Mahjong (MCR) vs Mahjong (Riichi) — Same Game, Different Rules

Honor tiles are the winds and dragons taken together. There are four Wind Tiles — East, South, West, North — and three Dragon Tiles — White, Red and Green — with four of each (3.4.15); Terminal tiles are the ones and nines of a suit, together with the honor tiles (3.4.16); Flower tiles are used: ...

There are 34 basic tile types. A full set contains four identical tiles of each type, giving 136 tiles in play (1, 1.3); Three suits — circles (pinzu), bamboo (sōzu) and characters (manzu) — each numbered one to nine (1.1); The ones and nines of each suit are called terminals (1.1)

Four players per table, each table playing as an independent group (3.5.2); Seating is the placement of players around the table by table number, determined by drawing lots or arranged in advance under the tournament regulations (3.4.7); Lots are drawn publicly, fairly and impartially; where a te...

Four players, each associated with a seat wind. East is the starting player; South sits at East's right, West across from East, North at East's left (2.1); The counter-clockwise order east-south-west-north does not correspond to compass directions (2.1); Over a full game each player is East at le...

Every claim on a discard must be verbalized (3.6.1); Say "Chi" to chow, "Pung" to pung, "Kong" (or "Gang") to kong, "Hu" to declare mahjong, and "Hua" when taking a flower replacement (3.6.1); Players must not call out the names of tiles when discarding, and are forbidden to discuss, gossip, or c...

A full game is two rounds — the east round and the south round — each of at least four hands, during which each player is East in turn (3.1); A hand ends when a player declares a win or an exhaustive draw occurs (3.1, 3.4); A turn begins when a player draws from the wall or claims a set, and ends...

Three conditions must all hold to declare "Hu": the hand is one of the permissible structures; its fan total at least 8 points; and the winning tile was obtained by a permitted method (3.9.1); The eight-point minimum is the defining constraint of MCR — a structurally complete hand that scores les...

All players are responsible for each hand being scored correctly and to the maximum; each player counts their own han and minipoints and others must correct mistakes (4.1); Count han first — the yaku (at least one) plus dora, kan dora, and ura dora. Ura dora count only for a riichi hand, and a ti...

MCR and riichi are the two major competitive mahjong rule sets and are scored on entirely different principles: MCR counts fan against an eight-point threshold (3.8, 3.9.1), while riichi counts han and minipoints and has no equivalent minimum; MCR uses flower tiles and flower replacement (3.4.20)...

Riichi is one of several mahjong rule families and is clearly distinct from the others, though all share the same core: build four sets and a pair from tiles; Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR) is the other major competitive rule set. Its current text is the World Mahjong Organization's 2014 English...

Winning (hu) is reached when, after taking a discard or drawing, the fourteen tiles form a complete structure as prescribed and the hand scores eight or more points (3.4.22); Self-drawn — winning on a fresh tile taken from the wall (3.4.23); A hand that reaches neither a declaration nor a winner ...

Tsumo — winning on the tile just drawn, by clearly calling "tsumo". A furiten player may still call tsumo (3.3.11); Ron — winning on the most recently discarded tile, by clearly calling "ron", unless furiten (3.3.12); Robbing a quad — the tile added to an extended quad may be claimed for a win wi...