Chanta
| Type | Yaku |
|---|---|
| Kanji | 混全帯么九 |
| English | Terminal or honor in each group |
| Value |
2 han (closed) 1 han (open) |
| Speed | Medium |
| Difficulty | Medium |
Chanta 「全帯」 is the common name to honchantaiyaochuu 「混全帯么九」. It is a terminal and honor based yaku. For this yaku, every tile group and the pair must contain at least one terminal or honor tile. The hand must contain at least one honor and one non-terminal tile, otherwise the hand will score junchan, honroutou, or chinroutou instead. Occasionally, it can be referred to as chantaiyao 「全帯么」 or chantaiyaochuu 「全帯么九」.
Tile pattern
Waiting for: 
Note: This hand is also waiting for 
, but it would not be chanta.
Formation
By definition, every tile group must include a terminal or honor tile. So combinations of tile groups involving 1-2-3, 7-8-9, 1-1-1, 9-9-9, and/or any honor pairs/triplet qualify for chanta.
Compatibility
^ Ippatsu requires riichi to be of any use.
| RCH | DRI | IPP | SMO | TAN | PFU | IPK | ITT | YAK | SDJ | SDO | TOI | SNA | SNK | CHA | JUN | RPK | SSG | HRO | HON | CHN | CHI | RIN | HAI | HOU | CHK | |
| CHA |  |
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Chanta's pattern is similar to junchan; however, the two can never combine as junchan implies a chanta hand. Honroutou likewise implies chanta and is thus incompatible. Chanta with toitoi or chiitoitsu actually forms honroutou instead of chanta, while chanta with chinitsu is actually junchan instead of chanta.
Chanta is incompatible with tanyao and ittsu because both of those require a group which is not a terminal or honour -- in tanyao's case, it is required of all tiles in the hand, and for ittsu, a 4-5-6 sequence is needed.
Development
While chanta can be seen as the converse of tanyao, chanta is much slower. This is because the simple tiles are more efficient for hand development. This can be measured by tile acceptance - the more tiles that can be used to form a sequence/pair/triplet, the higher the tile acceptance, and the more efficient the tile (generally) is.
- A lone honor tile can only be used in a pair/triplet. Therefore, a lone honor only accepts itself.
- A lone 1 accepts 1, 2, or 3. There is no way to get a ryanmen wait off with a lone 1.
- A lone 5 accepts 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. There are two ways to get a ryanmen wait (45, 56).
As displayed above, forcing yourself to honors and terminals greatly reduces acceptance. In addition, chanta cannot use ryanmen waits at all. Chanta can accept {23} and {78}, but 1 of the 2 waiting tiles (4 or 6, respectively) will ruin chanta. Ryanmen is 2x faster than the other basic waits, so going for chanta means losing out on a big development boost. Also, in order to guarantee chanta, your hand will always end up with a bad wait (<= 4 tiles left in wall).
Overall, since chanta is so slow, and only worth 2 han, it usually isn't worth the effort. Even without considering riichi, there are easier ways to get 2 han, such as tanyao + pinfu, pinfu + 1 dora, pinfu + iipeikou, and so on. Therefore, players will rarely go for chanta. Chanta can be good to aim for when:
- You need a quick hand, and chanta/junchan is your only realistic way your hand can complete open.
- You happen to get most of the required tiles already (e.g. 123 sanshoku with other terminals/honors mixed in).
- You were going for kokushi musou, but kokushi became impossible early in the round, and you are desperate to win.
External links
- Chanta in Japanese Wikipedia
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