Mah Jong

MahJongg is growing rapidly as a game of skill and intelligence and can now be played online. You can play it for fun or for money, against other players or as a game of solitaire. Check out the Mahjong Time site to try mah jong, see below for a brief overview of the game or to learn the history and the strategies of Mah Jong visit our mahjong instructions page.

For the latest news from the world of Mah Jong, visit our MAH JONG NEWS page.

MahjongTime.com - an online version of the traditional Chinese game of Mahjongg. This is not the solitaire type of mahjong, in which a player tries to take pair of tiles away from the board. Traditional mahjong is played by 4 players, where the objective is to assemble a hand of certain combinations. At Mahjong Time, You can play against other players 24/7, no download required! Compete in International or Freeroll tournaments (or create your own!) and win money + prizes!

You can also visit our Book Shop for a range of informative books on the subject.

This article discusses the four-player game of Mahjong which is of Chinese origin.

Mahjong (other common English spellings include mahjongg, majiang, and hyphenated forms such as mah-jong or mah-jongg) is a game for four players that originated in China. It is a game of skill, intelligence, calculation and luck. Depending on the variation which is played, the amount of luck may vary from 20 to 80 percent. In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and other countries mahjong is often used for gambling. The Chinese word literally means "hemp general". In Cantonese an alternate writing, is more common which literally means "sparrow", while in Japanese it means "hemp sparrow", and is pronounced ma-jan.

In English, in addition to Mahjong, the name of the game is variously written as Mah Jong, Mahjongg, Majong or simply "M-J"; there are other, less common variations as well. The spelling "Mah-Jongg" was trademarked by Joseph Park Babcock in 1920.

The closest Western analogue is probably the card game gin rummy. Both games involve selecting or discarding units (tiles in one case, cards in the other) to score points by forming groups or runs of similar units.

The game pieces (tiles) and scoring rules used in the game are slightly different depending on regional variations. The game play in general is very similar in all versions, as players compete to build sets including the highest point value.

The object of the game is to build complete suits (usually of threes) from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal is said to have won the game. The winning tile completes the set of either 14 or 17 tiles.

As well as our INSTRUCTIONS page, you can find full details of mahjong, and a video tutorial, on the MahjongTime.com website.