Besides the various websites and pages on mahjong I have mentioned in earlier posts, there is one other website I should highlight: International Cultures of Mahjong. This is a blog by Benjamin Boas, a researcher of mahjong culture (hence the title of his blog). Currently on a Fulbright Fellowship, he will be studying the mahjong culture of Japan. This sounds like an ideal job for a mahjong enthusiast, and Ben is certainly one!
Mainly a riichi mahjong player, Ben has made his first foray into Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR), with the recent Open European Mahjong Championship (OEMC) 2007, and in fact emerged the second runner-up in his very first MCR tournament!
Ben's blog, like this blog, is quite new, but it already has some interesting entries as well as comments on various aspects of mahjong, especially on his participation and experiences at OEMC 2007 as well as some controversies over some rules used in the tournament.
Although the posts on some rules of the MCR ruleset may sound boring and dry, they are actually actually not. Ben's posts highlight the fact that cultural differences affect perspectives on mahjong and its rules. Thus, players of different nationalities would react differently to certain rules, practices and conventions, their mahjong cultural backgrounds playing a considerable part in such reactions.
As there are few websites and/or blogs out there on MCR, Ben's blog certainly fills in a gap. Since Ben is a globe-trotting researcher/competitor as well as a riichi mahjong player, there should be a lot of interesting posts on all things mahjong that we can look forward to.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
World-Class Mahjong
World-Class Mahjong with World Champion Mai Hatsune (世界チャンピオン初音舞の世界に勝つ—麻雀国際公式ルール戦術本) is a book on the concepts and strategies in Chinese Official mahjong (COMJ) and is published by Hatsune Mai and Kajimoto Takunori. Hatsune Mai is the winner of the World Championship in Mahjong held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2002.
This book is the first and only book with an emphasis on COMJ strategy so far but it is in the Japanese language, which means many players around the world are unable to read it for its contents. Hence, an English translation of the content on strategy was made by Ryan Morris and is available online for everyone to read (link above).
This website on COMJ strategy will be most useful to beginners to COMJ. Due to the 8-point minimum for a win, beginners often have difficulties completing their hands. There are many helpful pointers on what to do when playing COMJ. There are detailed explanations of how to complete hands for a particular fan, such as Mixed Triple Chows or Mixed Shifted Chows; and advice on when to go for a higher-scoring fan like Pure Straight.
This website is definitely a good starting point for beginners, but even more experienced mahjong players can make use of the strategies, especially if they are not used to a pattern-oriented game like COMJ. For example, most Singaporeans are used to playing Singapore Style mahjong, which makes use of much fewer special hands and hand combinations than COMJ, and are thus unfamiliar with the various sequence-based combinations found in COMJ. Winning hands may be missed because of the player's failure to recognise valid winning combinations!
So, start reading!
This book is the first and only book with an emphasis on COMJ strategy so far but it is in the Japanese language, which means many players around the world are unable to read it for its contents. Hence, an English translation of the content on strategy was made by Ryan Morris and is available online for everyone to read (link above).
This website on COMJ strategy will be most useful to beginners to COMJ. Due to the 8-point minimum for a win, beginners often have difficulties completing their hands. There are many helpful pointers on what to do when playing COMJ. There are detailed explanations of how to complete hands for a particular fan, such as Mixed Triple Chows or Mixed Shifted Chows; and advice on when to go for a higher-scoring fan like Pure Straight.
This website is definitely a good starting point for beginners, but even more experienced mahjong players can make use of the strategies, especially if they are not used to a pattern-oriented game like COMJ. For example, most Singaporeans are used to playing Singapore Style mahjong, which makes use of much fewer special hands and hand combinations than COMJ, and are thus unfamiliar with the various sequence-based combinations found in COMJ. Winning hands may be missed because of the player's failure to recognise valid winning combinations!
So, start reading!
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Mahjong on the Internet
Information about mahjong is so easily available now on the Internet. Anyone who wants to learn mahjong can find a lot of materials online, although not every major style or variant is well represented.
For a good general website on mahjong, there is Sloperama's Mah-Jong Zone, run by Tom Sloper, a game designer and mahjong teacher/writer. In fact, Tom Sloper has just published a book on mahjong, The Red Dragon and the West Wind, which is on both Chinese Official/Mahjong Competition Rules (the Red Dragon) and American Mah-jongg (the West Wind). There are FAQs on every aspect of mahjong; a column with tips on strategy and practice questions on scoring; and a bulletin board for readers with questions. It is a very good resource, with lots of information and links.
Mahjong News is a European-centric website with frequent updates on mahjong tournaments and developments in Europe. For example, the European ranking list of Chinese Official mahjong players can be found here.
The much talked-about Mahjong Competition Rules (which is actually the most recent version of the Chinese Official ruleset) can be downloaded in PDF form from the World Mahjong Organisation's website. Recent tournaments such as OEMC 2007 follow this version where some early problems and inconsistencies were corrected.
Alan Kwan's webpage has some articles on mahjong playing and mathematical analyses of tile combinations used in (various variants of) mahjong. Alan Kwan is the designer of the Zung Jung system which was used in the recent Macau World Series of Mahjong competition.
For riichi mahjong, the most common form of mahjong played in Japan, there were little information on the rules and strategy in English, but two recent websites are remedying this. Reach Mahjong Columns is a blog written by English-speakers to get more non-Japanese to play riichi mahjong. Two of the three contributors are young Americans who are professional mahjong players in Japan. There are some interesting tidbits about the professional mahjong leagues and tournaments in Japan, and plenty of information and tips on playing riichi mahjong. Yakitori Online is a new portal devoted to riichi mahjong, including a forum for mahjong enthusiasts to discuss strategy and other mahjong-related issues.
It does seem that the riichi scene world-wide is getting more exciting. There will be a European riichi mahjong tournament held next year, due to much interest from Dutch and Danish players. Too bad riichi mahjong is almost unknown in Singapore, save for arcade and computer games from Japan. It would be certainly difficult to get a proper Japanese mahjong set with the red dora tiles in Singapore!
Last but not least, for Singapore Style mahjong, there is a good Wikipedia article on Singaporean Mahjong scoring rules. All the well-known patterns and special hands are found here, as well as descriptions of special situations and danger scenarios.
For a good general website on mahjong, there is Sloperama's Mah-Jong Zone, run by Tom Sloper, a game designer and mahjong teacher/writer. In fact, Tom Sloper has just published a book on mahjong, The Red Dragon and the West Wind, which is on both Chinese Official/Mahjong Competition Rules (the Red Dragon) and American Mah-jongg (the West Wind). There are FAQs on every aspect of mahjong; a column with tips on strategy and practice questions on scoring; and a bulletin board for readers with questions. It is a very good resource, with lots of information and links.
Mahjong News is a European-centric website with frequent updates on mahjong tournaments and developments in Europe. For example, the European ranking list of Chinese Official mahjong players can be found here.
The much talked-about Mahjong Competition Rules (which is actually the most recent version of the Chinese Official ruleset) can be downloaded in PDF form from the World Mahjong Organisation's website. Recent tournaments such as OEMC 2007 follow this version where some early problems and inconsistencies were corrected.
Alan Kwan's webpage has some articles on mahjong playing and mathematical analyses of tile combinations used in (various variants of) mahjong. Alan Kwan is the designer of the Zung Jung system which was used in the recent Macau World Series of Mahjong competition.
For riichi mahjong, the most common form of mahjong played in Japan, there were little information on the rules and strategy in English, but two recent websites are remedying this. Reach Mahjong Columns is a blog written by English-speakers to get more non-Japanese to play riichi mahjong. Two of the three contributors are young Americans who are professional mahjong players in Japan. There are some interesting tidbits about the professional mahjong leagues and tournaments in Japan, and plenty of information and tips on playing riichi mahjong. Yakitori Online is a new portal devoted to riichi mahjong, including a forum for mahjong enthusiasts to discuss strategy and other mahjong-related issues.
It does seem that the riichi scene world-wide is getting more exciting. There will be a European riichi mahjong tournament held next year, due to much interest from Dutch and Danish players. Too bad riichi mahjong is almost unknown in Singapore, save for arcade and computer games from Japan. It would be certainly difficult to get a proper Japanese mahjong set with the red dora tiles in Singapore!
Last but not least, for Singapore Style mahjong, there is a good Wikipedia article on Singaporean Mahjong scoring rules. All the well-known patterns and special hands are found here, as well as descriptions of special situations and danger scenarios.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)