HANOVER - Thomas Kragh, the current European Riichi Mahjong Champion, will defend his titel after all. The German Mahjong League (DMJL) could grant him a seat, since the Italians and the Japanese did not fulfil their quotas. Originally, Kragh could not play in Hanover because he did not participate in any of the Danish qualification tournaments.

According to the organizers, Finland 'at last organised a qualification tournament' and now has completed its registrations. Danmark and Germany also finished the “paper works”, France did so nearly – now 74 of the 80 seats are fixed.

The Italian association FIMJ declined its participation due to a lack of riichi players, so the Italian quota was given to applicants from Poland (Dominik Kolenda and Jakub Tomaszewski) and Turkey (Deniz Gencturk). One seat goes to the Danish titleholder Thomas Kragh.

The organizers regret to have received just two applications from Japan. A decision about the unused Japanese seats will be communicated shortly.

Defend

Initially, Thomas Kragh resigned himself in not being able to come and play in Hanover. "But later on", he tells Mahjong News, "it started bothering me and I really wanted to come. So I contacted DMJL and asked if it were at all possible that I could come, e.g. as a Norwegian, and defend my title. I live and work in Norway, which is also why I didn't play in any of the qualification tournaments in Denmark.

"They said that this was impossible since Norway has no seats, but that I could register and hope that a seat opens after the end of registration. I am very glad that this now has turned out right for me."