World Mahjong Championship

The World Mahjong Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the table game Mahjong held by World Mahjong Organization (WMO). Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the championship holds both of Individual event and Team event.

Contents

History

During the propagation of Mahjong since beginning of 20th century, the rules of Mahjong had been inconsistent all around the world. In January 1998, Mahjong was certified as the 255th sport by General Administration of Sport of China at the urging of Japan. In September, the unified Chinese rule was invented the international competitions. On October 23, 2002, the first world championship was held in Iidabashi, Tokyo, Japan lasted for 3 days, but this event did not count as the first world championship.[1][2][3]

After the establishment of World Mahjong Organization(WMO) in 2006, the official first world championship was held in Chengdu, Sichuan, China on November 1, 2007 lasted for 5 days. Li Li, a Chinese student of Tsinghua University, won the championship.[4][5] In team event, China Shanxi Jiexiu won the championship with 94 table points.[6]

On June 15, 2007, World Mahjong ltd.(WML), the company based on Hong Kong, promoted World Series Of Mahjong(WSOM) in Macau. This event took the prize system of 1,000,000 US dollars and the winner was given 500,000 US dollars. This event was just a competition held by a private company and it is not certified by WMO.

The second official World Mahjong Championship (WMC) took place in Utrecht 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).[7] 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

No. Winner 2nd 3rd
2002 Mai Hatsune John O'Conor Yūichi Ikeya
1 Li Li Matthew Que Minoru Imaeda
2 Linghua Jiao Olivier Boivin Elisabeth Frischenschlager

Team

No. Winner 2nd 3rd
2002 Young Pros Team B Guangzhou Japan Health Mahjong Association Selected Team
1 China Shanxi Jiexiu China Shanghai Zhangjiang Japan Mahjong Sport Association Osaka
2 China (Top-3 players) France (Top-3 players) Denmark (Top-3 players)

Venues

Date Edition Place Venue
October 23, 2002 2002 World Championship in Mahjong Iidabashi, Tokyo, Japan Hotel Grand Place
November 1, 2007 1st World Mahjong Championship Chengdu, Sichuan, China Hong Zhu Shan Hotel
August 27, 2010 2nd World Mahjong Championship Utrecht, Netherlands Nationaal Denksport Centrum 'Den Hommel'

See also

References

  1. ^ The First World Championship in Mahjong
  2. ^ 2002年世界麻雀選手権大会個人部門成績 2002 World Mahjong Championship Individual Result
  3. ^ 2002年世界麻雀選手権大会団体部門成績 2002 World Mahjong Championship Team Result
  4. ^ World Championship Mahjong 2007 Results(Individual)
  5. ^ Li Li World Champion Mahjong 2007
  6. ^ World Championship Mahjong 2007 Results(Team)
  7. ^ World Championship Mahjong 2010 Results

External links

World Mahjong Champions
Individual
2002:Mai Hatsune ( Japan), 2007(WSOM):Chunglai Hui ( Hong Kong), 2007(WMC):Li Li ( China), 2008(WSOM):Kwokhung Ho ( Hong Kong), 2010(WSOM):Takkwan Chan ( Hong Kong), 2010(WMC):Linghua Jiao ( China)
Team
2002:Young Pros Team B ( Japan), 2007(WMC):China Shanxi Jiexiu ( China), 2010(WMC):China ( China)