Life In 19x19

I read that there is going to be a motion at this year's AGM to reduce the length of future Congresses from 2 weeks to 1 week + a weekend.

"Change of the length of the European Go Congress from 15 days to 8 or 9 days.

The reasoning behind the proposal: We believe the work for organizers would be much easier if the go congress were shorter. As there is an apparent decrease in the number of participants during the second week of the go congress, we believe the shorter version would make a big difference in the ability to find a suitable place to hold the event and it would limit some excess or even unnecessary expenses.

It could also become more attractive for players who might find it easier to arrange their participation. Last but not least, it could mean that more countries would be interested in organizing the go congress."

What do you think about this proposal? I can see that it makes sense from certain aspects. The second week starts to look a bit lacklustre. The last time I went to a go congress, several activities we'd registered for in the first week had disappeared, because the 'tourists' wanted to have them in the first week. If the championship is no longer played over 2 weeks, why keep the same timespan for the rest of the activities?

Maybe the Czech will elaborate more on their proposal later. The longer congress is very good and the attendance is usually huge but maybe they wish to hold a shorter congress in Czechia in the next few years?

Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong if some congresses are huge and grand events while other are much smaller gatherings. If we can do without a weekend tournament, rest days and play fewer rounds that would reduce the number of days. Still, it would be difficult to fit the current format into 8 or 9 days and not all hosts might have the same difficulties.

Maybe there is no need to make a decision that all future congresses should be this or that way? Often there are multiple candidates to hold EGC and I think the candidates could present options for shorter or smaller congresses if this suits them. There are some issues with fitting the European championship, the team championship finals and various side events into the format if it is so much shorter and that must be considered. However, when one candidate presents an option for a 9 day congress for 400 people and another presents an option for a 15 day congress for 2000 people do we simply pick the later as a rule? I think "no", that this is not really about making the grandest event to date. There can be different priorities and goals for each congress, there should also be some flexibility regarding the format when selecting the host.

First the European Championship was detached from the main tournament, then the claim of a not sufficiently interesting second week is made. To cure this problem, reattach the European Championship to the main tournament again. OTOH, attaching the European Team Championship to the congress has prolonged it for yet another 1.5 days for a few participants and the organisers. To keep the length of the congress to more manageable 15 days for organisers, detach the European Team Championship again. Apart from these historical aspects, I express my opinion below.

The congresses have been great. I have attended every year for 15 days since 1993 except for the missing congresses during Corona and last year when I considered the Corona risk too great but I will attend and organise this year again. 15 days of go tournaments etc. incl. the 10 rounds main tournament with 2.5h basic time at the top are the attractiveness of the congresses. If it is reduced to ca. one week or fewer than 10 rounds or less thinking time, I might not find it attractive enough and stop attending.

I did statistics prior to the detachment of the European Championship: 70% of the main tournament participants attended (maybe still attend) for all 10 rounds. Since the overwhelming fraction of congress participants attends for two weeks, it would be stupid to shorten the congress removing its greatest attraction! Organisers' concerns must bow to demand!

The side tournaments argument can be met by their more careful distribution (not all the interesting tournaments during week one). Anyway, side tournaments and lectures are not needed for me to justify participation for 15 days; meeting many go players and having free games during the afternoons and evenings would also be fine.