Pairs Solitaires
Pairs-based solitaires are generally less engaging than triplet-based ones and tend to rely more on luck. Culin describes two such games, and I learned about two more from Chinese blogging platforms.
Open the Pagoda
This game was described by Culin. The dominoes are arranged as shown in the illustration. Whenever a pair appears among the open tiles, it is removed from the board. As soon as a tile has two free adjacent sides, it may be turned face up. If all tiles are successfully removed in pairs, the player wins.
Open the Pagoda game initial layout example
The Turtle
The tiles are laid out as shown in the picture.
Interestingly, in Culin’s description only 24 tiles are shown, which suggests that either the illustration or the description contains an error. It is possible that the game was played with the same set as Ding Niu, and that in addition to the civilian pairs there was also a Bull Pair (i.e., [6:3][6:2]).
Culin does not explain how the remaining tiles are turned over, but the procedure was likely very similar to Open the Pagoda.
Turtle initial layout example
Two Rows
The dominoes are arranged in two rows of sixteen tiles, one above the other. If vertically adjacent tiles form a pair, they are removed, and the remaining tiles collapse to fill the gap.
After all possible pairs have been removed, the top row shifts one tile to the left: the leftmost tile from the top row “falls” to the bottom row, and the rightmost tile from the bottom row rises to the top. Then the bottom row shifts one tile to the right. In this way, the tiles move counterclockwise.
If the player manages to pair all the tiles, they win.
Memory
All tiles are placed face down. The player turns over any two tiles; if they form a pair, they are removed, and if not, they are turned face down again. The game can also be played competitively, with several players trying to collect the most pairs. As the name suggests, it primarily tests memory rather than strategy.
Sources
Open the Pagoda Culin’s description
Turtle game described on Pagat , with slightly different rules