🀄 Classic Mahjong Tutorial

The goal of Classic (Chinese) Mahjong is to be the first player to build a complete hand of 14 tiles: four melds plus one pair. A meld is either a triplet of identical tiles or a sequence of three consecutive tiles in one suit.

You win by declaring Mahjong — either by self-draw (tsumo) or by taking the tile another player discards (ron). The fewer fan (points) your hand needs to reach the threshold, the more relaxed the win rules become for beginners.

A standard set has 136 tiles: characters (万, 1-9), dots (筒, 1-9), bamboo (条, 1-9), four winds (East, South, West, North) and three dragons (Red, Green, White). Each kind appears four times.

Four players sit around a table. The dealer (East) starts with 14 tiles and discards one; everyone else holds 13. On your turn you draw one tile and discard one. Play moves counterclockwise — the player on your right draws and discards before you.

Instead of drawing, you may call a discarded tile to complete a meld: chi (chow, sequence — only from the player to your left), pon (pong, triplet) or kong (four of a kind). A called meld is exposed face-up and locked.

After a kong you draw a replacement tile from the end of the wall. The game ends when someone wins or the wall runs out (exhaustive draw).

If another player calls your discard (chi/pon/kong), the turn skips the next player: the caller discards instead and play continues from them. A kong also gives the caller a bonus replacement draw.

Melds: a triplet (e.g. three 4-characters), a sequence (e.g. 2-3-4 dots), and a kong (four identical tiles, counts as a meld plus a bonus draw).

A winning hand is four melds plus a pair — for example: 1-2-3 characters, 4-5-6 characters, 7-8-9 dots, a triplet of Red Dragons, and a pair of 5-bamboo.

Special hands: seven pairs (14 tiles in seven pairs) and thirteen orphans (one of each terminal and honor, plus one extra) win without the four-meld structure.

This site scores a practical subset of the International Standard fan list (清一色, 混一色, 碰碰胡, 七对, 一条龙 and more). As a beginner-friendly house rule, any legal winning hand counts as at least 1 fan even without a named pattern. The fan count is shown after each win.

Tenpai (ready) means your 13-tile hand needs exactly one more tile to win. In the example below you hold three complete melds, a pair of 5-dots and a 4-5-dots shape — drawing or taking a 3-dot or 6-dot completes the last meld and you can declare Mahjong.

While tenpai, every discard by other players that completes your hand is a ron chance. Also watch your own discards: if you need a tile you already threw, winning off it may be blocked (see furiten in the Riichi tutorial).

Quick reference: chi = sequence (left player only), pon = triplet, kong = four of a kind + bonus draw, tsumo = self-draw win, ron = win off a discard.