Welcome to big-bone.com!

We introduce Mahjong, online version of popular chineese game.

Play mahjong online with thousands of players from around the world with our play for fun tables or

head straight to the real money tables and play for cash online.

When playing for fun you can enjoy all our mahjong games absolutely free. Practice and compete with other players and qualify for some fantastic prizes in our regular points competitions and tournaments.

If playing for real money you will need to register for an account and deposit funds to your account. You can choose to play at our express tables with 2,3 or 4 players, play sit-n-go or multi table tournaments.

History

One of the myths of the origin of mahjong suggests that Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, developed the game in about 500 BC.The three dragon (cardinal) tiles also agree with the three cardinal virtues bequeathed by Confucius. The myth also claims that Confucius was fond of birds, which would explain the name "mahjong" (maque ?? = sparrow). Since then mahjong got arend the world and became very popular.

Other historians believe it was based on a Chinese card game called Madiao. This game was played with 40 paper cards similar in appearance to the cards used in the game Ya Pei. These 40 cards are numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits, along with four extra flower cards. This is quite similar to the numbering of mahjong tiles today, although mahjong only has three suits and, in effect, uses four packs of Ya Pei cards.

Also there is still some debate about who created the game. One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during the Taiping Rebellion created the game to pass the time. Another theory is that a nobleman living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1870 and 1875. Others believe that two brothers from Ningpo created mahjong around 1850, from the earlier game of Madiao.
Despite the many myths, really mahjong - a young game, its age is rather less than 200 years.

Anyway, there is no objective evidence of mahjong in its current form or close analogues to the middle of the XIX century. There is no reason to believe that the game is ancient.

There are enough reasons to believe that the game appeared in one of the provinces around the cities of Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Ningbo. The similarity of the rules of mahjong with the rules of card games that had circulated in China in the early XIX century and earlier, as well as the well-known in China, a game of dominoes.

Many historians believe that the close predecessor of mahjong could be popular card game called Ma Diao. In this game, used by 40 paper cards similar to card games Ya Pay, which include the four suits, numbered from 1 to 9, and four flower card, which is very similar to modern bones for mahjong.
According to one theory the game creators were officers of the Chinese Army, serving during the Taiping rebellion and came up with a game to spend time. On the other - the game has created a nobleman who lived in the vicinity of Shanghai between 1870 and 1875 years. Spread of the game was initially quite limited until the early XX century, it played only in the lower reaches of the Yangtze and in the suburbs of Beijing, but then there was a sharp jump in popularity: the first two decades of the XX century, the game spread throughout China and got in the neighboring country. By 1920, Mahjong is considered a national game, an integral part of Chinese culture, and was known not only in Asia but also in America and Europe.

Today, there are myriad variations of mahjong game. They all differ in layout, number of used knuckles, or images on them, but the essence of the game remains unchanged. The complexity depends on the order of mahjong decomposed knuckles. The more open elements at the start - the easier the game, and the sooner it ends.