The Instant Tournament Primer

W. J. Hansen 
Pittsburgh Go Club

If you've competed in the Congress Championship or another major
tournament, you may think that running a tournament is a major effort. 
Not so.  This note will show you how to run a small local tournament
with a small team and little effort. 

Why have a tournament?  Though many players are content with a weekly
game of go with a good friend, others get additional satisfaction from
the variety, challenge, and intensity of tournament play.  That is, the
goal isn't to win a championship, but rather to meet new people and
tackle new board situations.  For a club, a tournament is an opportunity
to come together and to produce some publicity, attracting new members. 
For the game itself, more tournaments help spread the fun to more
people.  For those wishing official ratings, tournament results can be
sent to the AGA. 

A major tournament is run by a large team:  organizer, tournament
director, equipment planner, treasurer, publicist, registrar, prize
committee, and even a computer operator to do the pairings.  But we are
holding a simple tournament, so let's see how to get along without most
of these folks.  All we are going to need are players.  A practical
minimum is probably six; the smallest tournament I've been in had eight
players, and we had a great time. 

Treasurer - takes care of the entry fees.  Avoid him by not having any
entry fee.  If your venue wants payment, maybe they can post someone at
the door to collect. 

Prize committee - arranges prizes.  Simply define prizes as being a
multiple of the entry fee, say 3 for first place, 1.5 for second.  With
the proposed entry fee, administering these prizes is a snap.  One
lasting reward could be a listing of winners maintained on a banner
posted at each meeting. 

Equipment planner - arranges playing equipment.  Everyone bring their
own boards.  If even half the players bring boards, that will be enough.
 Clocks aren't usually necessary;  set a nominal limit of an hour and a
half for each game.  It is wise to have a clock on hand in case two
really slow players are paired.  If necessary to keep play going, a game
can be adjourned--at least it can with the prearranged pairings system
described below.

Publicist - makes sure plenty of people know about the tournament.  In
the past I have found mailings to be marginally effective.  The best
publicity is word-of-mouth.  Announce the tournament at club meetings. 
Call one or two nearby clubs.  (If you are planning a few months ahead,
call Fred Hansen at 412 421 5121 to arrange listing the tournament in
AGA publications.)  Since this is supposed to be a small tournament
anyway, don't worry too much about whether people hear about it. 

Organizer - schedules the tournament and arranges a venue.  Assuming
there are some people who want to be in a tournament, they have to get
together and decide, for instance, "The tournament will be a week from
Saturday."  The venue does have to be arranged.  With luck, someone will
belong to a school, church, or business that has a meeting room
available on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday.  Use your imagination;
tournaments have been held in coffee shops, malls, and zoos.  Small
tournaments can be held in living rooms.  A single day is probably
enough, though it does impose a practical limit of four rounds.  A start
time of 9:30 is reasonable, depending on whether people are driving in
from a distance on the morning of the event. 

Computer operator - provides a computer and runs a pairing program for
each round.  Much too complicated for our small tournament.  See below
for simple ways. 

Tournament director - arranges pairings between the players and resolves
disputes that arise during play.  Things do run more smoothly if someone
is appointed to this task; but several steps will reduce the effort. 
With the prize structure and entry fees we are talking about here,
disputes will not affect much.  At worst, you can flip a coin.  Just be
sure that once a particular decision is made it is enforced the same way
in all cases. 

Before pairing players, a playing rank must be decided for each player. 
This is an inexact science, just do the best you can.  If ranks are
uncertain, they can be adjusted after the first round or two.  Ideally,
players will have played others often enough to establish relative
strengths.  If not, ratings might be estimated by playing a quick
preliminary game or evaluating the number of games played.  For
neophytes the rating might be 50 kyu minus number-of-games-played. 
Those who have played daily for a year might be 10 kyu depending on the
strength of their opponent. 

Two simple pairing schemes don't require a computer: 

Pairings by knockout.  As far as possible, divide the player pool in
groups of eight by ranking.  Pair people by rank for the first round and
play winners against winners and losers against losers in subsequent
rounds.  In three rounds each division will have a three game winner and
three people who have won two games each.  You can hold a fourth round
to resolve second place, or award second to the player who lost to the
first place player. 

Pairings prearranged.  Our club has had fun using a pairing system
described by Roger White.  Players are grouped in divisions of eight (or
six if needed) and assigned letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H, in order
of strength.  Then the pairings are played in a prearranged pattern
	round 1 - AB,  CE,  DF,  GH
	round 2 - AC,  BF,  DG,  EH
	round 3 - AD,  BC,  EG,  FH
	round 4 - AE,  BD,  CH,  FG
	round 5 - AG,  BH,  CD,  EF  (we usually play only four rounds) 

With six players suitable pairings are: 
	round 1 - AB,  CE,  DF
	round 2 - AD,  BC,  EF
	round 3 - AC,  BF,  DE
	round 4 - AE,  BD,  CF
	round 5 - AF,  BE,  CD	(this makes a full round robin)

With ten players you might try: 
	round 1 - AB,  CE,  DF,  GH,  IJ
	round 2 - AC,  BD,  EF,  GI,  HJ
	round 3 - AD,  BC,  EH,  FI,  GJ
	round 4 - AF,  BH,  CG,  EJ,  DI
	round 5 - AG,  BE,  CI,  DJ,  FH

Since pairings are prearranged, players can schedule their own matches. 
Sometimes rounds get played out of order as two players find themselves
available while their upcoming opponents are busily engaged. 

Note that the pairing for six players in the first round is a subset of
the pairing for eight players.  Thus if two arrive after the first round
has begun, they can be merged in, expanding the group to eight. 

When there are an odd number of players and only four rounds, one player
will have a bye in each round.  With four rounds, there will be four
players with byes and they can play each other in a "fifth" round so
everyone gets four games.  (With five players the fifth round is DC and
EB;  with seven players it is EF and GC, and with nine GE and HI.) 

When our venue has a black board, we post the pairings on a grid with
the letters across top and left.  In the cell at each intersection we
display the number of the round where the two players meet.  The same
grid can be used to record results. 

There will be ties.  With a prize structure giving zero dollars for
first and second, it is easy to award duplicate prizes in case of tie. 
In later tournaments you can explore tie breakers like
sum-of-opponent's-score and sum-of-defeated-opponent's-scores. 


These tips should get you started on running a fun tournament.  It's
easy enough to do three or four times a year.  For more elaborate
tournaments a comprehensive handbook on running tournaments prepared by
Tournament Coordinator Ken Koester is available from the American Go
Association, PO Box 397, Old Chelsea Sta., NY 10113-0397. 

And remember.  If you can schedule a few months in advance, contact Fred
Hansen at 421-412-5121 so we can announce the tournament in AGA
publications. 

