UTRECHT, the Netherlands - The World Mahjong Championship is made by the people who remain backstage. Ans Hoogland and her team are working permanently in order to produce the general classifications in time.

The volunteers

While the players play, they work. When the players do not play and can relax for a while, they have to work even harder. Because everyone is waiting for their lists with the general classifications.

So Ans Hoogland, Evert-Jan van der Kleij and Eric van Balkum are toiling their way through the tournament to fill the spreadsheets with the results of each round. That means working through 52 sheets of paper with figures, every session.

The results are projected in the tournament hall, but not during game play, since that would distract the players. Also they are handed over to Mahjong News to publish them on the internet, and to the website of the World Mahjong Championship. Prints are put on the wall of the Grand Cafe of the venue, the Utrecht National Mind Sports Center.

Work-around

Processing the results is not that easy. Producing the spreadsheet with the results is no problem, but converting them to a proper PowerPointPresentation is. The routine which was developed for that just did not work right, so Ans and her men had to think out work-arounds.

Is it hard to read the score sheets that are filled in by the players?

“The figures are okay”, says Eric van Balkum. “The names are harder to read sometimes.”

Many mistakes in the countings?

“In the forms of session number 6 there were three mistakes. That was the highest number. So, generally, the players calculate very well.”