Mahjong competition offers players of all skills

Collecting is one of many Mahjong groups that play all over the world

Bloomfield – from the exuberant crowds that gather for sporting events in San Juan County, will take place in the Bloomfield Public Library on the first Thursday of the month in which the locals take part in a meeting of Mahjong players.

In the past few months, a group of pensioners has enjoyed society and has participated in several games one of the most valued competition forms in the world. One of the organizers of the monthly meeting Vicki Whitaker calls the meeting “a meeting of people who either know nothing about the game and some of us who have played it for a long time”.

Mahjong is a tile -based game that was developed in China in the 19th century and has been widespread worldwide since the early 20th century. It is played by four players, with some variations widespread throughout East and Southeast Asia.

The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols. In most variations, each player begins with 13 tiles. The players draw and reject tiles until they complete a legal hand.

Imagine the Rommé card game, but instead of Jacks, Queens and Kings, the players put their hands on their hands based on points, bamboo and dragons.

In contrast to the meeting of people who come together in the lobby in the Bloomfield Public Library, there are important competitive events all over the Asian world. There are also competitions in larger cities across the country, which mainly hold in the US professional Mahjong League, which mainly meets in and around New York City.

There are also different variations of the game that can be found online and by downloading apps on your phone.

Mahjong is the most popular table game in Japan. According to Wikipedia, there were about 7.6 million Mahjong players in Japan. Almost 3 billion US dollars are involved in games in the Mahjong Parlors in Japan. Hundreds of different Mahjong Arcade machines have been created in Japanese video arcades since the 1980s, including strip versions. Newer units can connect to other Arcade machines on the Internet.

This special group is more interested in the physical assembly and encourages each other to learn the game through a healthy, carefree competition.

“Everyone in our small group is an initial learner or a few people have played for several years,” said Whitaker.

The group meetings, which take place once a month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., were also initiated by Gail Nobis, who moved to the four corners in 2012 and originally came from Rochester, New York. Nobis, who was withdrawn from a career in emergency communication, began playing Mahjong almost 20 years ago.

“It is a fascinating game of strategy, skill and happiness,” said Nobis.

The players encourage each other to learn while playing and at the same time arise to win every game during the three-hour marathon session.

“We all learned so much from (Nobis),” said Whitaker. “The idea is to become clear, which means to bring all their tiles into the same suit.”

Whitker, a retired English teacher of the Rocinante High School, began playing Mahjong when the group gathered a few months ago.

At the end of a game, scores are created to determine points. For most experts, it is easy to put together the results. For a group that mainly consists of beginners, it is time to check the loyal rule book.

The meeting hopes that more interested players will take part in the monthly meetings. In fact, they welcome the competition.

“We want to encourage people to go to play and get out and have fun and learn,” said Whitaker.

Dianne Hall, who has been playing Mahjong for eight years, admits that she took some time to actually learn all the complex rules of the game.

The four players around the board represent the “wind of the round” in which the east wind is the prevailing wind. East Wind keeps the wind of the round when he called Mahjong three times in a row. As soon as another player calls Mahjong, the wind of the round on the right goes to the player. A complete game of Mahjong is achieved when all players were the wind of the round.

“It took me about a year to understand everything completely,” said Hall. “The evaluation rules can be confusing.”

There is no special half -time performance, there is no garbage between the games and there is certainly a lot of laughter from the players because they explore a fascinating game of skills and substance.

The group, which largely consists of retired experts who have spent some time in education, believes that there is a comparison between their earlier career and learning to play Mahjong.

“For many of us, it's definitely something fun and rewarding,” said Whitaker. “It is very similar to how a child learns to play football for the first time. The more you play, the more you learn and get better, so it is a lot of active learning for us. “

More information about the Mahjong meeting can be found in the Bloomfield Public Library at (505) 632-8315.

Copy article link