Mah Jong
Group Leader: Diana Jarvis
All levels of experience are welcome including complete beginners.
The game of Mah Jong (meaning "sparrow" from the twittering sound of the tiles on the board), is also known as the game of Four Winds and is derived from traditional Chinese card games.
However Mah Jong developed differently in all parts of the world. In order to have the first World Championship in 2002, the Chinese and Japanese authorities developed the new 'International Rules'.
It is these new rules which allow complete beginners and experienced players to play together, i.e. if you learnt in say Singapore or the Middle East, you would have to adapt your game slightly and learn the newer, simplified way of scoring. In practice it works very well as U3A Jávea have found during the last two years.
To liken the Mah Jong 'tiles' to cards would mean 3 suits. There are sets of tiles numbered 1-9, and Red White and Green Dragons instead of Jack Queen King. Also there are North, South, East & West wind tiles.
There are four players per table each with 13 tiles with the object of combining the tiles in specified formats in order to go out - or to go 'Mah Jong'. The harder the set format - the higher the score. Unlike Chinese people, we do not gamble for high stakes!
