D. Organiser's Toolbag

This organiser's toolbag gathers in one place much of the hard information you need to run your tournament. Some of it provides useful documents that you can download and print for display.

D.1 Rules

D.1.1 Rules of play

Rules of Play	The unabridged set of rules, mainly for referees.
Rules Guide	One page listing the differences from our old rules.
Rules Summary	A two page summary of the Rules of Play document.
Rules Flowchart	Flowchart of game progress with clock

D.1.2 Tournament rules

The absolute minimum that should be pinned to a wall somewhere is a single sheet listing the day's schedule, and another sheet stating your tournament rules. We also have a definitive statement on how the overtime system should work. Documents for the latter two can be downloaded.

Default Tournament Rules	Details suggested rules from the Tournament Organisers' Handbook.
Tournament rules template (.txt)	Import this pure text file into your favourite word processor and modify to suit.
Tournament rules template (.rtf)	This is the same template including our logo
Canadian overtime	Provides a clear, printable explanation of the Canadian overtime system.

D.2 Pairing

D.2.1 McMahon

Specifies the McMahon pairing system.

McMahon Pairing	The detailed authoritative version.
McMahon in a Nutshell	An easy to read summary, but misses out some features.

D.2.2 Round Robin

In a 6 round event we number the seats 1 to 6 on the long table. The players A ... F are arranged at the table with the pivot A occupying seat 1. The colours on seats 2, 3, 4, 5 alternate, and are fixed for all rounds, say w b w b. The colour for player A (whom we refer to as Pivot) alternates every round, starting with black say. We show the seating, player and colour arrangement for round 1 as follows:

1 2 3	A B C	B b w
6 5 4	F E D	W w b

All players will alternate colour perfectly as they change seats clockwise each round. The only break occurs when the player sits opposite Pivot. A player on seat 5 plays white, then moves to seat 6. If he or she plays black next against Pivot, then on the subsequent round at seat 2, the player will again take black. If instead our player takes white against Pivot, so repeating colour, then the player will take black on the following round. So two colours in a row only happens once (at most) because a player meets the pivot only once. In the arrangement shown player B started on white at seat 2 and finishes on seat 6. Pivot is now playing white, and so B is playing black and has perfect alternation.

You can vary the above procedure at will, say circulating anti-clockwise or starting Pivot on white. You always get just two players with perfect alternation. Once the tournament has started it is normal to stick to the same procedure throughout. However variation is possible, but only in the early rounds and you risk an impossible pairing in some later round.

D.2.3 GoDraw

Over the course of a year there usually are some improvements to the program, but these are now minor. However the list of players loaded by the program changes nightly and you should always download it before you start entering players in order to get the latest accurate details about your entrants. The list of club codes is useful if you examine the E.G.D database; there you get club codes, not names.

GoDraw	Download if your version is not quite up to date.
Manual	Definitely worth a read if you are new to GoDraw, as it contains a quick tour section to get you started.
Players List	Updated nightly, this file is read whenever you run GoDraw and provides the latest list of player details.
Club Codes	Changes infrequently and just lists the codes assigned to clubs as used by E.G.D.

D.3 Ratings

Tournament organisers need ratings information to help players get a fair draw by entering at a realistic grade. The ratings system we use is actually spread over quite a large number of documents. The ultimate authority for EGF ratings data is E.G.D., but here we list information and useful tools that are used to construct our ratings.

Ratings policy	Specifies how we use the ratings sytem, and how we rate players from servers.
Tournament Class	This specifies the rules for determining the tournament class.
Playing Strength	These are the playing strengths that should be used by players entering our tournaments.
Rating Calculator	Provides an easy to use tool for calculating ratings provided you know opponents' ratings.

D.4 Handicap tables

Handicaps on smaller boards also require a variable komi. The following tables cover up to 29 stones grade difference and in the column 'Komi to White' a negative komi is the points White gives to Black in addition to any handicap stones.

9 x 9 Handicap Table

13 x 13 Handicap Table

The 13x13 table is that derived at Cambridge for the Sonoyama Tournament.

D.5 Result tables

Here are downloads for diagrams showing 8 and 16 player knockout results as well as round robin results useable for 4,6, or 8 players.

8 player Knockout Tree	8 player knockout results over 3 rounds.
16 player Knockout Tree	16 player knockout results over 4 rounds.
All Play All	Pairing diagram and results for 4,6, or 8 player all-play-all.

D.6 Check list

To help you stay on top of your tournament planning, Edwin Brady has prepared a check-list. It is a two page document which you are encouraged to print out and stick on your wall at the time you start thinking about organising a tournament.

You can then tick off the tasks as they get done - and in so doing, reap the reward of knowing that you are going to have a successful event. For in the end your tournament success is built on the careful planning of the event before the day!