European Championship proposals

Introduction

Here are some proposals for a system of the European Go Championship (EC). During recent years various proposals for the system have been voted down in the AGM. The European Go Congress (EGC) main tournament has been played during two weeks and both the European and European Open Championship (EOC) have been decided by the tournament. Longest thinking times have been of 2½ hours (3 hours many years ago). Now there is a need to separate the EC and the EOC. Playing two ten round tournaments with long thinking times is too much within two weeks, especially if players have to play all rounds in the tournament. The proposal leave the EGC-main more or less unchanged. In some proposals the players in the EC may choose whether they play in the EGC-main or not.

Depending which system will be chosen, further adjustments for the EGC main may be proposed for a later AGM.

Goals

Find the unique European Champion
Determine top 10 with a reasonable precision

AGM 2009 decision

EC should not be affected by non-European players.

General

The EGF executive and the EGF rules commission will decide the details not fixed in the proposals.

Generally, players for the Championship group will be selected by rating.

Proposal 1

System

32 European players

8 rounds

Modified Swiss system

players with too few wins will leave the tournament
in the final rounds players who still compete for the championship may be paired against each other a second time instead of pairing them down.
with at most one loss a player will get into the final

Schedule (interleaving the EGC main tournament):

1st Wednesday: 2 games
Saturday: 2 games
Sunday 2 games
2nd Wednesday: 2 games

If we adjust the EGC main schedule on some days, we could make the EC more compact by playing some games in the evenings like: (Friday 1 game,) Sat 2, Sun 2, Mon 1, Tue 1, Wed 2, total 8-9 games.
Thinking time

120 minutes
30 seconds byoyomi (possibly 3*30 seconds)
No lunch break during games

Proposal 2

32 European players

Schedule, played at the same time as the EGC main tournament until last Friday

9+ rounds

Modified Swiss system

the single player will highest number of wins will be the champion
If there is more than one player with the highest number wins of after nine rounds, further games will be played on Saturday and if needed on Friday evening with shorter thinking times until the champion is found.
Players with too few wins will enter the main tournament

Proposal 3

The tournament will consist two stages: round robin and swiss system:

First stage:

16 groups of 4 players:
3 rounds: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
Each group may have one non-European player
Two European players from each group will qualify for the second stage

Only games against other Europeans are counted for qualification.

Unqualified players will enter the main tournament

Second stage

32 European players

System: like in proposal 1

Schedule:

rounds on Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
If eight rounds are needed, the extra round can be played on either Wednesday or Sunday evening.

Proposal 4

10 European players

Round robin with 9 rounds

On the last Saturday it is possible to play tie break games, if there is a tie for the first place, or a friendship match.

Proposal 5

1^st week – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

2^nd week – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

On those days the schedule is

10:00 - 14:00 EGC open
16:00 - 21:00 European Championship

EGC open rules

MacMahon, 10 rounds, first 2 rounds seeded, 75 min + 3x30’ byoyomi

Top 32 form supergroup, at least 20 Europeans

European Championship rules

Swiss, 10 rounds, first 2 rounds seeded, 90 min + 3x30’ byoyomi

Participants: top 10 Europeans according to ratings + each EGF member can nominate 1 national representative if they do not have already someone among the top 10 (in total about 30 participants)

A one week variant:

EC played for 5 rounds, all seeded, top 8 qualify for playoffs to be played on Saturday and Sunday

Major update on the content made 2010-02-08, Matti Siivola. Modified 2010-02-09, 2010-02-12