10 August,2016 01:14 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
These pictures show mahjong enthusiasts playing mahjong under water in a swimming pool at a diving club in the Chinese city of Chongqing
These pictures show mahjong enthusiasts playing mahjong under water in a swimming pool at a diving club in the Chinese city of Chongqing.
Pics/AFP
Only participants with proper diving certification were allowed to take part in the underwater competition.
Mahjong originated in Qing Empire and is commonly played by 4 players (with some 3-player variations found in South Korea and Japan).
Similar to the Western card game rummy, Mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and calculation and involves a degree of chance.
It is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although some regional variations use a different number of tiles.
In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form 4 groups (melds) and a pair (head).
