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This month we are spotlighting a very special Mahjong Time player, Adrie van Geffen (username:a3geffen). Hailing from The Netherlands, Adrie is an influential Mahjong activist and columnist, and
when it comes to knowledge of rules and tactics, he is second to none! Adrie has been playing at Mahjong Time for over four years and is a very diverse Mahjong player, holding a black belt in RCR
and brown belts in MCR, EC, and TW. Adrie also participates in many online and live tournaments and has an impressive collection of medals on his avatar, the most remarkable of which is the golden
tile he earned for winning the Open Online Dutch Championship 2008! Mahjong Time had the chance to ask Adrie a few questions:
Q: How did you originally discover multiplayer Mahjong?
I’ve learned the game in my first year as a student in 1977. Played it for about 3 years and rediscovered it in 1999.
Q: How long have you played at Mahjong Time?
I joined Mahjong Time in December 2005 when the Chinese Official rules were being implemented (and in need of a lot of feed back).
Q: How often do you play online?
Almost every day. Almost? Well, ok: every day.
Q: What do you like most about Mahjong Time?
Mahjong Time approaches the real live experience the best. Not only game-wise do you have to make your own decisions (making false mahjong is possible), you also have opportunity to exchange
thoughts by chat. And just relying on honesty of fellow players not to use private chat to exchange insights (passing information J).
Also it brought new players to participate in real live tournaments and to get acquainted to, like Credmo, Roxan and Derai with whom I teamed up in Copenhagen for the European Championship
2007.
Q: Looking back on your Mahjong Time experience, what would you say was your favorite tournament to play in?
In 2008 the first Open Dutch Championship tournament was held and I won it! Not only the first Dutch to win an online tournament but it being the Dutch version was an extra.
Q: What other interests/hobbies do you have in addition to Mahjong?
I’m a collector of mahjong sets (in 2005 I had an exhibition of about 65 sets in the library of Rotterdam, one of the larger ones in Europe). I read a lot (Godfried Bomans, Charles Dickens,
Terry Pratchett as special interest, but about 40 books per year). Besides my textbook ‘Mahjong Step By Step’ (available in English and in Dutch) I write articles, columns and comments
on Mahjong News. And of course the source of my avatar: Jethro Tull (Broadsword and the Beast in the avatar) and a large collection of music. Poor guitar player, but I won’t budge.
Q: Which style of Mahjong do you like best? Why is this your favorite?
The mahjong competition rules are my favorite for it has the most possibilities.
Q What is better: playing live or playing online?
A new column about this is on the roll to be published on Mahjong News. Check regularly! J
Q: On the subject of online play, what kind of advice would you give to the online player?
Mind that at a table three will lose. Keep your wits, have a beer, be cool and hang on in there: don’t dare to walk away from a table or a tournament! It’s the rudest thing you can
do
