World Riichi Championship

The World Riichi Championship (WRC) is a worldwide competition of Japanese Mahjong (also known as riichi) held every 3 years since 2014. The competition is nominally open to people of all ages, men and women alike. Participants generally consist of Japanese professional Mahjong players and foreign amateur players selected by national organizations from Europe, North America, and elsewhere around the world.

History

The first edition of WRC was organized by two brothers, Quentin and Valérian Thomas, founders of Tri Nitro Tiles (TNT), a French Riichi Mahjong Club in 2014.

On July 16–20, 2014, the 1st Championship was held in the Mairie de Puteaux (city hall), in the Paris, France region.

The second edition was organized by the United States Professional Mahjong League (USPML) in 2017. On October 4–8, 2017, the WRC was held at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The third edition will be hosted in Vienna, Austria. The original date was in August, but concerns over the coronavirus pandemic prompted planners with postponement. The third edition was finally held at the Intercontinental Hotel Vienna in Vienna, Austria on August 25-28, 2022.

The fourth edition will be hosted in Tokyo, Japan in 2025 to be organized by the Japan Mahjong Professional League.

Qualification

General qualification varies by country and association. Players from various nations refer to their national organization for qualification.

List of World Riichi Championships
Year Host country Host city Organizer Winner Runner-up Third place Countries Participants Ref.
2014  France Puteaux Tri Nitro Tiles (TNT)  Hiroshi Yamai (JAP)  Kazuhiko Nishijima (JAP)  Jun Nishikawa (JAP) 23 120
2017  United States Las Vegas United States Professional Mahjong League (USPML)  Masaharu Tomotake (JAP)  Ryūichi Masuda (JAP)  Hiroyuki Yamada (JAP) 25 224
2022  Austria Vienna Kasu  Keijun Nara (JAP)  Satoshi Fujisaki (JAP)  Valentin Courtois (FRA) 34 152 [1]
2025  Japan Tokyo Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML)

See also

References
  1. "Welcome to the 2022 World Riichi Championship". Retrieved 2022-01-09.
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