Mah-jong
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Mah-jong group
For those people who do not know, Mah-Jong is an ancient Chinese game and is NOT like the Mah-Jong game you find on your computer, where you just match two identical tiles against the clock. This game is totally different!
The AIM OF THE GAME is for each player to attempt to assemble FOUR sets of tiles, with each set consisting of 3 or 4 tiles plus one ‘PAIR’. The tile sets are named ‘CHOW’, ‘PUNG’, and ‘KONG’, which form either a ‘DIRTY or CLEAN HAND’. Alternatively, a player may attempt to assemble the tiles into a unique pattern of which there are nineteen, known as ‘SPECIAL HANDS’. The winner of the game is the first player to lay down a completed hand by going/calling “MAH-JONG”.
The Chinese game of Mah-Jong (for 2, 3 or 4 players) is exciting, fast flowing, using skill and strategy and very enjoyable to the point of do I play to go Mah-Jong and win the game or do I play to lose a game letting another player call Mah-Jong or play to prevent anybody from calling Mah-Jong: it is your decision!
Background
I personally play and teach the British Mah-Jong Association (BMJA) rules, but it should be noted that many individuals / groups of players may play to different rules, however the basics of the game i.e. forming 4 sets and a pair of tiles or forming a Special Hand to achieve Mah-Jong remains the same wherever you play.
One example of a rule variation is BMJA only allow one Chow whereas another group of players may allow more than one. Mostly, variations occur in the formation of Special Hands (these are set patterns and do not necessarily follow four sets and a pair although some Special Hands still require four sets and a pair of tiles to achieve Mah-Jong). The BMJA have selected 19 Special Hands, but there are far more: I have seen one web site which listed 100 Special Hands, which in my opinion is far too many to remember.
Before commencing to play a player needs to establish which rules or Special Hands are being played!
Scoring, at first appears to be complicated, but once you learn how to score it becomes second nature: there is nothing wrong in referring to notes. Once again, some players prefer not to score and are quite happy to just achieve Mah-Jong, but these players actually miss out and there is very little challenge in the game as all the tiles are of the same value, hence there are no minor, major or honour tiles, especially as the person calling “Mah-Jong” might have won the game, but another player may have scored far more points. All will become clear once you start to play!
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