Life In 19x19

I am clear on the format of the "Super M" tournament for this year (2010) as John has described it, but I am a little unclear about what happens next year and the following years.

Do Korea, China, and Japan continue to hold their respective Myeongin, Mingren, Meijin tournaments with the "Super M" tournament taking place between the three current title holders each year? (which would be amazing)

Or does the "Super M" tournament somehow supersede all three titles in all three countries?

Or is this year's "Super M" tournament a one time deal?

Anyhow, no matter what happens long term, I think it's great to to have another opportunity for top players to face each other across national boarders. To me, it seems possible that the winner of this tournament might come to be known as the world champ for one year.

rubin427 wrote:Anyhow, no matter what happens long term, I think it's great to to have another opportunity for top players to face each other across national boarders. To me, it seems possible that the winner of this tournament might come to be known as the world champ for one year.

As one of the world champions. It is not at all needed to have one world champion.

Well hello, epicness. And concerning the format, it is just right for this occasion. It is even one of Kageyama's fundamental principles: "the only place where one could compete with the meijin is in guessing even or odd." (Lessons in the Funamentals p.255)

Suppose A always beats B, B always beats C and C always beats A.
Then the rules are such that the winner of the first game wins the title. So the winner is decided by the toss only.
But that is unavoidable unless you are willing to wait until "always" shows to have exceptions.
Also Bill's idea is interesting: increase/reduce komi to make "always" fail.
What about the next wild idea. The three players plays each other simultaneous in three games, each game invisible for the third player. ( Maybe on screen ) The net scores are added. Resigning is made impossible by the division of the sponsor money. High minus is no money. Also because a player cannot see the other game he won't resign. If still someone resigns, he resigns for both of his games and the title is decided by the remaining game. (Triple mirror game possible ??)

cyclops wrote: The net scores are added.

That is not Go.

A player who wins both games wins the title otherwise the netscores are added.

Still bad. The score says nothing about how close the game actually was.

I just saw on the homepage of the Nihon-Kiin that the games will be played this weekend, 24-27 July! Can't wait to see how Iyama Yuta will play, I do hope he will play well and finally beat Lee Changho!
Does anyone know if the games will be relayed anywhere? If so, could someone post the SGFs, please? I can't access any of the Asian servers (Tygem, WBaduk) because I have the "wrong" operating system... (IGS would be an option for me, but I believe they would rather choose WBaduk for stuff like that)

Good news.

To me, the most interesting question is the actual timing format of the games, not the fairness of the straws. If the pros and their respective organizations are ok with the luck factor, I am fine with it too.

I would love for the games to be played according to the long time in Japanese Meijin finals. This could shed some light, finally, on how the Koreans and Chinese would fare in two-day games. However, from the lack of any comment about that, I fear this will be one more 'pro-speed-go' thing. So, what are the time controls?

I don't read Japanese, but I think I can recognize the format of a date on that nihon ki-in page: there's one game each on 7/24, 7/25 and 7/27. So they're not two-day games. But they could still be 3 or 4 hours main time per player.

dfan wrote:Awesome.

The format is tough on the long-straw player; he is playing with single elimination while the short-straw players are playing with double elimination. By my calculations, if all players are equally matched, the short-straw players each have a 3/8 chance of winning the contest while the long-straw player has only a 2/8 chance.

I'd prefer to see some sort of series of round robins as necessary until ties are broken, but I guess the sponsorship is for a set number of games.

The organizers should have invited Taiwan as well, then it would have been a 4-people tournament with a normal KO system.

The first match is being played - Gu Li vs. Lee Changho.

illluck wrote:The first match is being played - Gu Li vs. Lee Changho.

Thanks for posting, please keep us updated!

Update: Gu Li just resigned.

Final board position:

Thank you, illluck!

So who ist playing Iyama now tomorrow?

EDIT: So it's Gu Li vs. Iyama Yuta tomorrow. Looking forward to the game, can't wait to see it!