Playing a game of mahong ...under water!

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).

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