Tangram

How to play Tangram

Tangram is the world’s most beloved dissection puzzle. You are given seven flat pieces — called “tans” — and a black target silhouette, and your task is to cover that silhouette exactly using all seven tans, with no gaps and no overlaps. The tans never change size or shape; you may only slide them, turn them and, for one special piece, flip them over. That tiny rule set hides an enormous depth: the same seven shapes can build a square, a soaring rocket, a sailing boat, a running cat or a jagged lightning bolt. This version ships fifteen original silhouettes across three difficulty levels, with a live timer, up to three hints and a ranked score, so you can chase a perfect solve or climb the leaderboard.

The goal

Fill the dark silhouette completely with the seven tans. Every part of the shape must be covered, no tan may stick out beyond the outline, and no two tans may overlap. Because all seven pieces together always have exactly the same area as every silhouette, a correct solution uses each tan once and leaves nothing over. The moment the shape is perfectly tiled, the puzzle is solved and your score is locked in — faster solves with fewer hints score higher.

A puzzle born in China

The Tangram — in Chinese 七巧板 (Qīqiǎobǎn), “the seven boards of cunning” — took shape in China, with the earliest known references appearing during the Qing dynasty around the turn of the 19th century, drawing on much older traditions of banquet tables and pattern play. Chinese merchants and sailors carried wooden and ivory sets abroad, and by the 1810s and 1820s the puzzle had swept Europe and America in a craze that rivalled any modern viral game. Napoleon is popularly said to have whiled away hours over a set; Lewis Carroll owned one; puzzle books printed thousands of silhouettes for enthusiasts to reconstruct. The genius of the design is its economy: seven simple pieces, cut from a single square, yield thousands upon thousands of recognisable figures — which is exactly why the puzzle has entertained families across the world for more than two hundred years.

The seven tans

The seven tans are cut from one square, and their sizes are all related to one another. Learning those relationships is the key to reading any silhouette, because a large gap can only be a large triangle, and a narrow slanted sliver is almost always the parallelogram.

• Two large triangles — the biggest pieces. Together they can form a square, a bigger triangle or a parallelogram, and they usually make up the bulk of a figure.
• One medium triangle — exactly half the area of a large triangle, and a handy bridge between big and small.
• Two small triangles — the smallest pieces. Two of them can combine to make a square, a medium triangle or a parallelogram, so they fill the fiddly corners.
• One square — the only piece with four equal sides; it anchors flat edges and tidy corners.
• One parallelogram — the only tan that is “handed”. It cannot be rotated into its mirror image, so it is the one piece you may flip over when a shape leans the other way.

Controls

• Drag any coloured tan from the tray onto the silhouette with your finger or mouse. Pieces snap to the grid when you let go, so you do not need pixel-perfect aim.
• Tap a tan to select it (a white outline shows the choice), then press the Rotate button, the R key, or double-tap the piece to turn it. Each turn steps the tan to its next orientation.
• The parallelogram can be flipped: select it and press the Flip button or the F key to mirror it. The other tans are symmetric and do not need flipping.
• Press the Hint button to briefly flash one tan in its correct place. You may use up to three hints per puzzle, and each hint lowers your score.

Winning and scoring

You win the instant the silhouette is fully and exactly covered. The game checks the filled area rather than which specific piece sits where, so the two large triangles are interchangeable with each other and the two small triangles are interchangeable too — any arrangement that fills the shape counts, including clever alternatives to the intended solution. When you solve, a banner shows your time, the hints you used and your score, and that score is submitted to the leaderboard for the level you played. Your best result on this device is remembered for each level.

Strategy tips

• Place the big pieces first. The two large triangles eat up most of the area, and once they are down the rest of the silhouette is far easier to read.
• Think in tans, not in outlines. Look for the shape’s longest straight edge — it is usually the hypotenuse (long side) of a large triangle — and build outward from there.
• Save the small triangles, the square and the parallelogram for last; they are perfect for the leftover corners and thin slivers that the big pieces cannot reach.
• If a slanted gap will not fill, try flipping the parallelogram. A great many “impossible” tangrams are simply a mirror-image parallelogram away from solved.
• Spend hints wisely. A single hint that unlocks a tricky corner can save far more time than it costs, but three hints on an easy shape will sink your score — plan for a clean, quick solve.

Frequently asked questions