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Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Tournament #1

The First Game Courier Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Tournament (still in beta format) will feature three rounds. It needed seven or more players and eleven have registered.

In the first round, participants will play two games of Chess, two games of Xiangqi and two games of Shogi (one as the first player, which will be referred to as White and one as the second player, which will be referred to as Black). In the ranking for this first round, each win will count as one point and each draw will count as half a point. Among the consequences of that ranking is that whenever two players are going to meet in a later phase, the higher-ranked is White and advances for the next round in case of a draw.

The second round will consist of a Chess tournament, a Xiangqi tournament and a Shogi tournament. Each tournament for a game will qualify all the players with two wins at that game and some of the players with a win and a draw at that game.
More precisely:

  • A player with 3 points or less will qualify only for a tournament of a game at which he has scored two wins.
  • A player with 3.5 points will qualify for exactly one tournament.
    (if he has a win and a draw at two games, he chooses which)
  • A player with 4 points will qualify for one or two tournaments.
    (if he has two wins at two games or two wins at one game and a win and a draw at another game, he enters both tournaments, if he has a win and a draw at two games, he enters only one tournament)
  • A player with 4.5 points will qualify for two tournaments.
    (if he has a win and a draw at three games, he chooses which two).
  • A player with 5 points or more will qualify for all the tournaments for the games at which he has scored two wins or a win and a draw.
At these tournaments, the qualified players will play an elimination round of two or three games, although four games is a possibility if exactly five players qualify. The players who have the highest number of points and the players who are half a point behind but have scored two wins in the first round will advance to the sudden death playoff.
If there are two players, they will play only one game (with a draw giving the title to the higher-ranked player). If there are three players, the second-higher-ranked and the third-higher-ranked players will play an extra game (with a draw qualifying the second-higher-ranked player), and the survivor will play the higher-ranked player (with a draw giving the title to the higher-ranked player). If there are four players, the higher-ranked and the fourth-higher-ranked players and the second-higher-ranked and the third-higher-ranked players will play an extra game, and the survivors will play for the title in that game (again, with a draw favoring the higher-ranked player). There will be an extra round in the unlikely case where five or more players are qualified for the playoff.
The winners of these playoffs will be the First Game Courier Chess champion, the First Game Courier Xiangqi Champion and the First Game Courier Shogi champion.

The third phase will pit exactly four players: the Chess Champion, the Xiangqi Champion, the Shogi Champion and the player who ranked higher in the first round. In case of overlap, the following higher-ranked player(s) in the first round will also qualify.
They will play one game of Chess, one game of Xiangqi and one game of Shogi. If two players are tied for first, they will play an extra game of Shogi.
The overall winner will be the First Game Courier Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Champion.

Registration

People could register for the Tournament until February 17th. The Tournament will begin soon afterwards, since seven or more players have registered. The exact details of the Tournament are yet to be hammered out.

Who moves first

In the first round, everyone moves first once at each game. Afterwards, whoever ranked higher in the first round always moves first.

Rules

  • No one may take back a legal move except to take back a previous illegal move. Anyone who otherwise takes back a legal move must take back the new move and repeat the original legal move. Otherwise, the new move counts as illegal.
  • Any illegal move must be taken back. Unless the time runs out, no game should be considered finished while any illegal move has not been taken back. In particular, checkmate and stalemate do not count for anything when there is an illegal move that has not been taken back.
  • Anyone who runs out of time will lose. When someone runs out of time, it does not matter whether anyone has made illegal moves. The person who runs out of time simply loses.
  • A win counts for 1 point, a loss for 0 points, and a draw for a 1/2 point.
    (Stalemate is a draw at Chess and a win for the stalemating player at Xiangqi.)
  • Draws by mutual agreement at Shogi are allowed in the first round but forbidden afterwards.
  • Threatening perpetually one of your opponent's pieces is illegal at Xiangqi.
    (This link offers a more detailed explanation.)
  • Every game played in the tournament shall be directly assigned to the players. The usual method of inviting and accepting an invitation shall not be used. All logs shall include a tag indicating that the log is for a game in the tournament. This will be used for showing all tournament logs by themselves on the logs page, and and it will be used to prevent deletion by the players. All tournament games will be publicly viewable and immune to deletion by normal means. The countdown for timing a game will begin when it is assigned.
  • Games will not be assigned until everyone has had advance notice of when and what games they will be assigned. Before assignments are made, players will be asked for their preferences on specific presets.
  • All games will be rated.

Time Controls

Game Courier has very versatile and sophisticated time controls, and these will be used to time all games in the tournament. Details on how time controls work can be found in the User's Guide. The same time controls should be used for each game in a given round. Here's what I propose to use in the second round:

Pace:4 moves per week
Spare Time:28 days
Grace Time:24 hours
Extra Time:12 hours
Bonus Time:8 hours for moving within 24 hours

Tie-Breaking in the first round

If two players attain the same score in the first round, ties will be broken by the following methods in a topdown order:

  • Buchholz / Solkoff method (Compares scores of all opponents met by tied players.)
  • Sonneborn-Berger (Compares scores of all opponents defeated (with coefficient 1) or tied (with coefficient 0.5) by tied players.)
  • Number of Wins (Wins count as 1, ties as nothing.)
  • Most Blacks (Whoever has won more games as the second player wins the tie.)

The First Round: Who Played Whom at What and in Which Order

Here is a table of who played whom at what. All games in the tournament were assigned directly to the players, and no one started any game in the tournament by issuing an invitation. Participants are identified by their initials. Each line is headed by one participant and each column is headed by one opponent, and the game they played is given at the intersection. Thus, the first line shows that Fergus Duniho moved first at Chess against Jeremy Good, first at Xiangqi against Tommy Trouble, first at Shogi against Sean Humby, second at Shogi against Antoine Fourrière, second at Xiangqi against Darren Paull and second at Chess against Gary Gifford, and that he won at Chess against Jeremy Good, won at Xiangqi against Tommy Trouble, won at Shogi against Darren Paul, lost at Shogi against Antoine Fourrière, won at Xiangqi against Darren Paull and lost at Chess against Gary Gifford.

FD JG TT SH PP NC TM NF AF DP GG Points BS Rank
FD C X S s x c 4 20.5 4
JG c C X S s x 1 18.5 10
TT x c C X S s 3 18.5 6
SH s x c C X S 4 15 5
PP s x c C X S 0 16.5 11
NC s x c C X S 4.5 16 3
TM s x c C X S 2.5 17.5 8
NF s x c C X S 1.5 19.5 9
AF S s x c C X 5 20 1
DP X S s x c C 2.5 20 7
GG C X S s x c 5 17 2

Here is a link to all the games.

The Second Round: Who Plays Whom at What and in Which Order

Chess

Antoine Fourrière , Gary Gifford, Nicola Caridi and Tommy Trouble qualified at Chess and ranked in the first round in that order. Thus Antoine Fourrière always moved first, Gary Gifford moved first in his two other games and Nicola Caridi moved first against Tommy Trouble.
AF GG NC TT
AF C C C
GG c C C
NC c c C
TT c c c

Gary Gifford won all his games and became the First Game Courier Chess Champion.

Xiangqi

Antoine Fourrière , Fergus Duniho and Sean Humby qualified at Xiangqi and ranked in the first round in that order. Thus Antoine Fourrière always moved first and Fergus Duniho moved first against Sean Humby.
AF FD SH
AF X X
FD x X
SH x x

Antoine Fourrière won all his games and became the First Game Courier Xiangqi Champion.

Shogi

Gary Gifford, Nicola Caridi and Darren Paull qualified at Shogi and ranked in the first round in that order. Thus Gary Gifford always moved first and Nicola Caridi moved first against Darren Paull.
GG NC DP
GG S S
NC s S
DP s s

Gary Gifford won all his games and became the First Game Courier Shogi Champion.

Signed Up

  • Nicola Caridi
  • Fergus Duniho
  • Nasmichael Farris
  • Antoine Fourrière
  • Gary Gifford
  • Jeremy Good
  • Sean Humby
  • Thomas McElmurry
  • Darren Paull
  • Paolo Porsia
  • Tommy Trouble

Registration

Registration is over.

Written by Antoine Fourrière
WWW Page Created: 01 February 2006.