Tournament 3 Rules/Format


Co-Directors: Mark Mammel, Joe King

The elimination method will use two brackets. A player losing a match will fall from bracket one to bracket two and then upon a second loss of match, from bracket two to elimination as explained below. At the start, all players will be placed into bracket #1.

Starting this tournament, the top 4, 8, or 16 players will be seeded according to their rating at Pente.org at the start of the tournament. For 8-15 players in the tournament we will seed the top 4 players, for 16-31 players, seed 8, and for 32-63 players, seed 16. The rest of the players will be seeded randomly. In each round, matches will be assigned by pairing the highest seed against the lowest, then the next highest vs. the next lowest ( with 12 players: #1 vs #12, #2 vs #11 etc). If there are an odd number of players in the bracket, the highest seeded player does not play that round (bye). Exception: if the highest seeded player has already had a bye in the tournament, the bye will go to the highest seeded player who has not had a bye. We would like to prevent players from playing each other a second time until the latest possible time. If players have already played one another, there should be as little change as possible in the normal pairing process. Here's an example with 6 seeds where #1 and #2 have already played #6, so: #1 vs. #5 #2 vs. #4 #3 vs. #6

After each round, all players from bracket #1 who lost their match will be moved to bracket #2, all players from bracket #2 who lost their match will be eliminated (having lost twice). In the next round, the players originally seeded in the top 4, 8, or 16 will remain seeded in the same order, the others will be randomly seeded again. Once there is only one player left in bracket one, all remaining players will be joined in a single bracket. Play will continue until only one player has not lost twice.

The time limit of each game will be 20 minutes for each player. (You should change the time from the default 15 minutes). A match will consist of two games, each player moving first in one game. If the result is a tie, another two games are played, and then a third pair if necessary. If all three matches are tied, play additional matches of 5 minute games until one player wins both games of a match.

The time period to play matches in each round will be a period of 10 days, starting on a Friday and ending on a Sunday. You must arrange with your assigned opponent a time to meet and play your match. Be sure to indicate in correspondence, what time zone you are in when discussing times to meet. Players from different countries may wish to express times in GMT. A player who is not able to meet at any time during the match period will forfeit. If two players are unable to agree on a suitable meeting time by the beginning of the match period they must email me - I will assign two different times and days for the match to be held. If the players can't agree to either, I will assign one time, either player not able to make it will forfeit.

I, mmammel, am the referee, all disputes should be sent to me. But I will be playing also, any disputes against me should be sent to the co-director Joe King.

Rules of Conduct:

  1. Time limit of each game is 20 minutes per player. If a player becomes disconnected or leaves, that player has five minutes to rejoin the game or will forfeit.
  2. No player may enter under two or more userids.
  3. No assistance from any other person is permitted during the game.
  4. No assistance from any computer AI is permitted.
  5. No assistance from ANY notes, opening books, game transcripts, or databases is permitted. (#3, 4, 5 are not possible to enforce - I cannot see what you are doing where you are - each player must follow these rules under the honor system!)
  6. Anyone is free to watch games in progress BUT do not make ANY comments during a tournament game in progress. At the COMPLETION of the game you may make polite comments if you wish, including ideas for different moves.
  7. At the completion of a game, both players should hit Email History before starting another game or leaving. Both players then should have the opportunity to review the game before starting another.
  8. The use of the UNDO request is permitted, but your opponent is NEVER obligated to accept any undo request even if you accidentally dropped a stone in an obviously erroneous place (such as the edge of the board). In a tournament, any mistake, even a slip of the hand (or mouse) is part of the game.
  9. All disputes will be brought to the attention of the referee immediately.
  10. Any player showing improper conduct and/or poor sportsmanship may be dropped from the tournament at the discretion of the referee and directors.