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| Mah-Jong is a quite complicated skill game. It is very well-known in China, where it comes from. The game has many variations, the most well-known in other parts of the world, except China, is its solitaire version, where the player has to match tiles. In this article I will discuss the several versions of Mah-Jong, with the emphasis on the traditional Chinese skill game. |
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So let us get started with the history of Mah-Jong. The history of the game is very interesting since it involves a myth. According to the myth, Confucius created the game around 500 BC. This could explain the name of the game: Mah-Jong means sparrow in English. It is said that Confucius was fond of birds. Historians believe that the origin of the game is based on a card game, which was played in the Ming dynasty. There are other theories too: one is that Chinese army officers created the game to pass time, or that a noble mean developed it in the second part of the 1800s. Although the origin of the game is not clear, it is interesting to note that Mah-Jong was banned in China in 1949, but after the Cultural Revolution the game became very popular again. As you see, Mah-Jong was a very controversial game, let us see what are its basic rules and tile-types.
The rules of Mah-Jong might seem very confusing for a beginner, but if you have played it once or twice, you should know that it is not a very hard game. The object of the game is simple: you will need to collect a combination of tiles. Three basic combinations are available: Chows, Pungs and Kongs. When you go for a Chow, you will have to collect a consecutive sequence of three tiles of the same suit. If you want a Pung, you have to collect three identical tiles of the same suit, while for Kong; you have four identical tiles of the same suit. These are the basic combinations which can be made with the tiles. As I said there are other combinations too, but they are mostly based on the three presented combination. I will not describe the other possible combinations here, for a beginner it is enough to understand these three possibilities, the rest will come easily if you play the game.
Before dealing, all tiles are place face down and shuffled. According to the variations, the game can be played with 136, 144,148, 152 tiles. The dealer will give each player 13 or 16 tiles, and the remaining tiles are stacked up into a wall. The players will draw tiles from this wall. In some variations a group of tiles at the back end of the wall is called the dead wall. Tiles are taken from this part only in special occasions.
Now that you know the combinations let us see a round of Mah-Jong. Each player is dealt 13 or 16 tiles, depending on the variation they play. If a player is dealt winning tiles from the beginning, he may declare victory even before the game begins. After the tiles are dealt, the first player will draw a tile from the draw pile, and will discard another tile from his hand. The discarded tile is put on the table, and the player might have to say the name of the discarded tile out loud, once again, depending on the variation. There are specific rules regarding the procedure when a player draws certain tile types. In case of flower tiles the player has to put it down in front of him on the table. If two or more players have flower tiles the dealer will change them to other tiles. In some variations of the game flower tiles have no value, but in other variations if a player has all the flower tiles, he wins the game. In some variations of Mah-Jong, usually the variations played in America, a joker tile is introduced. This tile can substitute any other tile, or just the tiles from the possible variations.
Let us now go further to the next step. After discarding a tile, the next player may call it in order to complete a meld. You might say that I did not introduce the term meld before, but the term simply covers the possible tile combinations listed above. If any of the players completes a hand, he wins the game. If only the dead wall remains and none of the players has won, the game is drawn, and another round will begin after shuffling the tiles.
Although there are several variations which are played in Europe and in other countries than China, the Mah-Jong solitaire version became very popular outside China. In this type of the game you do not have to play with someone else, the main goal of the game is to connect the tiles. You can choose in what form should the tiles be generated and then the computer will generate your board. You are allowed to connect two tiles which have a one free side. Once you have connected a good pair of tiles, they will be removed. The object of the game is to remove all the tiles.
Although the same tile-types are used in both cases, the two games are very different. The traditional Chinese one is a board game, and you can play it with two or three players, while the solitaire version is designed for a single player. There are other differences too: in the traditional Mah-Jong you do not have to connect tiles, you have to make several combinations to win, but the computer based is somewhat simpler: all you have to do is to connect two identical tiles. You can now see that the traditional variation of the game requires a higher skill-level than the other one. Besides these two variations, Mah-Jong has several other variations too. I will list only the names of the variations here: Chinese Classical Mah-Jong, Hong Kong Mah-Jong, Taiwanese Mah-Jong, Japanese Mah-Jong, Western Classical Mah-Jong, American Mah-Jong and others. So it is important to check out the exact rules before you start to play, because the several variants have slightly different rules.
As a conclusion: Mah-Jong is a very interesting game, and its variants are quite popular in other countries too, not only in China. Being a good Mah-Jong player requires some skills, the most important ones are memory, observation and tactics. Due to the fact that Mah-Jong is a skill game, you will need to exercise a lot before you can say that you are a good Mah-Jong player. If your aim is to be a really good Mah-Jong layer, you should enter a tournament, this way you might end up as the European Championship winner or you might even get the biggest title, the World Champion. Note that you need to know everything about Mah-Jong in order to accomplish these, and you will have to work really hard until you will reach a goo enough skill level. |
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