A free stacked-tile matching patience game

Clear a stack of 144 hand-drawn tiles by taking them away in matching pairs: that's Tile Pairs, the calm stacked-tile patience in Games by Zaweba. It's free, it runs offline with no adverts, and every deal can be cleared.

Stacked-tile patience is one of the most relaxing games there is. No timer is pressing on you, the tiles are pretty to look at, and the puzzle is all about seeing which pairs to take first.

How Tile Pairs plays

The tiles are arranged in a layered stack. Take away tiles in matching pairs until the board is empty. You can only take a free tile: one with nothing on top of it, and nothing touching its left or its right side. Any two flowers match each other, and so do any two leaves.

To play, click two matching free tiles. If you're stuck, there's a hint, an undo, and three shuffles. H gives a hint and Z undoes. Tile Pairs is on the Puzzles shelf of Games by Zaweba.

Every deal can be cleared

That one fact changes how you play. Since there's always a way through, a stuck board means an earlier choice was the wrong one, not that the deal was hopeless. Undo becomes a learning tool rather than a cheat, and it's worth going back a few moves to find the pair that should have waited.

Choosing which pair to take

Take pairs that free the most tiles. When you have a choice, pick the pair whose removal uncovers or frees more tiles underneath and beside. That keeps your options open.

Work on the tall stacks. Tiles buried under several layers are the hardest to reach, so it's often wise to start digging into the highest parts of the layout early.

Think before matching in fours. If three or four of the same tile are free, the choice of which two to take matters. Look at what each one is blocking and take the pair that unlocks the most.

Clear the long rows from the ends. Tiles in the middle of a long row are blocked on both sides. Taking tiles from the ends opens the row up.

Use the shuffles wisely. Three shuffles are a generous safety net, but undoing a few moves is often a better first step, since it keeps the layout you know.

A good game for winding down

Tile Pairs suits the end of a day, a quiet lunchtime or a few minutes with a cup of tea. F11 makes the board fill the screen, which is lovely for showing the hand-drawn tiles at their best. Esc pauses, and the game pauses itself when the window loses focus. F1 explains the rules again if you forget which tiles match.

Games by Zaweba keeps your plays, wins and best score on the game's tile, and those records stay in a file on your own PC.

Other calm games nearby

If you enjoy the matching in Tile Pairs, the Cards shelf has Pairs, the memory game, and Pyramid Thirteens, which takes apart a pyramid of cards in pairs that add to thirteen. On the Puzzles shelf, Switch Off has fifty bulb puzzles and Slide Puzzle puts a painted landscape back in order. Everything in Games by Zaweba is drawn and every sound made in code, so nothing needs the internet.