Restoring your match…
This is Mahjong (麻将 májiàng) the way it is played around a table, with four players, a wall of tiles, and turn after turn of drawing and discarding until somebody completes a winning hand. You take one seat and the computer plays the other three (two, in three-player Riichi). If you were looking for the puzzle where you clear matching tiles off a pile, that is a different game, so try Mahjong Solitaire, or Mahjong Connect for the version where pairs are joined by a line.
In short, everyone keeps 13 tiles, and on your turn you draw one and discard one, or claim the tile another player has just thrown out to finish a set. A winning hand is usually four sets (three tiles in a row in one suit, or three identical tiles) plus a pair, and each rule set adds its own condition on top, such as a scoring pattern, a minimum number of points, or a suit you must be rid of.
The table offers six rule sets, each with its own scoring and its own match length:
| Rule set | Tiles | What a winning hand needs | Calls | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riichi · 4 players | 136, one red five in each suit | At least one yaku (役, a qualifying pattern or circumstance) | Chow from the player before you; pung or kong from anyone | 25,000 points each; East and South rounds; ends early if anyone goes below zero |
| Riichi · 3 players | 108, with the 2–8 of characters removed | At least one yaku | No chows | 35,000 each; East 1–3 and South 1–3 |
| Basic 13 | 136, no flowers | Any complete hand, scored with MCR patterns and no minimum | Chow from the player before you; pung or kong from anyone | 500 each; eight hands |
| MCR (Chinese Official) | 144, with eight flowers replaced automatically | At least 8 points, flowers not counted | As in Basic 13 | 500 each; sixteen hands |
| Sichuan · Blood battle (血战到底) | 108 suited tiles, no honors | No tile of your declared missing suit | No chows | 100 each; eight hands; a winner leaves and the rest play on until three have won or the wall runs out |
| Sichuan · Blood flow (血流成河) | 108 suited tiles, no honors | No tile of your declared missing suit | No chows | 100 each; eight hands; winners stay in and can win again |
Basic 13 is the gentlest start, because any complete hand wins. Riichi adds the yaku requirement and MCR the 8-point minimum, while the two Sichuan sets drop honors and chows and add a suit you must clear from your hand. The two Riichi sets differ in tiles and calls, and the two Sichuan sets only in whether a winner leaves the hand or stays in it.
The English table opens on Riichi · 4 players.
Because a Riichi hand also needs at least one yaku, and dora (bonus tiles, 宝牌) never count as one. This yaku requirement is the rule that stops most beginners, as a complete hand with no yaku cannot win however many dora it holds, since dora add value but are not a yaku.
The three easiest yaku to reach:
Furiten (振听) is the defensive half of the game. If any tile that would complete your hand is already in your own discard row, you cannot win on another player's discard, only by drawing it yourself, and the table shows a Furiten notice when this applies to you. Turned around, it gives you safe tiles, since anything in a riichi player's own discards cannot win for that player. The same goes for a tile thrown after their riichi that they let pass, since a locked hand that passes its winning tile stays unable to win on discards for the rest of the hand. When an opponent declares riichi and your hand is far from ready, discarding those tiles is often worth more than pushing on.
MCR scores by adding up named patterns, and a hand must reach 8 points before flowers are counted. Basic 13 uses the same patterns with no minimum, which makes it the gentler place to learn them. Some hands checked with the site's own scorer:
| Hand | Patterns | MCR |
|---|---|---|
| 234 characters, 234 dots, 234 bamboo (called), 678 characters, East pair, won on a discard | Mixed Triple Chow 8 | 8: can win |
| The same, all concealed, with a pair of 5 dots, won on a discard | Mixed Triple Chow 8, Concealed Hand 2, All Chows 2, All Simples 2 | 14 |
| 123 and 567 characters, 345 dots, 678 bamboo, 9 bamboo pair, concealed, won on a discard | Concealed Hand 2, All Chows 2 | 4: wins in Basic 13 only |
| Called pungs of 2 characters, 5 dots and 7 bamboo, 333 characters, pair of 9 dots, won on a discard | All Pungs 6, No Honors 1 | 7: cannot win |
| The same with a pung of White dragons instead of the 7 bamboo | All Pungs 6, Dragon Pung 2, One Voided Suit 1 | 9: can win |
Sichuan hands start with two decisions. First you pass three tiles of one suit (换三张, "exchange three"), where the direction is drawn fresh for each hand, and the table says whether this time it is Pass right, Pass across or Pass left. Then you declare a missing suit (定缺, dìng quē). You may not win while holding a single tile of it, and until it is gone the table only lets you discard tiles of that suit, playing the last one for you automatically.
Pass three tiles from your weakest suit, and after the exchange declare the suit that is now shortest or least connected. The three tiles you receive are all of one suit, so look at them before you decide. Getting rid of the missing suit quickly matters, because if the wall runs out while you have never won and still hold a tile of it, you are a "flower pig" (花猪 huāzhū) and pay 16 to every player who is not one.
The two Sichuan rule sets reward different plans. In blood battle, a player who wins leaves the hand and pays nothing more, so an early cheap win takes you out of danger. In blood flow you stay at the table after winning, your hand is locked on its wait, and you discard each new draw. You can keep winning on the same wait, but every discard can still pay off someone else.
The Hint button recommends a move whenever there is a choice to make, such as which three tiles to exchange, which suit to drop, what to discard, or whether to claim. Once a recommendation is ready the button changes to Explain, which opens the Hand Coach. You can also open the Hand Coach yourself at any time. It shows the suggested move and any others that are just as reasonable, how your hand can qualify under this rule set, the tiles you are waiting on with the number of unseen copies of each and whether each can win on a discard or only by self-draw, and, while you are not ready yet, the useful tile types. The count is of unseen copies, which may include tiles in other players' hands, not tiles certain to be left in the wall.
The Hand patterns & guide button opens a picture reference of the hands for the rule set you are playing. The first time you open the table, an invitation offers to let you Learn by playing, a short guided hand that walks through your first discard, four sets and a pair, a pung (and a chow where the rules allow it), a ready hand and the win. You can rerun it from the Tutorial link in the side panel.