Welcome
Welcome to the virtual home of the Guildford Mahjong Club
If you love to play mahjong or would love to learn, (or even would love to learn about it) then you have come to the right place.
Mahjong is a game of Chinese origin dating from the mid/late 19th Century rather than from the mists of antiquity as some would have us believe. It was first popularised and played in the West in the 1920’s. It is widely played today in China, Japan and throughout the Far East, and there has in more recent years been a significant resurgence of interest throughout Europe where a thriving organisation (The European Mahjong Association) now oversees an active programme of events and competitions.
The game is played with tiles that are both beautiful and tactile. Mahjong bears no relation either to dominoes or, worse still, to the solitary pastime that stole its name and its elegant designs to create a pair matching/eliminating game now featured on so many of our computer screens. Rather, it is a truly absorbing strategic game for four players (sometime three) that has more in common with card games like canasta or rummy, but having significantly more depth and variety. It is, in a nutshell, a sophisticated and elegant card game that happens to be played with tiles rather than cards. Just like the very best strategic games, a game of mahjong involves attack and defence, requires the differentiation of fact and inference, balances perception and deception, offers reward for skill and assessment, but as with another of the world’s truly great games, poker, leavens all this with an element of chance.
The Club prides itself on providing a welcoming environment for both experienced players and ‘students of the game’ of all ages and stages of learning. The Club also runs induction courses from time to time at the Guildford Institute, as well as some teaching sessions on club nights.
Our principal venue is the Guildford Institute.
We play from 7.00 to 10.30 and play two complete games (complete East and South rounds = 1!) in that time, changing opposition for reasons of variety and sociability at the half way point.
Make contact with us, or just come along and take a look sometime.