Introducing the 5th Season of “Sherlock Holmes and Mahjong” contest

Dear mahjong lovers, MahjongSoft is pleased to announce the start of the 5th season of “Sherlock Holmes and Mahjong” mystery solving contest.
Just to remind everyone, this series (created by Vitaly Novikov) has been firstly published at Mahjong News in the years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
In years 2013, 2015 and 2017 the full-fledged mahjong mystery solving contests took place.
In 2021 mahjong mystery solving contest continued on MahjongSoft.
This year contestants will be challenged to solve nine mahjong mysteries. Answers for these nine mysteries will be scored, and their combined scores will determine their final standings. Below are some details about the contest.

Prizes

• Top 3 winners of the contest will receive medals (1st, 2nd, 3rd).
• In addition, top 3 contestants solving mystery #0 ("Big panneau", a major challenge) will also receive medals (1st, 2nd, 3rd).
• Best Russian contestant will receive Vitaly Novikov's mahjong book (MCR or SBR), signed by authour.
• Best Russian contestant residing not in Moscow or Saint Petersburg will also receive Vitaly Novikov's mahjong book (MCR or SBR), signed by authour.

Prizes are provided by MahjongSoft and Vitaly Novikov.

Schedule

The first mystery kicks off on September 14, 2024 at 13:00 London time. Every new mystery will be published each following Saturday at the same time.
“Sherlock Holmes and Mahjong” contest results will be published no later than on November 19, 2024. Please, refer to "Rules" page to see the detailed schedule.

Scoring

Each typical mystery can bring 3 (), 2 (), 1 () or none of so-called "Sherlock points", no point fractions will be used.
Mysteries with the multiple questions and the mystery #0 may bring more than 3 () "Sherlock points".
Participants' answers for nine mysteries will be scored, and their combined scores will determine their final standings.
All scores except prize winners will be published in a "shared-score" manner.
Only to break ties in top three positions for the prize winners, so-called "time stamp" procedure will be applied.

Communication

To submit your proposed solution, please, write to Vitaly Novikov, you can have several options:

• preferrable option — e-mail address, vitaly.novikov@mail.ru
• WhatsApp: +7(925)771-45-92
• telegram: @Novikov_mahjong
• WeChat ID: Novikov_Mahjong

We recommend to write a test message prior to the contest to prove that communication for the selected option works.

Multiple attempts

What will be NEW in the 5th Contest is that ONLY ONE attempt to send a solution per each mystery from one contestant will be accepted!
For each subsequent attempt, 1 () "Sherlock point" will be DEDUCTED.
The only exception is a letter without the solution, just to clarify information (which may take place due to language or other issues).

Personal data

Disclaimer: only contestant himself/herself chooses the level of personal data details revealed through the contest communication.

Contestant identification used in publication, hence, will be based either on explicit signature under the solution(s), or on implicit name tags provided by e-mail program.
Only for the prize winners: full name and mail address is needed to send prizes by regular mail.

Language support

Official language of the contest is ENGLISH.
All mysteries texts and solutions will be provided on 3 (three) languages: English, Russian and French.
For French the author will predominantly use special tools like "Google.Translate".
It is recommended, if possible, to communicate in English, otherwise, please, use your native language.
Any minor corrections to the published text may be done only after the text has been published, so "language officers" are welcome to propose vital corrections right after the publication.

How to train yourself?

If you are new to the mahjong mysteries solving contest the best is to get acquainted yourself with the range of possible mysteries. Old years mysteries one can find at the current site under Sherlock Holmes book page which is available at six languages.
Russian, English, French — 58 mysteries, Italian — 47 mysteries, Japanese — 45 mysteries, Chinese — 6 mysteries.