Did you grow up in the 1960s, 70s or 80s? If so, you will surely remember the many board games you played with friends or family for fun. Those were the days! Today’s generation would likely find a board game to be rather old-fashioned or outdated. Especially games like Scrabble, Monopoly or Clue, which have been on the market for what seems like an eternity. Monopoly was already being sold in toy stores way back in 1935, and Scrabble and Clue were launched in 1949.
Nowadays, those who might feel like a stroll down memory lane and want to play a board game with their family on a Saturday evening may be met with incredulity from some of these family members. Nevertheless, this form of entertainment was commonplace not too long ago, before the existence of the Internet and the smartphone.
Mahjong is one of the oldest games there is. But what many people don’t know is that it is actually a parlour game. Based on historical records, the game is more than 2,500 years old. Some even claim that the Chinese philosopher Confucius invented the game. And according to research and some studies, the game was inspired by dominoes or antique card games played in Imperial China. Some references maintain that the Chinese were playing Mahjong as early as the 10th century, and even today it is one of China’s most beloved games. However, it is still very popular in Western countries as well. The only difference is that in these countries people like playing Mahjong online as a solitary (single-player) version, whereas in Shanghai the preference is for the physical form, playing it with friends as a board game.
The English online version of Mahjong is comprised of a tactical board with 144 tiles that form a tortoise shape. The task is to find two identical tiles. Once you’ve found two identical tiles, these are highlighted and automatically removed from the game. You then continue looking for the next pair of identical tiles, and so on. You keep going until you’ve found all of the pairs and the entire board is empty.
The above-mentioned Chinese game version is a completely different version with lots of rules, similar to Rummikub. It has four players, with each player receiving a number of tiles. The objective is to pass the most worthless tiles on to the next player. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Do you want to play the solitaire version of Mahjong? If so, please check out the free Mahjong website where you can find various Mahjong games. We have both contemporary and classic versions in different formats and configurations, so there’s something for everyone.
We hope you have lots of fun playing!