Life In 19x19

Inspired by the excellent 9x9 tourney organised by SinK and ably assisted by many regulars, I'd like to propose a 19x19 tournament for 10 kyu players and below (or those who think their true strength lies in this range, regardless of current rank). Absolute beginners are entirely welcome.

The tournament will run from the 1st to the 30th of September. You can play as many games as you like, and play whoever you like. There is no limit on the number of times you can play someone, but it's probably more fun for you if you try to play as many different opponents as you can.

Matches will consist of a single 19x19 game on KGS (ranked if possible), 20 minutes per side with 5 x 30 seconds byo-yomi. Games will be even, with nigiri for Black. Scoring by Japanese (territory) rules, 6.5 komi for White. The winner receives 1 point, with 0 points for the loser.

You can join the tournament at any time and there is no registration process - just post your game result to this thread. At the close of September 30th, the winner will be the person with the most points. If necessary a tie-break match will be played for first place.

Arrange your own games, either by contacting the person you want to challenge, or by posting a game request in the GoDiscussions room on KGS, marked "L19 DDK tournament". Post the result here in a format similar to this:

keithlard 1-0 jsmith

At the moment the only prize is kudos, though anybody wishing to offer prizes such as teaching games or steak dinners is most welcome to do so. Similarly, if you would like your game reviewed, ask in the thread and ye shall receive.

If you would like to take part, reply with "I AM IN".

I AM IN.

I AM IN

it can be hard sometimes to find a game on KGS for real beginners like myself! So if a tournament helps get more games going - yeah!

You can play as many games as you like, and play whoever you like. There is no limit on the number of times you can play someone, but it's probably more fun for you if you try to play as many different opponents as you can.

This may end up rewarding those with free time more than those with more skill.

The winner receives 1 point, with 0 points for the loser.

And in conjunction with this, gives an incentive not to play games. It is not in the interests of the 2nd best player to ever play the best player, and somehow that feels important

I'm trying to assume people will not "gameplay" the tournament like this, but it does often happen, and it's worth bearing in mind in case it affects the rules you would choose

I AM IN.

Thanks for starting this one. The tournaments are a lot of fun.

I AM IN

I'm in. It's about time I embarrassed myself officially

I agree with topazg about the scoring though. I may very well have a lot of free-time in September, but I'd still prefer to see something more structured if possible.

I AM IN

I AM IN.

But also echoing topazg's concern about being totally unstructured. But willing to take a go at it. When to we start?

I'm not sure if I'll have the the time, but it would be fun.
What about people of different ranks and handicap?

It's very similar to the ASR League, The free-form nature of it encourages you to play as many games as possible, and playing even games against stronger players helps you get stronger.

The tournament starts on the 1st of September, and any games played after that time can count towards your results.

I never organised a tournament before, so don't expect it to be perfect! We'll see what happens this time and if there are problems, we can make some changes for October.

I AM IN

(docgnome on kgs)

keithlard wrote:It's very similar to the ASR League, The free-form nature of it encourages you to play as many games as possible, and playing even games against stronger players helps you get stronger.

I think the tournament is a good idea, but "play as many games as possible" puts quantity over quality. For example, someone who plays 20 games and wins all of them would be lower ranked than someone who finds the time to play 100 games, but only wins 25 of them.

Perhaps a good compromise might be to rank the participants based on their win/loss ratio? (Although this may encourage not playing after the first won game! So, maybe a minimum amount of games, say, ten or twenty?)

But anyway, this is a good idea and it sounds like fun!

Mivo wrote:Perhaps a good compromise might be to rank the participants based on their win/loss ratio? (Although this may encourage not playing after the first won game! So, maybe a minimum amount of games, say, ten or twenty?)

This seems like an excellent compromise.

The ratio idea seems good, definitely with a minimum number of games. We should settle on a reasonable number. Ten seems like a good number and would only require two matches a week.

I AM IN

I don't know where my rating is exactly just yet because I haven't played many games online. I will try to get my rating stable on KGS before the start of the tournament; I'm guessing it is around 20-18k. Looking forward to it!