World Mahjong Championship 2007. Emeishan, 2 November 2007. Referee Seminar and WMO Meeting.

November 1st was all meetings all day, most of the day was the referee seminar. That day was just too busy for pictures. The next day, November 2nd the referee seminar continued with live exercises.

Vice Chief Referee Mr. Cui Guilu and Arbitrators Mr. Wang Yingfu and Mr. Gao Yuting.

Vice Chief Referee Mr. Zheng Xujian (Andy) and Chief Referee Mr. Liang Jianguo.

The day before in the referee seminar, we went through a document with rule clarifications and had some good discussions on different issues, e.g. scoring, penalties and irregularities, some of which can be hard to discuss with words, and the practical exercises of the second day of the refereee seminar worked surprisingly well, as the difficult situations were played out and visualised, making it clear to all which situation is discussed, and what the ruling would be.

An effort was made to mix people from different regions at the tables, because the difference in playing culture is what makes ruling on the irregularity details tricky. It is good to be aware of the little differences between the cultures. It makes it clear what different people should be aware of with the MCR rules, e.g. what happens with exposed tiles, what happens if you draw a wrong tile or a tile out of turn, can you advise someone who is about to forget to take a replacement tile, etc. In the background: Vice Chief Referee Stéphane Parcollet.

View from the terrace of the tea house over the lake and the hot spring pools.

One of the rare occasions where the sun came out. The Danish delegation enjoying a drink on the terrace in front of the main hotel building, while being briefed on rule issues to be aware of after the referee seminar.

The referee seminar ended with an examination to qualify for the Judge Certificate.

"Ssh! You're not supposed to talk about the exercises!"

Getting ready for the general meeting of the World Mahjong Organization. The Swedish and Swiss chairs remained empty. The Russian delgate was a little late after having been attacked by a monkey on the Golden Summit of Mt. Emei.

Clockwise around the table, starting in the background, left: Nusretha Mauthner (BIH), Hideo Okuma (JPN), Juho Pakarinen (FIN), Frauke Roos (DEU), Tom Sloper (USA), Martin Mauthner (AUT), Norbert Tschinkel (AUT), Stéphane Parcollet (FRA), Zhang Xioayan (CHN, not in view), Mr. Jiang Xuanqi (CHN), Martin Rep (NL, representing EMA), Tina Christensen (DK, representing EMA), Andy Zheng (CHN), Andy Boda (HUN), Henrik Leth (DK), Anton Kösters (NL, not in view).

Martin Rep, Tina Christensen and Andy Zheng.

Stéphane Parcollet, Zhang Xiaoyan, Jiang Xuanqi (president of WMO).

Spectators, from left: Hu May (CHN), Morten Andersen (DK), NN (standing), Slava Novozhenya (USA, MahjongTime.com), Yukio Mori (JPN), NN (translator for Mr. Okuma), Takunori Kajimoto (JPN, standing), Josephine Moore (USA), Benjamin Boas (USA), Ryan Morris (USA).

Far right: Mark Chizhenok (RUS).