Re: [computer-go] KGS Tournaments: Format

[Gunnar Farnebäck <gunnar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:
> Following the success of yesterday's event, we plan to hold regular
> Computer Go tournaments on KGS.  The format of these events has yet to
> be decided.  I hope that members of this mailing list will express their
> views on what formats would be best.

These are my personal opinions, but the specific comments about GNU Go
can probably be assumed to be representative for the GNU Go
developers.

> FREQUENCY OF TOURNAMENTS
> How often should such events be held?

About once a month seems reasonable to me.

> BOARD SIZE
> We used 9x9 board for the test tournament, so as not to waste too much
> time if things went wrong.  In future I expect to hold mostly 19x19
> events, but some 9x9 as well.  Is there any demand for 13x13?

GNU Go is happy to play on any size.

> TIME LIMITS
> Similarly, we used fastish time limits for the test tournament.  I know
> that different programs prefer a very wide range of time limits.  We
> plan to cater for this by holding events with a range of time limits. An
> event with slow time limits can be scheduled with one round per day.

Any speed is fine as well. GNU Go might not be very good at utilizing
long time limits and may have difficulty with extreme blitz but I
don't see a big problem with that.

>     KGS implements three kinds of time limit:  Absolute time, Byo-yomi,
> and Canadian.  If the rounds are to follow on from one another, and be
> handled by an automated system, we have to use Absolute time.  But for
> events with big gaps between the rounds, any of these systems could be
> used.

GNU Go much prefers Canadian time, with absolute time as an acceptable
alternative.

> PAIRING SYSTEM
> KGS can handle three formats at present:  single elimination or
> knock-out, double elimination, and Swiss.  I assume that round-robin or
> all-play-all should be easy to implement, and it would be my preferred
> format, except for the fact that the length of the tournament (which we
> would like to be known in advance) depends on the number of entrants.
> Meanwhile I tend to prefer Swiss.

I would also prefer round-robin whenever it's practical. Swiss is more
interesting than elimination. If it were supported I wouldn't mind
McMahon as an alternative to Swiss.

Something you didn't mention was the possibility of handicap
tournaments. That could also be interesting.

/Gunnar
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