NZ Digital 2023 Sign Up

Dear Go Players,

 

Welcome to 2023, shaping to be yet another memorable year - for all the wrong reasons ☹️ But we have something to look forward to - playing Go with our friends 🙂. Our first tournament of the year, the 2023 NZ Digital will start soon, on March 27. Games to play, games to watch, prizes and kudos to win, All good! We are keeping it similar to last year as that seemed to work well. To register click here. Details are below. 

 

The tournament is open to players from New Zealand, Australia and South Pacific nations. For New Zealand players the tournament results will count towards your NZGS points and National ranking as with other regional tournaments. Australian players will likewise receive ranking and international representation points* 

* To be confirmed by the AGA committee

 

The tournament is on the Internet in six rounds, one per week. Results are due by midnight Sunday by email. The draw for the next round (opponent, colour, handicap) will be sent out by midday Monday. Contact your opponent, sort out a time, play the game online, email the result and the game record to the tournament director. 

The tournament has three divisions.

• Open:  No handicaps. Recommended for strong players 2dan and higher 
• Division 2: No handicaps. Eligible to players ranked up to 2dan
• Handicap: Handicaps will be set depending on the difference in ranks of the players.
  Eligible to all… 

Each division will use a Swiss draw. 

Fischer time control will be used with 30 minutes starting time and 20 seconds added per move (about 1 to 1 1/4 hours each) 

• Entries close on Friday 24 March 2023.
• Round 1 drawn Monday 27 March.
• Round 2 drawn Monday 3 April.
• Round 3 drawn Monday 10 April.
• Round 4 drawn Monday 17 April.
• Round 5 drawn Monday 24 April.
• Round 6 drawn Monday 1 May.
• Results announced Monday 8 May.

The preferred server is the ‘Online Go Server’ or OGS (https://online-go.com) Other servers can be used by mutual agreement.

 

To enter, click here to open the registration form. Or if you have difficulty with the form please email the tournament director (Chris Ding, secretary@go.org.nz) with your NZGS number if you have one), phone number, rank, home club and country, and your username on the Online Go Server

 

Entry fee is NZ$10. Please do a direct bank transfer to the NZGS account 03-0149-0095693-000 or, if you are not in New Zealand, use our PayPal account account secretary@go.org.nz. 

• However you pay, make sure you include your name and NZGS number in the reference so we know who the money is from!

Open Division and Division 2

For ‘serious’ games where you can test your strength against others, also the Open division.
Winner gets the title of New Zealand Digital Champion!
May the best player prevail!

• The Open division is open to all, but recommended for stronger players.
• Division 2 is for players up to 2 dan. If you are stronger - play in the Open division
• Komi of 7 points to white and no handicap stones.
• Game settings: Fisher timing with 30 minutes main time plus 20 seconds per move, Chinese (area) scoring and counting, colour is specified in the draw. No nigiri.
• Set your game to public and save a copy of the SGF for us.

Handicap Division

For more ‘relaxed’ games with a handicap to give each player an equal chance. Have fun!

• Handicap division games will have a number of stones (as specified in the draw) and no komi unless it is an even game.
• Even games in the handicap division, have komi of 7 points to white and no handicap stones.
• Stones, if any, will be given at one stone per one difference in rank.
• Winners ranks are automatically adjusted up by 1 (just for the purposes of the tournament)  
• Game settings: Fisher timing with 30 minutes main time plus 20 seconds per move, Chinese (area) scoring and counting, colour is specified in the draw. No nigiri.
• Set your game to public and save a copy of the SGF for us.
• We may introduce a McMahon bar between the top players and the rest of the division for the first couple of rounds, to avoid highly mismatched games. The sections of each division will be reunited from the third round onwards.
• This division is open to everyone and there is no maximum handicap!  However we will try to match players of similar ranks to keep the handicaps small. 

Prizes

There will be cash prizes, we will announce the exact amounts when we know the number of players in the tournament.

 

So that almost everyone can aim at winning a prize, we again have ‘plates’ within each division.  First and second in each plate will receive prizes as well as the tournament first, second and third places. 

• After the first round we have two groups - Winners and Losers (W & L).
• After the second round there are four groups: WW, WL, LW and LL.
• The WW group, where players won their first two games is where the first second and third are most likely to come from.  
• The WL, LW and LL groups are the ‘Plate’ divisions 1-3. First and second within each of these groups (based on the players final positions in the tournament) will also receive prizes 🙂
• The plates make no difference to how players are matched for their games as the tournament progresses. 
• For the purpose of assigning players to plates 1-3, byes are treated as a loss.
• In round 2, if a first round loser has to play a first round winner they will be assigned to plate 2 (LW) regardless of the result of the match.

 

Final ranking will be determined by number of wins, direct result and SOS.

• Number of wins is 1 for each game won. Draws count as half. Games that were not played may count as 1, ½ or 0 depending on the circumstances, the tournament director will decide.
• Direct result: If two players with equal numbers of wins have played each other, the winner is ranked higher.
• SOS: Sum of opponent's scores. The total number of wins of a player's opponents. Higher is better.

Conduct

All competitors must behave reasonably: don't cheat, don't troll, play nice. Violations attract a warning, then disqualification. We don't have an official code of conduct, you can look at the Queensland Go Society Code of Conduct https://queensland.go.org.au/code-of-conduct-faq/ if you want specifics. Games may be reviewed by the tournament referee, Kevin Liu 7dan. If there is suspected cheating the tournament director has the right to make whatever decision they feel appropriate. 

Registration

To register click here.

Colin Grierson



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