EMA Riichi Competition Rules
The Riichi Competition Rules (RCR) of the European Mahjong Association (EMA) are used for many Japanese Mahjong tournaments throughout Europe.
Introduction
From 2008 until 2016
The EMA has used a ruleset over the course of its first 8 years of accepting riichi in its organization that was unique compared to other competitive riichi rules. The main differences of the RCR to other common Japanese Mahjong rulesets are:
- Kuitan nashi: Tanyao (all simples) was only awarded to closed hands only.
- Kuikae ari: Any discard is legal after calling chii or pon, even a tile which would also have completed the open meld.
- Ryanhan shibari: With five or more table counters present, winning hands must have at least two Han from Yaku.
- Furiten treatment: Temporary furiten is treated like ippatsu, a call from any opponents can nullify a temporary furiten state, unlike everywhere else requiring that the furiten player take his own action before exiting the furiten state. Permanent and self-furiten are treated the same.
Current (2016+)
The most recent update to the EMA ruleset has made a number of changes, to resemble the standard set by the WRC rules. The remaining differences with the 2015 WRC ruleset are minimal
- Changes from previous EMA rules (2012): no more red fives; open tanyao (kuitan) allowed; renhou is now a strict mangan only; the maximum score is a single yakuman (Daisuushii no longer worth double); 11-han hands and above are all scored as sanbaiman; the timing rule was changed; no more swap-calling (kuikae); temporary furiten ends once the player can play their turn (draw or claim a tile); the 2-han restriction (ryanhan shibari) with 5 or more repeats is gone; no more abortive draws; no more nagashi mangan; rank bonus (uma) is now [+15P, +5P, -5P, -15P]; the chombo penalty in a tournament is now -20P (after rank bonus); penalties are generally less harsh.
- Differences with WRC rules (2015):
- Multiple winners are allowed
- 4 han, 30 fu is not rounded to mangan payment
- Timing rules differ; EMA: pung takes predence over chow
- Riichi bets at game end go to the winner
Detailed rules
The reader is assumed to be familiar with the general rules of Japanese Mahjong. This section describes possible differences to other common rulesets.
This description tries to cover many possible questions, thus enabling a player to participate in an EMA tournament, but it also strives to be concise. For the most elaborate rules, see the official EMA RCR rules text, linked at the bottom of this page.
Play
Turn order is considered interrupted by any call of Chii, Pon, or Kan, even when declaring a concealed kan.
Ura dora, kan dora, and kan ura dora are used. After declaring any type of kantsu, the next dora indicator is flipped immediately.
Abortive draws are no longer used in EMA riichi rules.
Double and triple Ron is allowed, the discarder has to pay each winner separately.
Temporary Furiten is cancelled only when the player takes a tile from the wall.
A player is karaten (empty tenpai) if his hand could be completed with one more tile, but all possible winning tiles are already used in his own hand. Open melds and kantsu belong to his hand. Karaten counts as noten.
Yaku
Open tanyao is allowed.
Renhou is a mangan. This is awarded to any player winning by Ron within the first uninterrupted set of turns, before the player has made his first draw from the wall. The winner does not need to have another yaku, Renhou by itself is the yaku.
Sekinin barai, or pao, is in effect for daisangen and daisuushii.
Yakuman are not cumulative.
Scoring
All players start with 30,000 points. Point sticks are used to keep count of points during the game.
In case a player goes negative on points, a "penalty" 10,000 point stick is usually handed to them by the tournament judge in order to carry out further point transactions and resume play. This is ultimately subtracted from the player's end score.
Players may declare Riichi with any score. Winning players always get one Riichi stick back. Leftover Riichi sticks go to the winner sitting closest to the discarder's right.
Table counters are added whenever East won a hand, or there was an exhaustive draw. Table counters are all removed when someone else than East wins and East does not. Chombo leads to a repetition of the hand with the same number of table counters.
After each Hanchan, players receive a relatively large uma of 5-15, i.e., the second player receives 5,000 points from the third, and the first player receives 15,000 points from last place. When player scores tie, the tying players share their Uma; ties are not resolved by player seating order. Players tying for first share any leftover Riichi sticks. There is no oka. Scores are not rounded to the nearest thousand.
In the end of the Hanchan, the scores of each player are typically marked as the difference between the starting points (30,000) and their current amount of points, divided by 1,000. Uma is added on top of this to form the total. For example, a player finishing at 1st place with 60,000 points would mark their score as +30, followed by the uma (+15), totaling up to +45. Finally, any penalties (e.g. for a chombo) are subtracted from the liable players' total score for that Hanchan.
Time limit
When played with a time limit, a gong sounds 15 minutes before end. Only one more valid hand may be started after the gong. A hand starts when the dice are thrown. Won hands and exhaustive draws constitute a valid hand. Chombo renders a hand invalid, therefore another hand must be played.