The World Mahjong Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the table game

Mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

held by

World Mahjong Organization The World Mahjong Organization (Chinese: "世界麻将组织") is the international governing body of mahjong in its variation called MCR. Its headquarters is located in Beijing, China. As of 2015, its president is Jiang Xueqi. History Before ...

(WMO). Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the championship holds both of Individual event and Team event.

History

Since the propagation of Mahjong at the beginning of the 20th century, the rules of Mahjong have been inconsistent all around the world. In January 1998, Mahjong was certified as the 255th sport by

General Administration of Sport of China The General Administration of Sport () is the government agency responsible for sports in mainland China. It is subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It also administers the All-China Sports Federation and Chinese Oly ...

at the urging of Japan. In September, unified Chinese rules were codified for international competitions. On October 23, 2002, the first world championship was held in

Iidabashi, Tokyo is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was in the former ward of Kōjimachi, which existed in Tokyo until 1947. Etymology Iidabashi is named after a nearby bridge called Iida Bridge (, ''Iidabashi''), itself named after an Edo-period farm ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

over three days, but this event was not counted as the first world championship. After the establishment of

(WMO) in 2006, the official first world championship was held in

Chengdu, Sichuan Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese province ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

on November 1, 2007 and lasted for five days. Li Li, a Chinese student of

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

, won the championship. In team event, China Shanxi Jiexiu won the championship with 94 table points. On June 15, 2007, World Mahjong ltd.(WML), the company based on

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, promoted the

World Series Of Mahjong The World Series Of Mahjong (Chinese:世界麻将大赛) is a privately sponsored Mahjong tournament. Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the top finishers receive prize money with the champion also receiving a necklace. The t ...

(WSOM) in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. This event took the prize system of US$1,000,000 and the winner was given US$500,000. This event was a competition held by a private company and it was not certified by WMO. The second official World Mahjong Championship (WMC) took place in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

from August 27 to August 29, 2010. The new World Champion again comes from China: Ms. Linghua Jiao won the competition with 32 table points (acquired in 9 sessions).World Championship Mahjong 2010 Results
/ref> The follow-ups were both Europeans – the same held true for the country ranking, which was calculated as a team score of the best three national players from each country: China ranked first with 85 table points, followed by France (78 TP) and Denmark (77 TP).

Champions

Individual

Team

Venues

References

External links

2nd World Mahjong Championship Official Site6th World Mahjong Championship Official Site
{{Mahjong Tournaments and Competitions Mahjong world championships