Europe may host 1st WC Riichi. MaybeAMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, January, 27th - There is a chance that a first world championship riichi mahjong will be held the years to come. And this might very well take place somewhere in Europe. This is stated in a report, written for the Dutch mahjong association. Picture: The Second European Mahjong Championship, Hanover, Germany, 2010. Read more…
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| ‘Position # 120. But I feel just great’ |
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| Written by Sjef Strik |
| Saturday, 04 July 2009 23:40 |
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The third Open European Mahjong Championship is over. For the 152 contestants, and for Sjef Strik, correspondent of Mahjong News. Today the seventh, and last episode of his Baden diary. Including a ‘bizar incident’. It all ended just a little bit different than we had thought. In the first place: no European winner of the Open European Mahjong Championship 2007. After Day 1, Alexander Doppelhofer from Austria was the number one. One day later, Bo Lang from Switzerland had taken the leading position. But, eventually, it was Koji Idota from Japan who took the first prize. Bo Lang was the runner-up and Luca Gavelli from Italy ended on the third position. I had the honor of playing against both Bo and Luca, and they both won that table. I had hoped to end maybe in the top-ten, or at least in the ‘left column’: amongst the eighty best. But I ended on position #120… Yet, how strange it may seem: I am pretty satisfied. I know that I have done my utmost and that I have played well. But what to do when - as it happened to me today - you play against a Chinese who has one self-pick after the other? One time, I had a Pure Straight, I was waiting for Bamboo 7 - but it was not me but again the competition who won that game. I am pretty sure that I did not make many mistakes. So I have a quite positive feeling about Baden 2009. I give myself a B-plus for this tournament! And - I cannot say this enough - I have had a great time here. Not only because of playing mahjong for three long days, but also because of the great organization. Today, it was very hot again in the tournament hall. Some players had problems with that. For example, I heard Dutch Adrie van Geffen complain that his results were considerably less than they would have been under ordinary circumstances. I think I also made mistakes because of the heat. One time, I was waiting for a Character 5 tile, while all four of them were already on the table.
IncidentThen there was a quite bizarre incident close to where I was sitting. One of the Italian players was a mother of a baby of two months. She asked the players if she could keep her mobile phone switched on. One of them objected: ‘This is a European championship.’ She did not exactly like that. Somewhat later, she made quite some trouble when one of the players claimed a chow, which she seemed not to have heard. The referee had to come to appease a bit.After that, a player (this happened to be Chris Scheffler of our Nijmegen team) claimed a great hand: three dragons, or, in other words, Three Great Scholars! Then she got really mad, claiming that he had not said ‘hu’ but ‘pung, hu’. She flailed all the tiles from the table and ran away. Very bizarre. Chris got very upset because of this. He had to sit down a while before he had calmed down. You have to know that, during the tournament, he received the message that his mother had passed away… Tomorrow, he and his wife Conny are going home, instead of taking their Italian vacation. Of course, the Italian woman was suspended from the tournament. Fortunately, this was about the only incident. During the closing ceremony in the open air, everybody had almost forgotten about it. There were many awards. Chris received a trophy for the highest score in one of the sessions (because of the Three Great Scholars of course). But also Conny got one. Perhaps it will make them somewhat less sad when they ride home tomorrow… It was a great conclusion of a wonderful tournament! This was the seventh, and final, part of Sjef Striks OEMC 2009 diary. |
| Last Updated on Sunday, 09 August 2009 07:04 |
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OEMC Movies Online
On the occasion of the 100th MERS tournament, directors Bram van Erkel and Jelte Rep have granted permission to publish online the movies they made on the occasion of the first MERS tournament, the OEMC2005 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Mr. Van Erkel and Mr. Rep made a documentary about the competition, which now can be watched on YouTube.
Part 1
Part 2.
Finally, the comic feature 'Mahjong in Holland' can also be watched on YouTube. In this movie, 'proof' is produced that mahjong actually was invented in Holland.
Mahjong in Holland
