Mahjong is a popular game, native to China. For a long time it was exclusively reserved for the royal family, and remained unknown in the other parts of the world. However, in the 1920s this game was introduced in the western world and quickly gained popularity. As its fame grew, so did the variations of the game and now innumerable variations of this game are played but the basic game is still played between four people.
First of all, each player is assigned a direction of the wind. The players can then roll the die to find out who scores the highest. The highest scorer is permitted to start the game and take the first turn. Every player must aim to get a hand which consists of four sets and a pair. The sets can be a Pon, which consists of three identical tiles, a Chi- set of three tiles from a single suit having consecutive numerals, or it can also be a Kan which consists of four successive tiles. It should be noted that a Chii set cannot be made using a dragon tile or a wind tile.
A concealed set consists of tiles from the initial hand as well as tiles drawn from the walls. Every set may be concealed or melded. A concealed set need not be revealed to other players and melded sets are those used in moves when the player required the tiles that the rival just discarded.
A wall is created automatically in an online version of Mahjong. The players are required to move their walls near the centre and create a square. Out of the set of tiles every player gets 13 tiles and the remaining tiles are used as a ‘drawing wall’ and are placed in the center.
Following this every player is supposed to discard a tile and take a fresh tile from the drawing wall. In case you draw the final tile, you can declare “Mahjong”, that is, you have one the game by self draw. In case you need a tile and coincidentally it is discarded by a rival, in such a situation you can declare “Ron”. Your tiles will be checked by your opponents after this. After a player wins the game, the points are counted and this is referred to as Uma.
This game requires strategic thinking and in order to have an upper hand you must be able to plan ahead for the next move you are going to make.