Tangram Unblocked

Tangram is the centuries-old shape puzzle from China: seven flat pieces cut from a single square, rearranged into the silhouette of an animal, a person, a boat or a letter. Every outline uses all seven pieces with nothing left over and nothing overlapping. This browser version, part of Christopher Müller’s open-source PaperGames set, plays unblocked and replaces dragging with simple taps. Instead of colors, each shape carries its own monochrome pattern, so the board stays easy to read on any screen.

Placing Pieces by Tapping

Below the silhouette sits the whole kit of seven: a pair of big triangles, one mid-sized triangle, a pair of little ones, a square and a slanted parallelogram. Tap one to pick it up. Turn 45° rotates it, and Flip mirrors it. Now tap somewhere in the silhouette and the shape jumps to the nearest position that suits it.

Changed your mind? Tap a placed piece to lift it back up. A small tally at the top keeps track of how many are already down. Fill the shape completely and the puzzle is done, and Next outline jumps to the next one you haven’t solved.

The four sets play differently:

• Easy draws light hints of where the pieces of one valid answer go.
• Medium and Hard give you a solid silhouette and nothing more.
• Outline only draws nothing but the border and lets a piece rest anywhere you put it, overhang and all. It feels like moving real wooden pieces around a table.

Tangram controls

To do this	Mouse	Touch
Select a piece	Click it in the tray under the outline	Tap it in the tray under the outline
Rotate or mirror the selected piece	Click "Turn 45°" or "Flip"	Tap "Turn 45°" or "Flip"
Put the piece down	Click inside the outline at the spot you want	Tap inside the outline at the spot you want
Lift a placed piece	Click it	Tap it
Get one piece placed for you	Click "Hint"	Tap "Hint"

A Simple Method for Any Outline

1. Find the big triangles a home. The two large triangles cover half the total area. Look for broad, open regions where they could sit, and place them first.
2. Read the sharp points. A narrow tip in the outline usually fits only a triangle corner. That tells you where at least one triangle has to go.
3. Fill mid-sized gaps carefully. The square and the middle triangle each cover the same area as the two little triangles side by side, so you can swap one for the other when a corner looks awkward.
4. Keep the parallelogram until the end. Mirroring it produces a genuinely different shape, unlike every other piece, so test both versions once its slot is the last one open.
5. Use one hint to break a deadlock. Hint places a single piece exactly where the solution puts it. One correct anchor often makes the rest obvious.

Why It Works So Well in a Browser

Physical tangram sets are fiddly, and pieces slide around. Here, snapping to the nearest fit keeps the board tidy, and the patterned pieces stay clear even on a small phone. With 90 outlines and no timer, it suits a calm few minutes between tasks as much as a longer session.

If you enjoy fitting shapes together, try Five Square Tiling for a pentomino-style challenge. For a different kind of spatial thinking, Untangle Lines asks you to rearrange a knotted drawing.