MCR / Chinese official

Descends into

• MCR scoring reference

Cross-comparison

corroborated — two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

• [1] discards placed in orderly rows
• [2] length 16 hands; page shows a 2006 rulebook
• [4] mahjong certified as China's 255th sport in January 1998; unified rules codified that September
• [3] the ruleset itself, confirming what the secondary sources say about it
• [5] TENSION WITHIN THE SAME WIKI: this page says that when there was a call to make mahjong a nationally recognised mindsport, the China State Sports Commission chose to eschew organic competitive mahjong and create MCR instead — a top-down invention. The wiki's Guangdong page says the opposite, that Guangdong Style was adapted into MCR and Zung Jung in the 1990s. The chart treats MCR as a sibling of Guangdong under HKOS, which matches neither account exactly

Reading it

Sloperama and the wiki agree on 144 tiles, a 13-tile hand and pattern scoring; the wiki adds the 8-point minimum. Wikipedia independently dates the sport certification to January 1998 and the rules to that September, matching the chart. One wrinkle: the wiki's infobox is built on a 2006 rulebook, not the 1998 edition the chart cites.

Sources

1. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

   Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.

   https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html

   Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style, Modern HKOS and 43 more · bibliography #1

2. Mahjong Wiki. "Chinese Official (MCR) Overview." canonical checked 2026-09-18

   1998 release; the 1996 PRC push for sport recognition; Cantonese objections around the handover.

   http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:chinese-official-overview

   Also cited on: MCR scoring reference · bibliography #9

3. World Mahjong Organization. Mahjong Competition Rules, English edition. supporting checked 2026-09-18

   The 1998 ruleset itself.

   http://mahjong-europe.org/portal/images/docs/mcr_EN.pdf

   Also cited on: MCR scoring reference · bibliography #20

4. Wikipedia. "World Mahjong Championship." supporting checked 2026-09-18

   Mahjong certified as China's 255th sport in January 1998; unified rules codified that September.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Mahjong_Championship

   Only cited here · bibliography #19

5. Mahjong Wiki. "Guangdong MCR Overview." mahjong.wikidot.com. cross-check checked 2026-09-19

   Cited as the source for individual nodes in the chart's node table. Carries no bibliography or per-claim citations of its own; see the appendix on tracing the wiki.

   http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:gmcr-overview

   Also cited on: Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Guangdong MCR / GMCR · bibliography #43

6. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 22: Chinese Official Scoring Explained." Sloperama. supporting

   Confirms the 1998 People's Sports Publishing House edition of the competition rules.

   https://sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq22.html

   Also cited on: MCR scoring reference · bibliography #6

7. The World of Chinese. "Tales of the Tile," November 2019. supporting

   The 1998 State Sports Commission publication of the Guobiao rules; WMO founded 2006.

   https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2019/11/tales-of-the-tile/

   Only cited here · bibliography #21

8. Chinese Mahjong Competition Rules, People's Sports Publishing House, 1998. supporting

   Underlies the wiki's MCR pages, though it cites no edition.

   http://mahjong-europe.org/portal/images/docs/mcr_EN.pdf

   Only cited here · bibliography #31