Chow 吃 · run
Three numbers in a row, same suit. Honors can't make chows.
Mahjong Competition Rules · 国标麻将
MCR in one minute
MCR is the official tournament rule set used worldwide. Learn the five ideas below and you can sit down and play. Everything else here is detail you can come back to.
- Build 4 sets and 1 pair. A set is a run of three (chow) or three of a kind (pung). You hold 13 tiles and win on your 14th.
- Every turn: draw one, discard one. Or grab someone's discard if it finishes a set for you.
- You need at least 8 points to win. Points come from scoring patterns called fan (番). Add up every fan your hand has.
- Flowers don't help you reach 8. They add 1 point each only after you already have 8.
- Everyone pays the winner 8, plus the hand's value from the discarder. Self-drawn win? All three pay 8 + the hand's value.
Step 1
Know your tiles
A set has 144 tiles. There are 4 copies of every tile, except flowers (one each). The small number in the corner is added here to help you learn. Real tiles may not have it.
Characters 萬 wan
Chinese numeral on top, 萬 below. Read the top character.
Dots 筒 tong
Count the circles.
Bamboo 条 tiao
Count the sticks. On most real sets the 1 Bamboo shows a bird.
Winds 风
East 東 · South 南 · West 西 · North 北
Dragons 箭
Red 中 · Green 發 · White (an empty blue frame, or blank)
Flowers & Seasons 花
8 bonus tiles. Never part of your hand. Put them aside and draw a replacement. How they score
- Suit tiles
- Characters, Dots, Bamboo (numbered 1–9).
- Honors
- Winds and Dragons. They have no numbers, so they can't form chows.
- Terminals
- The 1s and 9s of each suit.
- Simples
- The 2s through 8s.
Flowers and seasons
There is one of each, eight in total. Flowers have red characters and seasons have blue ones.
Flowers 花
1 Plum 梅 · 2 Orchid 蘭 · 3 Chrysanthemum 菊 · 4 Bamboo 竹
Seasons 季
1 Spring 春 · 2 Summer 夏 · 3 Autumn 秋 · 4 Winter 冬
How flowers work in MCR
- 1 point each, added only when you win. Flowers and seasons are worth the same.
- The number and picture don't matter. Unlike Hong Kong-style mahjong, there's no bonus for the flower that matches your seat and none for collecting a set of four.
- They never help you reach 8. Count your fans first, then add flowers on top. A hand with no fans is still a Chicken Hand (8) when you have flowers: with 2 flowers it's worth 10.
- Drew one? Show it and replace it. Lay it face-up beside your hand, say "Hua", and draw from the far end of the wall. Repeat until you draw a normal tile.
- Won on a flower replacement? Count Self-Drawn, but not Out with Replacement Tile. That one is only for kongs.
- Only full payers pay for them. Flowers are part of the hand value, so they're paid by whoever pays 8 + hand value. Everyone else still pays 8.
Step 2
The building blocks
Pung 碰 · triplet
Three identical tiles. Any tile works, including honors.
Kong 杠 · quad
Four identical tiles. Counts as one set, so you draw an extra tile to make up for it.
Pair 将 · eyes
Two identical tiles. Every normal hand needs exactly one.
Concealed or melded?
Concealed means you built it from tiles you drew yourself. It stays hidden in your hand. Melded (exposed) means you claimed a discard to finish it, so you lay it face-up. Several fans only count if your sets are concealed.
Hands that break the 4 + 1 rule
A few special hands use a different shape. They must be fully concealed:
- Seven Pairs (24): seven pairs, no sets.
- Thirteen Orphans (88): every 1, 9 and honor, plus one duplicate.
- Honors and Knitted Tiles (12 or 24): 14 unrelated single tiles.
Step 3
Setting up a game
- Pick seats. Each player gets a seat wind. Going counter-clockwise around the table: East, South, West, North. East is the dealer.
- Build the wall. Each player stacks 36 face-down tiles into 18 stacks, two tiles high, in front of them. Push the four walls together into a square.
- Roll the dice and break the wall. The dice pick where dealing starts. How to count it
- Deal. From the break, each player takes 4 tiles (2 stacks) at a time, East first, until everyone has 12. Then East takes two more: the top tiles of the 1st and 3rd stacks that come next. South, West and North each take one of the three tiles in between. East has 14, everyone else 13.
- Replace flowers. Starting with East, set aside any flowers and draw replacements from the far end of the wall. Go round again until nobody holds a flower.
- Play. East discards first, then play passes counter-clockwise (to the right).
West 西
North 北
Play passes
counter-
clockwise ↺ South 南 East 東dealer
counter-
clockwise ↺ South 南 East 東dealer
Where to break the wall
- East rolls two dice. Count that many seats counter-clockwise, with East as 1. The player you land on rolls next.
- That player rolls again. Add both rolls together.
- Count stacks on their wall. Start at the right-hand end of their wall, as they see it, and count that many stacks to the left. Break the wall just after the last stack you counted. Total over 18? Keep counting onto the next wall to the left.
- Deal from the left of the gap. East takes the first two stacks to the left of the gap, and dealing carries on clockwise around the wall. The stacks to the right of the gap are the far end. Flower and kong replacements come from there.
| East rolls | Who rolls next |
|---|---|
| 5 or 9 | East, again |
| 2, 6 or 10 | South |
| 3, 7 or 11 | West |
| 4, 8 or 12 | North |
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
- East's first 4 tiles
- Far end, for replacements
Rounds and winds
A full game is 4 rounds × 4 hands = 16 hands. The round wind (also called the prevalent wind) is East for the first round, then South, West, North.
The dealer passes to the next player after every hand, win or lose. Seat winds move with it. There is no "dealer stays" rule in MCR.
In tournaments, players also change seats between rounds. At home you can skip that.
Step 4
Your turn, step by step
-
Draw
Take the next tile from the wall. Drew a flower? Set it aside face-up and draw a replacement from the far end.
-
Check
Does it complete your hand with 8+ points? Say "Hu" (win) and show your tiles. Do you now hold four of a kind? You may declare a kong.
-
Discard
Place one tile face-up in the middle and say its name. Now it's the next player's turn.
Claiming someone else's discard
| Call | What you need | From whom | Then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hu 和 | The tile finishes your hand with 8+ points | Anyone | Show your hand. You win. |
| Kong 杠 | Three matching tiles in your hand | Anyone | Lay the 4 tiles face-up, draw a replacement, discard. |
| Pung 碰 | Two matching tiles in your hand | Anyone | Lay the 3 tiles face-up, discard. No draw. |
| Chow 吃 | Two tiles that make a run with it | Only the player on your left (who plays just before you) | Lay the 3 tiles face-up, discard. No draw. |
If two players want the same tile: Hu beats Kong and Pung, which beat Chow. If two players both call Hu, the one next in turn order after the discarder wins.
Three ways to make a kong
- Concealed kong: you drew all four yourself. Lay it face-down.
- Melded kong from a discard: you hold three and claim the fourth.
- Adding to a pung: you drew the fourth tile for a pung you already laid down. An opponent who needs that tile can take it and win (Robbing the Kong).
After any kong, draw a replacement tile from the far end of the wall, then discard.
When the wall runs out
If no one wins before the last tile is drawn and discarded, the hand is a draw. Nobody pays, and the deal moves to the next player.
Step 5
The 8-point rule
A complete hand is not enough. Its fans must add up to at least 8 points, not counting flowers. If you can't reach 8, you can't declare a win. Keep playing.
Can win: 24 points
| Pure Straight (1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9 Bamboo) | 16 |
| Half Flush (Bamboo + honors only) | 6 |
| Dragon Pung (Red Dragons) | 2 |
| Total | 24 |
Assumes the Red Dragons were claimed and the hand won on a discard. Not counted: Short Straight and Two Terminal Chows are already inside Pure Straight. One Voided Suit is already inside Half Flush.
Can't win: only 5 points
| All Chows | 2 |
| Concealed Hand (won on a discard, nothing claimed) | 2 |
| Short Straight (1-2-3 + 4-5-6 Characters) | 1 |
| Total | 5 |
Assumes nothing was claimed and the last tile had two possible winners. The hand is complete but worth less than 8. Calling "Hu" here is a false win.
Chicken Hand: why 0 can win but 1–7 can't
A hand with no fans at all gets a fixed 8 points, called Chicken Hand. It's an exception to the 8-point rule: a hand worth 1 to 7 still can't win. Zero is rarer than it sounds, because nearly every hand picks up a small fan without trying.
Flowers don't change this. Leave them out when you check for zero fans, then add them on top of the 8.
Can win: Chicken Hand, worth 10
| Fans (flowers left out) | 0 |
| Chicken Hand | 8 |
| Flowers (Orchid, Summer) | 2 |
| Hand value | 10 |
Won on a discarded 7 Dots, with 5-6 Dots waiting on 4 or 7. The discarder pays 8 + 10 = 18. The other two pay 8 each.
Can't win: only 1 point
| Self-Drawn | 1 |
| Flowers don't count toward 8 | 0 |
| Total toward 8 | 1 |
Same tiles, but the 7 Dots was self-drawn. That 1 point means it's no longer a Chicken Hand, and 1 is under 8. Three flowers can't rescue it.
Easy routes to 8 for beginners
- Mixed Straight 8 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9 across the three suits.
- Mixed Triple Chow 8 the same run in all three suits.
- Half Flush 6 + a Dragon Pung 2 = 8.
- All Pungs 6 + two small extras, like pungs of 1s or 9s.
- All Types 6 + a Dragon Pung or a scoring wind 2.
- Seven Pairs 24 on its own.
- Chicken Hand 8 a hand that scores nothing at all also wins, flowers or not. A hand worth 1–7 does not. See why
Step 6
Counting rules
MCR has a few rules that stop you counting the same thing twice. Each fan card lists what not to also count. Score a hand applies these rules for you.
No double-dipping
If a bigger fan already includes a smaller one, count only the bigger one. Full Flush already means No Honors, so you don't add No Honors.
Don't split sets
Each set is one unit. You can't break a pung into a pair plus a single tile to score more.
Pick the best reading
If your tiles can be grouped in more than one way, choose the grouping that scores the most points.
Reuse a set only once
After a group of sets scores a fan, any set in it can join one more fan with another set, and never for the same fan again.
Waits need one winning tile
Edge Wait, Closed Wait and Single Wait score only when exactly one tile could finish your hand.
Step 7
Who pays what
Won on a discard
The discarder pays 8 + hand value. The other two each pay 8.
Self-drawn
All three opponents pay 8 + hand value.
Hand value includes flowers. Losers never pay each other, and a drawn hand pays nothing.
Avoid these
Common beginner mistakes
- Counting flowers toward 8. They never help you reach the minimum.
- Thinking flowers spoil a Chicken Hand. A hand with no fans is still a Chicken Hand when you have flowers. It's worth 8 plus 1 per flower.
- Chowing from the wrong player. You can only chow the discard of the player on your left.
- Calling a win under 8. A false win is penalized. In tournaments you pay 10 points to each other player.
- Counting a small fan inside a big one. Check the "Don't also count" line on each fan.
- Forgetting Self-Drawn or Concealed Hand. They're easy points. If you drew your own winning tile with nothing claimed, count Fully Concealed Hand (4) instead of both.
- Scoring a wait you didn't have. If two different tiles could have finished your hand, no wait fan counts.
- Treating a flower replacement as a kong win. Out with Replacement Tile only counts after a kong.