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Shanghai

Shanghai is a game of strategy, memory, and luck. Each game begins with 144 tiles, arranged in one of over a hundred different layouts.

Rules

The object is to remove all the tiles from the layout, one pair at a time.
To remove a pair, the tiles must both match and be "free" at the same time.
A tile is considered free if no other tile is on top of it and if it can slide out to the left, to the right, or in both directions.
If a tile can only slide toward the top or the bottom of the layout, it is not free to beremoved.
The game is over when you either clear the board of all tiles or you are "stuck" and can no longer remove tiles.

Tile: One playing piece, modeled after an actual Mah-Jongg tile.
Tile set: A full set of Mah-Jongg tiles, as used in Shanghai, comprises 144 tiles (not all Mah-Jongg players use this exact number of tiles when playing Mah-Jongg).
Suits: As in playing cards, Mah-Jongg tiles can be broken down into four
- Craks (Chinese characters) - numbered from 1 to 9
- Dots - numbered from 1 to 9
- Bams (Bamboo) - numbered from 1 to 9
- Honors - this broad category includes the four Winds, the Dragons, the Seasons, and Flowers.
Special group: The Seasons and Flowers tiles are not identical to one another. There are four Seasons tiles (for the four seasons) and they are all considered to match one another in Shanghai gameplay, although they do not look identical.Likewise there are four Flowers tiles which do not look identical, yet match one another in gameplay.
Layout: A layout is the structure in which the tiles are laid out on screen. You can take actual Mah-Jongg tiles and lay them out on a table to build a layout.
Arrangement: This term is used to describe the placement of the tiles within the layout.

Remember that there are four of each tile. When removing a pair, remember that an identical pair exists in the layout. Is it trapped by your removal of the first pair? Choose wisely.
Concentrate your efforts on long rows and tall stacks.
Plan ahead as many moves as you can.
If all four of a tile are available, remove them all to unclutter the field.
Identify as many matching pairs as possible. Check for tiles that need to be unblocked.
Beware of triples (three matching free tiles); choose carefully which pair you remove. Leave the one that's blocking the least important tiles.
Concentrate on removing pairs that will unblock the most tiles.