GUILDFORD, Surrey, England - This month will be mahjong month for the United Kingdom. Not only the first official mahjong competition - the UK Riichi Open - in cooperation with the European Mahjong Association (EMA) will take place, but England will also formally request to become a member of EMA.

Recently, the UK Mahjong Association (UKMA) has been launched. On the day of the UK Riichi Open, June 26th, straight after the tournament, an Extraordinary General Meeting of prospective members will take place, with the intend to ratify the UKMA Constitution. Ian Fraser, one of the ‘founding fathers’ of UKMA, will circulate the details of the EGM and the Constitution to all interested parties in the UK, inviting clubs to join the UKMA and to attend the EGM.
According to the Constitution, the UKMA shall seek to promote the interests of all forms of the game of mahjong in the United Kingdom. E.g., Tony Gray of the Budleigh Salterton Mah Jong Club in Devon, which plays the national variant of the Chinese Classical game, helped writing the UKMA Constitution. 

In England, the Chinese Classical game is quite popular, but in the Guildford tournament, riichi rules will be applied. Until now, hardly anyone in Great Britain plays Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR), which are so popular amongst organised mahjong players on the Continent.

The current national British Mah-Jong Association (BMJA) will continue to live, but from the start, this organisation has been sleeping.

Competitors

To the UK Riichi Open, 52 players have signed up, from five countries. It is a MERS-1 competition; which means the results will be implied in the EMA-ranking system.

The list of players, as on June, 11th.