, Onyx Diamond in deep black, Scarlet Diamond in vivid red, Pearl Diamond in soft pale tones, and Bamboo Diamond leaning on the bamboo suit and a natural green palette. Whatever the name on the board, every layout in the set is a hand-checked, fully solvable puzzle, so you can pick by mood and color without ever worrying you have chosen one that cannot be won.
The diamond is one of the oldest decorative motifs there is, the rhombus and the lozenge turning up in everything from playing-card pips to harlequin costumes to the facets of cut stones, and the boards in this collection lean happily into that heritage. Naming a layout Onyx or Emerald or Pearl is not just flavor text; it sets the color of the tiles and the mood of the table, so Onyx Diamond reads as a piece of polished black stone while Pearl Diamond glows pale and soft. That gemstone framing fits the gameplay perfectly, because the act of removing ring after ring really does feel like cutting and polishing a stone down to its core, revealing the bright center that was hidden inside the rough.
The botanical and seasonal boards bring a different kind of warmth. The Lotus Diamond trio borrows the lotus, a flower long tied to calm and renewal across Asian art, and its three escalating versions let the theme deepen as the puzzle does. Verdant and Bamboo Diamond pull in living greens and the bamboo suit for something that feels like a garden rather than a jewel box, and the Autumn Diamond pair shifts the palette toward the reds and golds of the turning year. When a board uses flower and season tiles, they follow the standard matching rule players expect: any flower pairs with any other flower, and any season with any other season, so a set always behaves the way it looks like it should and you are never caught out by a tile that refuses an obvious pair.
Part of the quiet pleasure of the diamond family is simply how clean it looks in motion. Because play flows along the diagonals, you spend the game watching a symmetrical shape shed its edges evenly and shrink toward a glowing middle, and that symmetry satisfies in a way a ragged rectangular wall does not. A diamond never looks half-demolished and lopsided; it just gets smaller and brighter until it is gone. For a player who comes to Mahjong Solitaire to unwind, that elegant, predictable unwinding of the shape is a large part of the draw.
As a category, diamond boards run a touch friendlier than the average Mahjong Solitaire layout, and that is a feature, not a knock. The open points and corner-rich diagonals mean you are rarely starved for moves, so the failure mode is less often a hard dead end and more often a gentle nudge to slow down and read the rings. That makes the diamond an excellent shape for players who find the classic turtle or a dense pyramid frustrating, and an especially comfortable one for relaxed and older players who want a thinking game that rewards care without punishing a single wrong tap. The pace is entirely yours to set.
Within the family the spread is wide enough that almost everyone finds their level. A newcomer should start with Mini Diamond to learn the moves and then graduate to the plain Diamond for the full shape at an easy weight. A confident regular who wants the strategy to actually matter should reach for Double Diamond, Sacred Diamond, or the top of a themed series like Lotus Diamond III, where the layered center turns the endgame into a real planning exercise. Royal Diamond stands ready as the collection's deep end, the board to come back to when you want the diamond to test your patience for as long as possible.
Crucially, difficulty here never means unfairness. Every board in the set is guaranteed solvable from the deal, Shuffle always redeals into another solvable arrangement, and the supporting tools are there whenever you want them: Undo to reverse a hasty move, Hint to point out a live pair, and Shuffle to reset a stuck board without ending the run. That combination, a forgiving and flowing shape, a clear ladder of difficulty, and a safety net that keeps every puzzle winnable, is what makes Diamond Mahjong a place you can play for five minutes or an hour and come away relaxed rather than rattled.
Begin with Mini Diamond. It is the smallest layout in the collection, a single-layer rhombus with relatively few tiles, so a game is short and the core strategy, clear the four points first and then work along the diagonal edges, becomes obvious almost immediately. Once that rhythm feels natural, move up to the plain Diamond for the full-size shape, and only then try the layered and themed versions like Double Diamond or Lotus Diamond III, which hold more tiles and a tougher center.
Because of how the shape exposes them. A tile is playable only when it has an open side and nothing on top, and the slanted edges of the diamond leave a free side on nearly every tile around the perimeter. The four points, top, bottom, left, and right, are the extreme case: each is a lone tile with open space on both flanks, so all four are available before you make a move. Taking them early starts opening the diagonals that lead inward, which is why every diamond board rewards a points-first approach.
On the layered diamonds the central tiles are designed to release only after the surrounding rings and stacks come down, so a frozen-looking middle usually means an outer tile is still propping it up. Scan the whole perimeter and the slopes of the central jewel for a pair you skipped before assuming you are stuck. If you truly have no legal move left, use Shuffle: it redeals the remaining tiles into an arrangement that is always solvable, so the run continues rather than ending.
Every diamond layout in this collection is a complete, solvable puzzle from the moment it is dealt, so a clean win is always possible with the right order of moves rather than good fortune. If you run out of moves, the Shuffle redeals into another solvable state, and Undo lets you reverse a mistake, so you are never trapped in an unwinnable position. The challenge is reading the shape and sequencing your matches, not hoping the tiles fall your way.
Hard · 90 tiles
Master · 88 tiles
Hard · 78 tiles
Master · 126 tiles
Hard · 84 tiles
Expert · 144 tiles
Expert · 84 tiles
Medium · 38 tiles
Hard · 66 tiles
Master · 144 tiles
Easy · 40 tiles
Expert · 112 tiles
Medium · 42 tiles
Expert · 102 tiles
Master · 140 tiles
Medium · 60 tiles
Hard · 44 tiles
Easy · 24 tiles
Pyramid Mahjong Solitaire · Tower Mahjong · Twin Towers Mahjong · Bridge Mahjong · Cross Mahjong · Fortress Mahjong · Zodiac Mahjong · Animal Mahjong · Object Mahjong · Food Mahjong · Holiday Mahjong · Symbol Mahjong · Nature Mahjong · Geometric Mahjong · Easy Mahjong Solitaire · Hard Mahjong Solitaire · Christmas Mahjong · Ocean Mahjong