Cross Mahjong Solitaire
About the Cross Layout
The Cross is a bold, immediately readable board: ninety-six tiles forming a thick plus sign, four equal arms reaching out from a raised center, built in three layers that converge toward the heart where the arms meet. The four ends of the cross are broad and open, while the square intersection in the middle is stacked highest, giving the whole shape a strong, grounded presence. It is one of the most recognizable silhouettes in the set, and the play has a clear, almost ceremonial rhythm to it.
At three out of five, the Cross is a fair and friendly challenge. The four arm-ends supply a steady stream of free tiles from the opening deal, so you are never short of moves early on, and the symmetry of the four identical arms makes the board easy to read. The difficulty gathers at the central intersection, where three layers pile up and tiles are boxed in by arms reaching from all four directions. Clearing it feels methodical and rewarding, like steadily dismantling a monument from its tips inward.
Difficulty: Hard (3/5) | Tiles: 96
How to Clear the Cross Layout
Begin at the four arm-ends, all at once if you can. The outermost tile of each arm is fully exposed and free, so the tips of the north, south, east and west arms are your starting buffet. Rake each arm inward from its end, and you will rack up easy matches while steadily clearing a path toward the center from four directions.
Keep the four arms roughly balanced as you shorten them. Because the Cross is symmetric, a tile you free on one arm usually has a twin exposed on the opposite arm, so pulling matched pairs from opposing arms keeps all four routes into the center open. Let one arm get far ahead and you waste its progress against a center that is still walled off by the others.
The crux is the central intersection, the busiest square on the board. Three layers stack there, and a middle tile is pinned by arms pressing in from all four sides, so it only frees once you have shortened every arm enough to reach it and peeled the upper layers off the top. Do not try to crack the center early; arrive at it from all four arms together with the top layer already thinned.
For the endgame, the very top of the intersection acts like a keystone over the rest. Once you are down to the central cluster, count what remains and look for any suit you hold three or four of, since a triple or quad jammed into that stacked core is the usual way a solve fails. If two needed tiles end up stacked directly in the center with no other play, the Shuffle button re-deals the remaining tiles into a fresh solvable arrangement.
The Story Behind the Cross Layout
The cross is one of the most charged symbols in human culture, but its geometry is older and broader than any single meaning: a vertical line crossed by a horizontal one marks the meeting of two directions, the center where four paths converge. Long before it became a religious emblem it appeared as a marker of the four cardinal directions, the four winds, the four seasons, the place where here meets there. This board leans on that universal sense of a crossing point, four arms reaching out to a single shared center.
That convergence is also the engine of how the layout plays. Every arm leads to the same square, and the three layers all pile up at the intersection, so the symbolism of a meeting place becomes a literal bottleneck on the board. The tips are open and free precisely because they point outward into space, while the heart of the cross, the part that means the most, is the densest and the last to come apart.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the smartest opening on the Cross?
Hit the four arm-ends. The outermost tile of each arm is fully free, so the tips of all four arms give you easy matches right away and start carving a route toward the center from north, south, east and west at once.
Does it matter if one arm gets shorter than the others?
Yes, try to keep them even. The board is symmetric, so a tile freed on one arm often has its match exposed on the opposite arm. Clearing opposing arms in step keeps all four paths into the center open; letting one race ahead just stalls against a center the other arms still block.
Why is the middle of the Cross so hard to clear?
The central intersection is where all four arms meet and where the three layers stack highest. A center tile is boxed in from four sides and capped from above, so it only releases after you have shortened every arm and thinned the top layer. Save the center for last and approach it from all four directions together.
Is the Cross guaranteed to be solvable, and when should I shuffle?
Every deal is winnable because the board is generated backwards from a fully solved cross. If the remaining tiles get awkward, most often a matched pair stacked in the dense center, press Shuffle to re-deal the leftovers into another guaranteed-solvable layout.
See more Cross Mahjong boards, or browse all layouts.
