After last weekend's World Series of Mahjong (WSoM), there is another mahjong tournament to watch out for, and that is the Open European Mahjong Championship (OEMC) 2007, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, this weekend.
In contrast to the WSoM, the OEMC is a more modest affair. There are no big cash prizes, and the registration fee is only €170. Now, this is only about one-twentieth of the WSoM's registration fee of US$5000! All contestants get to play eight sessions, making the most of their registration fees! This is unlike WSoM's knockout format where only the best half of the field progresses to the next round.
There are 136 registered players representing twenty countries: sixteen are European countries; the others are China (including Hong Kong), Chinese Taipei (i.e. Taiwan), Japan and the U.S. For a regional tournament, the OEMC has more diversity than the WSoM in Macau where the contestants come from only eight countries, which are China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Denmark, the U.K. and the U.S.
As for the ruleset, the OEMC uses the Mahjong Competition Rules, the official ruleset of the World Mahjong Organisation (WMO).
Coincidentally enough, the WMO is also organising a "World Series of Mahjong" which will culminate in the first World Mahjong Championship, to be held end of this year in Sichuan, China. The similarity of the name "World Series of Mahjong" will no doubt cause some confusion to many people. The WMO's World Series of Mahjong has five tournaments which includes the OEMC, while the recent WSoM held in Macau was organised by World Mahjong Limited and consisted only of the one event.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
World Series of Mahjong
The first World Series of Mahjong (WSoM) competition was held at the Wynn Macau, a resort in Macau. This is promised to be an annual event, similar to the World Series of Poker which is hugely popular in the U.S. While there have already been some international mahjong competitions held, this new event is different that it offers a total cash prize of US$1,000,000!
However, to participate in the WSoM, one has to pay a registration fee of $5000! For most international tournaments, the entry fees are much lower. The prizes are, of course, much less attractive at such tournaments. The high entry fee has appeared to keep some European players away from participating. This has apparently not deterred Asian players from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan and elsewhere though.
The ruleset of this WSoM is not based on any of the usual variants, but it is a tournament version of Zung Jung (romanised Cantonese for 中庸, Zhōng Yōng, meaning "Middle Way"). Zung Jung was designed by Alan Kwan for international tournament play, like Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR). However, Zung Jung in general has fewer 'patterns' (44 in total) compared to MCR (81 fan). Zung Jung emphasises logical patterns and thus contain much fewer irregular patterns that arose from regional variants. In contrast, MCR has more irregular hands than Zung Jung while having the same logically-consistent patterns as Zung Jung. There are also many differences in point values. One significant difference about Zung Jung is that there is no reward for self-drawing a winning tile.
So, yet another mahjong ruleset. I was really curious about the results of this tournament, but it is really difficult to find any news of this, on the Internet or in the mainstream media of Singapore. Lianhe Zaobao and the Straits Times did carry some news articles on this, but I am not able to get my hands on a copy of the Chinese newspaper yet, while the ST article focused only the Taiwanese finalist, Yu Hsiao-Ping, who is the daughter of two entertainers. Alan Kwan (who designed the Zung Jung system and also officiated at WSoM as the head judge) wrote some reports on this at BoardGameGeek (Mah-Jongg » Forum Index » Sessions).
Anyway, Alan Kwan's reports are comprehensive (although the names of the two of the four finalists differed in the ST article). There were apparently many players unfamiliar with the system participating in the WSoM tournament. Despite this, the tournament was rather successful. After eight rounds (of which seven were elimination rounds) and two full days of mahjong-playing, Hui Chung Lai of Hong Kong won this inaugural event (and $500,000) and was crowned the first world champion of the WSOM.
As there was television coverage of this tournament, hopefully the TV show will be broadcasted in Singapore when it is ready, so that we can see what a mahjong tournament is like! Reading and writing about this mahjong tournament has made me even more eager to participate in an international tournament, although the $5000 registration fee will definitely put me off WSoM.
However, to participate in the WSoM, one has to pay a registration fee of $5000! For most international tournaments, the entry fees are much lower. The prizes are, of course, much less attractive at such tournaments. The high entry fee has appeared to keep some European players away from participating. This has apparently not deterred Asian players from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan and elsewhere though.
The ruleset of this WSoM is not based on any of the usual variants, but it is a tournament version of Zung Jung (romanised Cantonese for 中庸, Zhōng Yōng, meaning "Middle Way"). Zung Jung was designed by Alan Kwan for international tournament play, like Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR). However, Zung Jung in general has fewer 'patterns' (44 in total) compared to MCR (81 fan). Zung Jung emphasises logical patterns and thus contain much fewer irregular patterns that arose from regional variants. In contrast, MCR has more irregular hands than Zung Jung while having the same logically-consistent patterns as Zung Jung. There are also many differences in point values. One significant difference about Zung Jung is that there is no reward for self-drawing a winning tile.
So, yet another mahjong ruleset. I was really curious about the results of this tournament, but it is really difficult to find any news of this, on the Internet or in the mainstream media of Singapore. Lianhe Zaobao and the Straits Times did carry some news articles on this, but I am not able to get my hands on a copy of the Chinese newspaper yet, while the ST article focused only the Taiwanese finalist, Yu Hsiao-Ping, who is the daughter of two entertainers. Alan Kwan (who designed the Zung Jung system and also officiated at WSoM as the head judge) wrote some reports on this at BoardGameGeek (Mah-Jongg » Forum Index » Sessions).
Anyway, Alan Kwan's reports are comprehensive (although the names of the two of the four finalists differed in the ST article). There were apparently many players unfamiliar with the system participating in the WSoM tournament. Despite this, the tournament was rather successful. After eight rounds (of which seven were elimination rounds) and two full days of mahjong-playing, Hui Chung Lai of Hong Kong won this inaugural event (and $500,000) and was crowned the first world champion of the WSOM.
As there was television coverage of this tournament, hopefully the TV show will be broadcasted in Singapore when it is ready, so that we can see what a mahjong tournament is like! Reading and writing about this mahjong tournament has made me even more eager to participate in an international tournament, although the $5000 registration fee will definitely put me off WSoM.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
A Quick Introduction to MCR
In terms of gameplay, Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR) is generally similar to other most varieties of mahjong, in that it uses all three usual suits (bamboos, characters and dots; respectively 索万筒 in Chinese), and the honours tiles consisting of the wind tiles (风牌) and the dragon tiles (三元牌, also known as 箭牌), as well as the usual eight flower tiles, although the flower tiles are less important in MCR compared to some other variants. The main differences between MCR and other variants lie in the scoring and some rules.
Points are calculated using simple addition
Winning hands in MCR are scored in points, where various patterns or score elements achieved are awarded different amounts of points and added up together in a simple sum. In most mahjong variants, particularly more traditional variants (Singapore Style, Chinese Classical, Hong Kong Old Style, Japanese etc.), winning hands are calculated based on doubles or fan (番) achieved. Base points are calculated, then doubled for each doubles scored. Hence, if a winning hand earns five doubles, the base points are multiplied 32 times (i.e. base × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2). Basically, points calculated using doubles increase in a geometric progression, compared to MCR's arithmetric progression, which is much simpler to perform. But this does not mean that high-scoring hands are not possible. They still are; difficult-to-do hands like Thirteen Orphans (十三幺, sometimes better known as the Thirteen Wonders) are inherently worth more points.
8-point mininum in order to win
The conditions for making a winning hand are rather different in MCR. Technically, in most traditional variants of mahjong, as long as the hand has four completed sets of three (either as sequences or groups of idential tiles) and a matching pair, it can win. However, several variants have implemented some minimum requirement for a win. For example, in Singapore Style mahjong, most players prefer to have a one-double minimum. In Hong Kong Old Style (HKOS), some people have a 3-fan minimum.
In MCR, the minimum number of points that would allow a player to hu (胡), to win, is 8 points, which is calculated from a variety of score elements. In MCR, there are 81 patterns/score elements (called fan 番, but without the meaning of doubling here) each with a point value ranging from 1 to 88. This may seem like a lot for the beginner to learn, but many of these are related to each other, so it is not a hopeless task!
Each game has only 16 hands
In MCR, the dealer does not remain dealer even if he wins or if there is a draw. The dealership passes on to the next player. Thus, a full game of four rounds has only 16 hands.
Since scores are tabulated after each game, and scores are not carried over to the next game , players have to think strategically throughout the game to try to earn enough points (relative to each other) in order to obtain a good position. In competitions, table points are awarded to each player at a table: the player with the most points get 4 table points, the player in second place gets 2 table points, the third-placed gets 1 table point, and the last player gets 0.
Flower tiles do not count towards the 8-point minimum
Flowers in MCR are special bonus tiles. For the 8-point minimum required to win, flower tiles are not counted. Instead, flowers are treated as bonus tiles, which contribute one point each after the 8-point minimum is reached. This is meant to reduce the effect of luck.
In addition, flower tiles can be discarded when the going gets tough. In dangerous situations, freshly drawn flowers may be discarded as a safe discard (no one is able to win off a flower!), instead of having to get a replacement tile which may be a tile that some player is waiting for in order to win with a high-scoring hand.
Discards are lined up in an orderly manner
Unlike in Singapore Style and HKOS mahjong, where tiles are haphazardly discarded in the centre of the table, discards in MCR are made orderly. Each player will line up his discards in rows of six, such that everyone can see clearly all the tiles and the order in which they were discarded. This increases the analytical element of mahjong, where players can play defensively by reading the discards of opponents and taking precautions in discarding dangerous tiles.
No tile discard is sacred!
Actually, this refers to the Sacred Discard rules in Japanese mahjong, where players are not allowed to win on tiles they had previously discarded and other details pertaining to discards. In Singapore Style and other similar variants, there are rules that prohibit players from making actions pertaining to fresh discards within one turn, or illegal chows. In MCR, such actions are actually permitted.
In MCR, players have more freedom to chow, pung and win on tiles. A player can discard a tile, then make a pung or win on the exact same tile discarded immediately by the next player! Of course, one would wonder why a player would do that in the first place, but this is evidence of the subtleties of gameplay that can occur in MCR. For example, the player who wins on the tile he just discarded could be trying to win off a particular opponent. Or he may not have enough points (i.e. the 8-point minimum) to win unless he wins off an opponent's discard (a few situations are possible: winning hands that require Last Tile, Melded Hand, Last Tile Claim).
There is no Dead Wall
The Dead Wall refers to the stack of tiles that are not used towards the end of a hand. For example, Singapore Style mahjong typically keeps 15 tiles in the Dead Wall, while most other variants have a Dead Wall of 14 tiles. In MCR, all tiles are used, so players have a chance to win right up to the last tile. If no one wins off the last discard, the hand ends in a draw.
The player to draw the very last tile has to discard a tile too, unless the player can make a Kong, which then leads to a situation where he is supposed to draw a replacement tile, which is not possible since there are no more tiles left to draw upon. It would seem logical that he cannot make both a Kong, not draw a replacement tile and still discard a tile. So, in such a case, discarding a tile is not necessary. In the case of drawing a flower, a player can also display the flower in order to draw a replacement tile (of which is not possible, a situation identical to that of a Kong, as mentioned earlier). However, it would be much easier to just discard this flower, since it is always a safe discard!
So, these are the bare bones of the Mahjong Competition Rules! These rules are rather different from the other variants, are they not? There are some more things to talk about, such as how scores are calculated, but I will leave those for another post.
Points are calculated using simple addition
Winning hands in MCR are scored in points, where various patterns or score elements achieved are awarded different amounts of points and added up together in a simple sum. In most mahjong variants, particularly more traditional variants (Singapore Style, Chinese Classical, Hong Kong Old Style, Japanese etc.), winning hands are calculated based on doubles or fan (番) achieved. Base points are calculated, then doubled for each doubles scored. Hence, if a winning hand earns five doubles, the base points are multiplied 32 times (i.e. base × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2). Basically, points calculated using doubles increase in a geometric progression, compared to MCR's arithmetric progression, which is much simpler to perform. But this does not mean that high-scoring hands are not possible. They still are; difficult-to-do hands like Thirteen Orphans (十三幺, sometimes better known as the Thirteen Wonders) are inherently worth more points.
8-point mininum in order to win
The conditions for making a winning hand are rather different in MCR. Technically, in most traditional variants of mahjong, as long as the hand has four completed sets of three (either as sequences or groups of idential tiles) and a matching pair, it can win. However, several variants have implemented some minimum requirement for a win. For example, in Singapore Style mahjong, most players prefer to have a one-double minimum. In Hong Kong Old Style (HKOS), some people have a 3-fan minimum.
In MCR, the minimum number of points that would allow a player to hu (胡), to win, is 8 points, which is calculated from a variety of score elements. In MCR, there are 81 patterns/score elements (called fan 番, but without the meaning of doubling here) each with a point value ranging from 1 to 88. This may seem like a lot for the beginner to learn, but many of these are related to each other, so it is not a hopeless task!
Each game has only 16 hands
In MCR, the dealer does not remain dealer even if he wins or if there is a draw. The dealership passes on to the next player. Thus, a full game of four rounds has only 16 hands.
Since scores are tabulated after each game, and scores are not carried over to the next game , players have to think strategically throughout the game to try to earn enough points (relative to each other) in order to obtain a good position. In competitions, table points are awarded to each player at a table: the player with the most points get 4 table points, the player in second place gets 2 table points, the third-placed gets 1 table point, and the last player gets 0.
Flower tiles do not count towards the 8-point minimum
Flowers in MCR are special bonus tiles. For the 8-point minimum required to win, flower tiles are not counted. Instead, flowers are treated as bonus tiles, which contribute one point each after the 8-point minimum is reached. This is meant to reduce the effect of luck.
In addition, flower tiles can be discarded when the going gets tough. In dangerous situations, freshly drawn flowers may be discarded as a safe discard (no one is able to win off a flower!), instead of having to get a replacement tile which may be a tile that some player is waiting for in order to win with a high-scoring hand.
Discards are lined up in an orderly manner
Unlike in Singapore Style and HKOS mahjong, where tiles are haphazardly discarded in the centre of the table, discards in MCR are made orderly. Each player will line up his discards in rows of six, such that everyone can see clearly all the tiles and the order in which they were discarded. This increases the analytical element of mahjong, where players can play defensively by reading the discards of opponents and taking precautions in discarding dangerous tiles.
No tile discard is sacred!
Actually, this refers to the Sacred Discard rules in Japanese mahjong, where players are not allowed to win on tiles they had previously discarded and other details pertaining to discards. In Singapore Style and other similar variants, there are rules that prohibit players from making actions pertaining to fresh discards within one turn, or illegal chows. In MCR, such actions are actually permitted.
In MCR, players have more freedom to chow, pung and win on tiles. A player can discard a tile, then make a pung or win on the exact same tile discarded immediately by the next player! Of course, one would wonder why a player would do that in the first place, but this is evidence of the subtleties of gameplay that can occur in MCR. For example, the player who wins on the tile he just discarded could be trying to win off a particular opponent. Or he may not have enough points (i.e. the 8-point minimum) to win unless he wins off an opponent's discard (a few situations are possible: winning hands that require Last Tile, Melded Hand, Last Tile Claim).
There is no Dead Wall
The Dead Wall refers to the stack of tiles that are not used towards the end of a hand. For example, Singapore Style mahjong typically keeps 15 tiles in the Dead Wall, while most other variants have a Dead Wall of 14 tiles. In MCR, all tiles are used, so players have a chance to win right up to the last tile. If no one wins off the last discard, the hand ends in a draw.
The player to draw the very last tile has to discard a tile too, unless the player can make a Kong, which then leads to a situation where he is supposed to draw a replacement tile, which is not possible since there are no more tiles left to draw upon. It would seem logical that he cannot make both a Kong, not draw a replacement tile and still discard a tile. So, in such a case, discarding a tile is not necessary. In the case of drawing a flower, a player can also display the flower in order to draw a replacement tile (of which is not possible, a situation identical to that of a Kong, as mentioned earlier). However, it would be much easier to just discard this flower, since it is always a safe discard!
So, these are the bare bones of the Mahjong Competition Rules! These rules are rather different from the other variants, are they not? There are some more things to talk about, such as how scores are calculated, but I will leave those for another post.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Game Begins
This blog is created to report on the activities of my mahjong group playing Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR, also known as Chinese Official) as well as discuss matters on mahjong (especially Singapore Style mahjong) that may come to mind. Disclaimer: I am not an expert on mahjong, just an enthusiast.
The reason why my mahjong group and this blog are more focused on MCR/CO mahjong (we usually call it COMJ for convenience) is that this variant is more international and is also rather interesting and challenging. There are many tournaments using this ruleset, although none in Singapore as far as I know. If there are going to be tournaments to be held in Singapore using this ruleset, I am sure I (and some members of my group) will participate for sure! Besides this competitive aspect (a good reason for this variant to be called Mahjong Competition Rules), it is also rather challenging in an intellectual way, and downplays the effect of luck. Thus the gambling is also not such an important factor for enjoying this variant of mahjong.
So, some people may be wondering: what exactly is MCR or COMJ? Well, MCR is the ruleset designed for international competition, such that players from different major mahjong traditions/styles in different countries like Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, can meet and play. Of course, this new version does not resemble any of the major styles, but it does incorporate most of the traditional hands as well as many patterns from the various traditions. There are also rules that are meant to reduce the element of luck and promote defensive and deductive play. There are criticisms of this new ruleset, but mahjong players should judge for themselves whether this ruleset is worth playing.
Sadly, this new ruleset is not well known at all in Singapore, but I suppose the local Singapore Style and other regional styles (Taiwanese 16-tile, Hong Kong Old Style, Malaysian Style) are too well-entrenched. Who knows, but my little group may be the only mahjong players in Singapore playing COMJ, but I certainly hope this is not the case!
For the competitive element of COMJ, we keep track of the points (both in-game points and table points), just to see which players are doing well, and which players who are not doing so well. Updates and reports will be posted on this blog.
So, hopefully this blog can help spread the ruleset to others here in Singapore, and there may even be MCR tournaments held here in future! We all have to start somewhere.
The reason why my mahjong group and this blog are more focused on MCR/CO mahjong (we usually call it COMJ for convenience) is that this variant is more international and is also rather interesting and challenging. There are many tournaments using this ruleset, although none in Singapore as far as I know. If there are going to be tournaments to be held in Singapore using this ruleset, I am sure I (and some members of my group) will participate for sure! Besides this competitive aspect (a good reason for this variant to be called Mahjong Competition Rules), it is also rather challenging in an intellectual way, and downplays the effect of luck. Thus the gambling is also not such an important factor for enjoying this variant of mahjong.
So, some people may be wondering: what exactly is MCR or COMJ? Well, MCR is the ruleset designed for international competition, such that players from different major mahjong traditions/styles in different countries like Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, can meet and play. Of course, this new version does not resemble any of the major styles, but it does incorporate most of the traditional hands as well as many patterns from the various traditions. There are also rules that are meant to reduce the element of luck and promote defensive and deductive play. There are criticisms of this new ruleset, but mahjong players should judge for themselves whether this ruleset is worth playing.
Sadly, this new ruleset is not well known at all in Singapore, but I suppose the local Singapore Style and other regional styles (Taiwanese 16-tile, Hong Kong Old Style, Malaysian Style) are too well-entrenched. Who knows, but my little group may be the only mahjong players in Singapore playing COMJ, but I certainly hope this is not the case!
For the competitive element of COMJ, we keep track of the points (both in-game points and table points), just to see which players are doing well, and which players who are not doing so well. Updates and reports will be posted on this blog.
So, hopefully this blog can help spread the ruleset to others here in Singapore, and there may even be MCR tournaments held here in future! We all have to start somewhere.
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