Mahjong is a tile-based game that has been popular in many countries in Asia, since the 19th century. According to traditional rules, Mahjong is usually played by four players, with 16 pieces of tiles bearing various designs. The game objective is to build sets or combinations of pieces that are placed in front of each player. Certain tiles are considered highly valuable, while others remain discarded. To win the game, a player needs to form a predetermined set of combination tiles and "declare Mah Jong".
In Russia, there are certain variants of the traditional game rules which are commonly used in the country. For example, the game is often played with two to three players, and their objective is to collect pairs of similar images or patterns, which are laid out on the table. Also, Russian Mahjong features a difference in the tiles used, as they are typically round instead of the usual square shape.