Archived board for July 28, 2026. Play today's or browse the archive.
Tile Match is a tile-matching solitaire. Symbols are dealt across a stacked board, and you clear it by tapping two matching tiles at a time. The catch is that most tiles are not available: a tile can only be taken when nothing rests on top of it and at least one of its sides is open. So the real game is not spotting matching symbols, which is easy. It is choosing which of the available matches to take, because every removal changes what becomes reachable next.
The genre descends from the tile game popularised on computers in the 1980s, itself loosely based on the physical tiles used in Chinese rummy games. It has stayed popular for the same reason as solitaire: the rules are trivial, a round takes a few minutes, and the difficulty comes from planning rather than reflexes.
Clear from the top down. Tiles on upper layers block everything beneath them, so taking a high pair usually frees two or three tiles at once. A match on the base layer often frees nothing at all. When two matches are available and you can only be sure about one, take the higher one.
Count before you take. If a symbol has four tiles on the board and two are currently free, taking that pair is safe. If a symbol has exactly two tiles left and both are free, take them immediately: they are one careless removal away from being buried, and a stranded pair is what ends most boards.
Watch the long rows. A tile in the middle of a long unbroken row is blocked on both sides and stays blocked until one end is chipped away. Opening the ends of long rows early buys you options later, even when it does not feel like progress.
Use the available-now counter as a warning light. It shows how many legal matches exist right now. When it falls to one or two you are close to a dead end and should think before tapping. When it is comfortably high you can clear quickly without much risk.
Yes, and it is worth being clear about that rather than pretending otherwise. Every board here is dealt with an even number of each symbol and is verified to start with at least one legal match, so no board is impossible from the outset. But the order in which you clear tiles can bury the pairs you still need, and once every remaining match is blocked the board is finished. This is a genuine feature of the genre and not a bug: it is why the order of your moves matters at all. Restarting deals the same board again so you can try a different route, which is usually more interesting than a fresh one.
For a sliding number version, try 2048 or Tile Merge. For block clearing, try Block Blast. For a quiet picture puzzle, try Shape Reveal. You can also play the daily board or browse the archive.