Go tournaments

List of contents

General

A go tournament is an event which is organized by a group of people and where people come together to play go.  The games are assigned and result is counted according to a tournament system. Tournament rules are in effect.

The following bodies of people may be involved in a tournament:

Organizing consists two levels

Terms and Definitions

The Organizing Body may organize a tournament alone. Otherwise the Supervising Body or the Sponsoring Body  is (are) involved.  In this case there exist a contract (implicit or explicit, verbal or written) between the bodies.  The items below are in the scope of the agreement.

Organisation and conduct

When a player registers into a tournament, it forms an agreement between the players and OB, where the player agrees to play and OB agrees to organize the tournament according to the conditions announced.  The condtions should not be changed after registration unless all the participants agree.

The following tasks belong to tournament organisation and conduct. They are mostly performed by the Organizing body.

 Some details

The sanctioning body (SB) may set rules for tournaments under its control. It may leave details of the tournament to be decided by the organizing body. The tournaments may be organised by itself or by its members. SB may handle appeals from tournaments. It may appoint a person to supervise a tournament (Tournament Supervisor). In some cases there may be more than one level of sanctining bodies.

The organising body (OB) organises the tournament within limits given by the sanctioning body. It sets details, which the sanctioning body has left for it. It may decide on the tournament schedule and appoint persons (tournament officials) for various tasks within given qualifications. It may decide on the criteria to give the prizes funded by itself unless restricted by agreement (the SB or sponsors etc. may fund the prizes and give conditions).

The organising body is responsible of running the tournament and  has the full control on tournament.
OB is however be restricted by agreements done with SB, sponsors and players. The OB minimally consists one person: the referee. Other, optional persons are chief referee, tournament director, tournament organiser, event director, event organiser. If there are more than one referee, then one of the referees must be chief referee.

Referees only may decide on disputes concerning the games. The chief referee may take measures keeping the order at the playing rooms if necessary. He may remove the disturbing person. Expelling a player from the tournament (the subsequent rounds) , must be decided by the appeals committee. The players should obey referee actions, but if they think them not appropriate they may make a protest to the appeals committee.

Some tournament classes

Sanctioning bodies may define extra tournament classes for their own purposes. It is useful when you want to set similar tournament conditions to a set of tournaments.
Tournament Sanctioning body Organising body Tournament rules Other norms  
Non-European          
International Championship EGF EGF, NA or club EGF    
International EGF NA or club EGF GP regulations and guidelines  
National Championship NA NA or club National    
National NA Club National    
Local Club Club or person Local    
Minor Person Person      
 Toyota Tour  EGF  NA  EGF Rules and Regulations of the Toyota European Go Tour  

In the tournament rules the default rules come from above. The sanctioning body may give its own additions or changes. It may also nominate a person to supervise the organizing body of a tournament. In the tournament there should exist at least a referee (tournament director). He is in charge and responsible of the tournament. If no one is announced, then the default is the chairman (or president) of the organising body. If he is not present, then also the most senior official present of the organising body is also responsible and in charge.
 

Decisions

Decision Who does Who to change/correct Who to overrule
Organize tournament SB or OB Same  Higher
Tournament conditions SB and OB SB and OB Higher
Tournament schedule OB TD OB or higjer
Nominate TD, CR SB and OB Same Higher
Nominate TO, R OB OB Higher
Accept a tournament entry TO TO+P TD or higher
Accept player quitting the tournament  CR/TD CR/TD SB
Set pairing parameters  CR CR/TD AC
Close round/Start pairing CR/TD   AC
Pair TO CR  
Accept pairing/Open round CR   AC
Make a ruling in a game R CR AC
Result of a game 2P or P+R or CR 2P+CR AC
Close the tournament TD    
Tournament results CR CR+TD SB
Open tournament TD    
Issue minor sanctions CR AC
Issue major sanctions AC SB

If the sanctioning body decides to organize a tournament, it names the organizing body. The TD is either explicitely or implicitely named. The date is decided.

TD may alter the schedule if necessary and if the players are appropriately notified. The tournament may not be delayed after the originally announced closing ceremony time unless the players involved agree.

If no CR exist then CR is replaced by R unless TD is alternate for CR in the function.

Change/correct: to correct a (obvious) mistake.

Overrule: Change a decision after protest

After the tournament is closed it is no more possible to protest on individual game results. If the tournament result is miscounted the SB may recount the results.
 

 An example of a tournament

This is a fictious example of a tournament. It illustrates how things should work in practice.

A student championship

The National association (NA) decides that a championship of the student's is going to be played. The NA decides on the criteria who qualify to be as students. NA also decides that players should be (direct or indirect) members of NA and something about the time limits. The NA asks from clubs if they are interested in organising the tournament. It receives some offers to organise the tournament. Na selects the organising club (OB). NA and the club agree on the the and other conditions decides by NA. The club proposes a TD and CR to NA, which accepts them. The club decides the schedule and other not yet decided tournament details. The club also nominates a TO and another referee.

The tournament starts. TO recives registration. A person from the board on NA sees that a non member of NA got registrated.  The player is not willing to be a member, but insists in playing since he already payed.. The person tells the TO to cancel that registration. TO directs the person to TD where the case is presented. TD cancels the registration of the player and orders the fee to be returned. Two minutes before the deadline a bunch of players arrive. TD decides to let them enter at the first round, but not the guy who comes 15 minutes late.

The chief referee decides the pairing parameters for the tournaments and asks the TO to run the pairing. He accepts the pairing. TD declares the tournament started. People start playing.
Results are being marked. A player discovers the his results has been miswritten and tell to the referee. The referee asks this from the opponent who agree. then the referee tells the case to chief referee who corrects the results. During the next round the person not accepted in the tournament watches games and smokes. The referee directs him out and informs the chief referee.

Before the third round a player tells a TO that he wants to leave because he lost already both his games and another since his wife is having a baby. TO finds the CR who excuses the second one from the tournament.

Fourth round round is played in the next morning. Three players are missing with two playing each other. Referee and player confirm the loss of one missing player. Chief referee decides a loss for both in the other game. The three players will be labeleb as non playing for the fifth round. Two of the missing players arrive later claiming they have played their game during the nigth before in a pub. This result is rejected, but the players are marked back as active in the tournament.

The pairing for the fifth round is posted on the wall. One player wonders about his pairing and discovers that his result from the fourth round is wrong. He requests for a new pairing. CR refuses this. He makes a protest. The round is finished and the protest is handled by AC. The results which was marked as a jigo and recorded black's loss by TO is resumed as jigo. Since the player protested late it was considered correct by CR to continue the round anyway. The TO gets warned, that he should not chance the results marked.

The opponent has finished fast the last game and goes to a pub for a while. Prizesgiving happens. TD closes the tournament. The opponent returns and tries to file a protest, since his SOS got changed unfairly as the result of changing an outcome of a game. Because the tournament is closed, no protests can be made.

Glossary

T=tournament
AC
Appeals committee, nomally consist three persons, may overrule decision taken by the referees
AR
Assistant referee, time keeper, game recorder
CR
Chief referee, also "head referee". CR is the boss of the referees. There are some tasks that CR cannot delegate to R.
ED, EO
Events: congress, big weekend happenings with possibly more than one T, etc. Possibly involved sponsoring. Coordination of event. Coordination of single Ts delegated to TDs.
ED
Possibly more than one.
EO
Event organiser, assistants for ED.
F
Foreigner, none of the other listed parties
K
Kibitzing player, known to ED, EO, or TD due to registration or similar procedure (for guests etc.) for some T, etc.
NAC
National appeals committee, scarcely exists, but should exist.
OB
Organising body. Minimally it consists only one person, the referee. TD, CR, TO, ED, EO belong to it. TD is the head of the organising body. However if the (chief) referee is a qualified referee and TD is not then TD has no power over (chief) referee decisions
P
Player, involved in game in question by playing
R
Referee, the "police" of the tournament, may take immediate measures (expect the ones resricted to chief referee)  to settle problems of players or playing or order in the playing site. The decisions may be appealed to AC
RR
Rules and ratings commission: proposes important norms to AGM and less important to EGF committee, the highest instance to appeal in Europe. Its members may act as organisers, referees, members of AC etc, but it is strongly recommended that no more than one at the same time to avoid conflicts of interests.
TO
Tournament organiser, of a particular T. Like TD, but only assisting.

TS
Tournament supervisor, nominated by SB to supervise TD if considered necessary


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Matti Siivola 22.2.2000