Hashtag Mahjong Solitaire

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About the Hashtag Layout

The Hashtag board is built from four bars laid like a tic-tac-toe grid: two upright strokes crossed by two horizontal ones. Where they overlap, the tiles pile up into four thick intersections, and between them sit the nine cells of the grid, with one fully open square right in the middle. Rendered in mahjong tiles it looks like a sturdy lattice or a window frame, all clean lines and right angles, instantly readable as the pound sign or hashtag.

Rated 3 out of 5, this is a true middleweight that rewards a bit of planning. The long straight strokes give you plenty of accessible tiles along their outer edges, but the four crossing points are where the difficulty hides, because that is where tiles stack and lock each other in. It plays with a pleasing rhythm of easy stretches along the bars punctuated by tighter knots at the joints. The symmetry is friendly to the eye, yet it can fool you into clearing one arm at the expense of another.

Difficulty: Hard (3/5) | Tiles: 88

How to Clear the Hashtag Layout

Open along the bar ends. The four strokes each have tips that poke out past the grid, and those tips are your safest free tiles. Begin by working inward from all four ends, shaving the straight runs down so the lattice gets thinner before you ever wrestle with the crossings.

Respect the intersections. The four points where a vertical and a horizontal bar overlap are the highest, most stacked spots on the board, and tiles there cover one another. Do not attack a junction head-on early; instead, clear the bar segments leading up to it from both sides so the top tiles of the junction become free naturally. A junction opens most easily once both arms feeding it are already shortened.

Balance the four arms. Because the shape is symmetrical, it is tempting to fully clear one stroke before touching the next, but that often strands matches that span across the grid. Work the whole figure down in layers, keeping all four arms at a similar height, so that matching pairs sitting on opposite sides of the lattice stay available to each other.

For the endgame, the last tiles usually cling to one or two of the crossing knots. Save a flexible pair, a flower, or a season if you can, since flowers match any flower and seasons match any season, which gives you a free move to crack open a stubborn junction. If both knots seize up at once with no legal match, Shuffle re-deals the remaining tiles into a fresh solvable grid.

The Story Behind the Hashtag Layout

Long before it became the hashtag of social media, this symbol was the pound sign on telephones, a shorthand for numbers, and even a proofreader's mark meaning insert a space. Its name, the octothorpe, is delightfully odd, and the grid shape has been recognizable for centuries as a simple way to divide space into neat boxes, just like a game of noughts and crosses.

That grid is what makes it such a good Mahjong board. Four straight bars give long, clean runs to clear, while the four crossings create natural difficulty spikes that keep the puzzle honest. The fully open center square is a nice visual wink, the empty middle of the tic-tac-toe board, and the whole figure's symmetry makes it feel orderly and architectural to take apart.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the hardest tiles on the Hashtag board?

At the four intersections where the vertical and horizontal strokes cross. Those are the tallest, most stacked points, so tiles there block one another. The bar segments between intersections are easy; the knots are the challenge.

What is the best opening move?

Start at the four bar tips that stick out past the grid. Those exposed ends are reliably free, and clearing inward from them shortens each stroke so the crossings loosen up before you have to tackle them directly.

Should I clear one stroke at a time?

No. Keep all four arms at a roughly even height and peel the lattice down in layers. Matching pairs often sit on opposite sides of the grid, so collapsing one arm completely can leave their partners stranded across the figure.

How do flowers and seasons help here?

Any flower tile matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season, so those tiles give you a flexible move whenever you need one. On the Hashtag, save such a pair to break open a locked intersection in the endgame.

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