Peace Sign Mahjong Solitaire

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About the Peace Sign Layout

The Peace Sign layout draws the famous 1958 emblem in tiles: a bold circular ring runs all the way around the outside, and inside it a vertical column drops from top to center before splitting into two diagonal spokes that reach down to the lower left and lower right, forming an upside-down Y. The ring is built from tiles set edge to edge, so it reads as one continuous loop, while the three inner arms meet at a small hub in the middle. There is open table space tucked into the three pie slices between the arms, which keeps the board feeling airy rather than crowded.

At 2 out of 5 this is a gentle, welcoming board, a good choice when you want to relax rather than wrestle. The ring is the easy part because its ends are almost always exposed, and the three inner arms are short enough that you rarely lose track of a pair. The only thing that asks for a little care is the hub where the arms converge, so the difficulty here is more about patience near the center than about any real risk of getting stuck.

Difficulty: Medium (2/5) | Tiles: 106

How to Clear the Peace Sign Layout

Start on the ring. Because it is a single closed loop, every tile along it has at least one open side, so you can pick away at it freely from many points at once. Work the ring down steadily and you immediately reveal the outer ends of all three inner arms, which is exactly where you want to be feeding next.

Treat the vertical column and the two diagonal spokes as three separate ladders that you climb from the outside in. The bottom of each spoke and the top of the column become free as soon as the ring beside them clears. Try to shorten all three arms at a roughly even pace instead of fully draining one, since balanced arms give you the widest choice of matches and stop one arm from outrunning its partners.

The crux is the central hub where the column meets the two spokes. Those innermost tiles are pinned on several sides until the arms above and around them are gone, so do not save matches you will need there. If you find a pair where one tile sits at the hub and its twin sits safely out on a spoke, clear the spoke tile and leave the hub tile to come off last from that arm.

For the endgame you are usually left with the small cluster at the center and the last few tiles closing the ring. Keep one easy pair in reserve on the ring as a release valve so you are never forced to break into the hub before it is ready. If the three arms somehow empty unevenly and you stall, the Shuffle button re-deals what remains into another solvable arrangement, so a quiet board like this almost never ends in a dead stop.

The Story Behind the Peace Sign Layout

The peace sign was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom for the British nuclear disarmament movement, and its lines are not random: the inner shape combines the flag-semaphore positions for the letters N and D, for nuclear disarmament, all enclosed in a circle to suggest the whole world. It spread far beyond its origins to become a near-universal shorthand for peace itself, which is why it feels instantly familiar the moment the tiles fall into place.

That heritage makes it a satisfying Mahjong shape because the symbol is built from a circle and three straight strokes, the cleanest possible geometry for a tile board. The enclosing ring gives you a generous, easy-to-read edge to start on, while the upside-down Y inside provides just enough structure to make the solve feel purposeful. Few symbols translate to tiles this naturally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the Peace Sign feel easier than its tile count suggests?

Most of the board is the outer ring, and a ring exposes open ends almost everywhere along its length. That means you always have many legal matches available at once, so even with a fair number of tiles the board rarely tightens up the way a dense, stacked layout would.

Which part should I clear first, the ring or the inner Y?

The ring, always. Clearing the ring exposes the outer tips of the vertical column and both diagonal spokes, which are the feeding points for the entire interior. Open the inside first and you will have far fewer free tiles to work with.

What is the trickiest spot on this layout?

The central hub where the column and the two spokes meet. Those tiles are blocked on multiple sides until the three arms are mostly cleared, so avoid hoarding matches that can only be completed at the hub, and let those center tiles come off last.

Can I get stuck on the Peace Sign?

It is very unlikely on a board this open, but if the arms drain unevenly and you run out of moves, press Shuffle. It re-deals the remaining tiles into a fresh arrangement that is still guaranteed solvable, so you can finish from there.

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