Mahjong is a game with over 100 years of history and remains popular today. Over the years, plenty of players have turned to books and strategy guides to improve their skills, but playing other games can also help.

There are many other games out there that can help Mahjong players, boosting the skills exercised during a game of Mahjong and giving the brain a workout.

In this guide, we explore a lot of the games where there is a clear crossover with Mahjong and where people may be able to improve the same kind of skills they will need.

Poker

Poker is an immensely popular game that has skill involved. Many of the same kinds of skills used in Mahjong are also used in different varieties of poker.

Both games involve a lot of patience. In poker, this often comes in the form of waiting for an opportunity or a good hand and not aggressively playing every single hand that is dealt. Patience can also come in the form of raising the stakes and deploying a specific strategy rather than taking a scattergun approach.

Those who are new to poker and want to try it out can learn the basics online. Texas Holdem is the most popular form of the game, and a Texas Holdem rules and tactics guide can lead people through the early steps. This includes understanding how players gamble and raise the stakes and the value of the hands dealt. This is similar to Mahjong, where you are also looking to make pairs and “melds,” like poker hands.

Sudoku

Sudoku has some similarities with the game Mahjong. For instance, the history of Mahjong suggests that the game can be dated back hundreds of years and was based on some card games in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sudoku was invented at a similar time, it was thought to have been created by an 18th Century mathematician and was initially called “Latin Squares”.

Sudoku requires a lot of memory skills, as you need to remember which numbers have already been used within the different squares and lines of the Sudoku puzzle. Mahjong’s use of memory is also pretty evident when you play the game, and the strategy and tile setting of the game plays a big part.

Sudoku can also benefit other skills people use on a day-to-day basis. It can increase problem-solving skills, logical thinking, and pattern recognition. A lot of people enjoy Sudoku for its simplicity and the fact you can play virtually anywhere. Some big publications also provide new Sudoku puzzles regularly that players can access for free.

Chess

People often compare games like chess and Mahjong, which makes sense when you consider that they involve many of the same skills, and they are both traditionally played on a board with tiles or pieces.

One of the most important skills in chess is one that you can also put to good use in Mahjong, and that skill is strategy. Both games require a clear strategy and the ability to stick with the strategy long enough for it to work. Players need the judgment to abandon the strategy or adjust as required.

Both of these games have also shifted online and become more popular over the years. Jiang Xuanqi, secretary-general of the WMO, claims that there are more than 600 million Mahjong players worldwide. This is remarkably similar to chess which has 605 million regular players.

Chess is another game that also teaches things like patience and can also involve elements of memory. Foresight and the ability to think ahead is crucial to both games; playing one can sharpen the skills needed for the other.

Risk

Risk is another board game that can involve a lot of the same skills as Mahjong, with strategy playing a crucial part in the outcome of the game.

Similarly, there is also an element of risk (hence the name). The strategy in Risk is similar (it involves invading other territories on a replica of a map of the world), but there is also a big element of luck that comes from rolling the dice during the game.

This game can involve between two and six players, and there are a lot of moving parts, so people need to build their strategy and read the strategy of the others they are up against. The people-reading skills can also come in handy with Mahjong.

In both Risk and Mahjong, there is a big element of aggression and style of playing. Some choose to attack more, while others can be called defensive players.

Playing Risk can be frustrating, which is another similarity. Even if your strategy is pretty flawless, there is a chance that you won’t quite get the luck you are going to need if you are going to win. This can teach humility and graciousness in defeat, which is valued in China, the origin of the game of Mahjong.

Conclusion

All the games on this list are good for those who want to test their mental abilities. They all involve some form of skill, meaning they are all options for those who want to improve their Mahjong abilities.

People who enjoy Mahjong also tend to enjoy other games where they can use their strategic abilities. Many of these games can be played in-person and online, with an option to play against an AI in games like chess or against other people in games like poker.