Types & Variants
Riichi Mahjong Explained: Japan’s Strictest School
Riichi is the Japanese branch of the four-player game, and the one that most often reaches western players sideways, through a manga or an…
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Types & Variants
What Is Onet Mahjong?
Onet is a name for the flat, single-layer connecting board: identical tiles vanish when you can draw a path between them that bends no…
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Learn to Play
Mahjong Rules for Beginners: Everything You Need in One Page
If a board is open and you want to start now, three rules carry you: a tile can be taken only when nothing sits…
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Learn to Play
How to Play Mahjong With 2 Players
The four-player table game can be played by two people, but there is no single authoritative two-player rule book to point you at. What…
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Learn to Play
Is Mahjong Hard to Learn? An Honest Timeline
The answer splits cleanly in two, because the name covers two games. The layout puzzle takes one board to learn and one evening to…
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Learn to Play
Mahjong Solitaire Rules Explained
A layout puzzle has one rule that matters and several conventions that vary by build. The rule: a tile can be taken when nothing…
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Tiles & Set
Mahjong Tiles: What Is Inside a Set of 144
A standard Chinese set holds 144 tiles, and that total breaks into four blocks that never move: 108 numbered suit tiles, 16 winds, 12…
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Tiles & Set
What the Pictures on Mahjong Tiles Mean
The three numbered suits are one money system counted at three scales. A circle is a single copper coin. A bamboo cane is a…
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Tiles & Set
How Many Tiles Are in a Mahjong Set
144 is the standard Chinese answer, and it is the number this catalogue is named for. A set of that size contains 108 numbered…
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Tiles & Set
Mahjong Suits and Honours: a Recognition Guide
Speed on a board comes from recognition, not from reading. An experienced player identifies a face by its silhouette in a fraction of a…
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