Curriculum · 8 / 50
Fundamentals: recap
A recap of the Fundamentals chapter: tiles, hand structure, tenpai and shanten, the mandatory yaku, ron, tsumo and dora in riichi mahjong.
The principle
Riichi is played with 136 tiles: three numbered suits (manzu, pinzu, souzu from 1 to 9) and the honors (winds and dragons), each in four copies. An ordinary hand occupies four group slots as runs, triplets or declared kan, plus a pair. Without kan it contains fourteen tiles; chiitoitsu and kokushi use special structures.
Rule and example
A turn is simply drawing one tile then discarding one, seat after seat. You track the distance to a win with shanten: at zero shanten the hand is tenpai, one tile away from completing. Ukeire counts the tiles that improve the hand, a core habit for discarding efficiently.
What changes
Completing the shape is not enough: you need at least one yaku, a scoring pattern, in order to win. You win by ron (on an opponent's discard) or by tsumo (on your own draw). Furiten forbids the ron if one of your waiting tiles already sits in your own kawa (your discard pile).
Mistake to avoid
Dora add extra han but never count as a yaku: a valid shape full of dora but no yaku is not a winning hand and cannot be declared. Keep this mandatory-yaku rule in mind from the first game.
Rules references
- Tenhou rulesReference profile used for game mechanics and scoring.
- WRC Rules 2025International rules compared whenever their options differ from Tenhou.