Yes anyone can. Though it is best if you have some experience of go events or running other events. You should probably have attended one or two go tournaments to see how they usually work.
Look at the BGA calendar [1]. Preferably look for a vacant weekend, as there are fewer than 52 events per year, and look for a date that is not too close to the date of another event in your area.
Send your proposed date to the BGA Tournament Coordinator (tourn-coord at britgo.org), to check it is acceptable, and get it reserved. It can be marked as provisional at first if you are not too sure to start with.
Yes, Section 2 [2] tells you a lot about setting up and running a tournament.
The BGA has public liability insurance that covers all BGA-affiliated events (i.e. that pay the levy). For more details of exactly what is covered, please contact the Treasurer [3].
Yes, Section 2 [2] tells you about the various tournament systems you could consider. The most common is a Three Round McMahon system [4] event on a single day, though varying from this could make your event unique and more interesting.
You will need to do the local organisation; such as finding the venue, organising refreshments, and accepting entries, but the BGA can usually find someone to run the draw for you if you are inexperienced in running tournaments.
Yes, the BGA can provide a laptop computer and printer, together with the GoDraw [5] program by Geoff Kaniuk. It will also usually provide help in running the program. Contact Geoff to arrange its use (draw-program at britgo.org).
There is an Excel spreadsheet available, produced by Ian Marsh, to help control registration and payments, which can run on your own computer. GoDraw now has a spreadsheet interface to load the tournament data.
A mobile phone used to travel with the computer, but nowadays most people have a mobile phone, so advertise yours or that of another organiser so that it can be used on the day to receive notification of late or cancelled entries.
You will need to produce the entry form and web page of information, but these are easily copied from existing examples. The BGA will then list the event on its calendar, upload and link to the entry form as a PDF file, and link to or host the web page. This is explained in more detail in Section 2.4 [6].
Yes, if you send your entry form to the BGA Tournament Coordinator (tourn-coord at britgo.org), he will produce a web page for you on the BGA site. It can even include a template to fill in and automatically post an email to you. It can link to local information pages and map pages.
No, You don't, but if you want to distribute your own copies, for example at events before yours, then you will have to print some yourself. [The BGA no longer has a printed newsletter which you can send out your entry forms with.]
The BGA can provide up to 100 go sets, boards and mechanical clocks for your event to use. Some of these are superior sets which are normally only used for special events. The normal tournament sets come in multiples of 12 (some loads have 15 clocks to cover for breakdowns).
Usually volunteers transport sets from one event to the next. This is arranged through the Coordinator (tourn-coord at britgo.org). Clearly it may be more reliable and helpful if you collect some sets from the previous event.
Usually a guess at attendance can be made from attendance at similar events. The BGA Tournament Coordinator will then ensure sufficient sets for this number will be available. Usually you can increase the number you require, up to the night before the event, but early notice of increase is appreciated. Of course you need half as many sets as players.
Yes; it charges a tournament levy [7] on each competitor in your event. The current rates and submission form are here [8].
In general, Yes, since it's up to you to decide what the budget is and how much to charge. However, for new events with uncertainty over the number of entrants, the BGA Treasurer (treasurer at britgo.org) may on request reduce or waive the levy in case of loss. Also if your event is longer than two days or experimental in some way, please contact the Treasurer to request a discount. Please talk to the Treasurer in advance of the event, preferably before you've set the entry fees.
If agreed in advance the BGA will often underwrite [9] the costs of unused hotel or university bedrooms at important events, in return for half the profits.
Usually you can get a guide of going rates from other events. If you charge too much fewer people will come. You will have to decide whether to provide and charge for food or drinks, or not, as the food or drinks element can make the event seem more expensive.
Most events provide reductions for children, students, unwaged or elderly, or even someone's first tournament. You will have to decide how this would effect your budget and number of attendees. The levy you pay the BGA is reduced for some concessionary classes anyway. It will help your accounting if your concessionary classes are the same as the BGA's ones, but you don't have to.
The rate for the BGA levy is set so that you will pay more for players who aren't a member of the BGA and who also aren't a member of their national Go Association, e.g. the Nihon Kiin for Japanese players or the Deutsche Go Bund for German players. You should keep track of these, but you don't have to charge more for these players, but it may be easier for you to do so (and give them an incentive for joining the BGA).
There is a sample press release [10] you can copy from. If you get a report published in the media, then please send a copy to the Tournament Coordinator for the archives.
See page BGA Organisers’ Material [11] for more on resources available.
There is no longer a BGA Bookseller, but a box of books may be provided, depending on location, likely sales, local availability of books and so on. Please contact the Treasurer for more details.
Make sure the web news editor (web-news-editor at britgo.org) gets a report of your event, including a list of prize winners, number of players and other interesting information on the event, so that you will get a write-up of your tournament into his BGJ tournaments column and the news pages [12] on this web site. If you have any interesting photos from the event you may also supply these for the web or for publication in the British Go Journal.
If you have used the GoDraw [13] program (version 6 or later) then you can get results to the web and the EGF ratings system easily by simply emailing your tournament file to the results officer [14]. You will normally find the file in c:\GodrawSys\Tours and it will normally have a name including the year like MiltonKeynes_05.gdt for example. The full path to the file is also displayed on the title bar of the running program.
When you do send the file it is important to include peripheral data such as location, komi, and time limits as these are needed for the ratings system. If you have new people entering the tournament as No Club, it is helpful for purposes of identification to state their nearest town.
This is always nice to help with publicity, prizes etc. We don't have any particular policy for this or, regrettably, contacts.
However, we feel that it is important to provide recognition to people who sponsor Go tournaments. If your tournament is receiving sponsorship then please inform us so that it can be mentioned on the calendar.
See page Section 2.4 [6] for more on selecting dates, reporting results, getting publicity and so on.
You are encouraged to join the bga-policy mailing list [15] as the BGA will discuss any potential changes that might affect tournament organisers on this mailing list.
Contact the Chair of the Tournaments Committee [16] or someone else on the Tournament Committee [17].
Links:
[1] http://britgo.org/tournaments
[2] http://britgo.org/organisers/handbook/tournament2.html
[3] mailto:treasurer@britgo.org
[4] http://britgo.org/organisers/handbook/tournament4.html
[5] http://britgo.org/downloads/godraw
[6] http://britgo.org/organisers/handbook/tournament2.html#publicity
[7] http://britgo.org/node/2791
[8] http://britgo.org/event/levy/form
[9] http://britgo.org/policy/policies.html#p6-5
[10] http://britgo.org/organisers/release.html
[11] http://britgo.org/organisers/organisers.html
[12] http://britgo.org/views/news
[13] http://britgo.org/gopcres/gopcres1.html#godraw
[14] mailto:results@britgo.org
[15] http://www.britgo.org/gopcres/info.html#bgapolicy
[16] mailto:tournaments-chair@britgo.org
[17] http://britgo.org/positions/officials