From: Doug Dysart KASPAROVCHESS COM> Date: 25 may 2000 Subject: WSC - More Stuff I just want to make a few quick comments regarding the WSC format, as well as discussing a few things I left out in my "Preliminary Report." Larry said that people could be udissatisfied with being knocked out of the tournament and having no more official games to play. I must point out that my new friend (and soon-to-be neighbor) Dr. Alan Baker won the Dojo "tournament" with a record of about 85% wins. He can surely attest that the WSC thought ahead well in planning for eliminated players, as he won a nice prize as a result. On Saturday evening, there was a very fun event. As Kondo Sensei and Iizuka Sensei played (on a table, BTW), everyone got to take guesses at what their next move would be. We got assistance from the better players and the professionals. Once you got 3 guesses right, you would get a prize for each guess. I'm sure no one left without any nice prizes! If you haven't been to http://www.nyshogi.com yet, you should go. It has pictures of *everything*, including the final between Egoshi-san and Ito-san. This game was not open to the public, so the pictures were news to me. The pictures show a very emotional moment. My favorite picture is the last one, where Masui-san is giving Hayashi- san a big hug. Both of them should be extremely proud of this event. Without them, I'm sure it would never have taken place. Regarding alternative formats that could be used, I think you have to look to Europe (especially the Netherlands) for the answer. I guess you could say, "The Dutch do it best," since players like Reijer Grimbergen, Marc Theeuwen, and Pieter Stouten have all helped to make the Dutch Championships one of the coolest tournaments around. I call their format a "KO Swiss," since it combines both formulas very well. Pieter's latest suggestion of having players 1-4 (possibly as a result of tiebreaks) have a KO playoff to determine the main winner seems quite good, too. One thing, though. I like the idea of the best player not having to win *every* game all the time. That's why I like the Norwegian format, which is a Swiss system in which one loss doesn't eliminate you, but two losses does. That is like the "second chance" in some pro tournaments. Doug Dysart Ohio Shogi Club founder Great chess, great e-mail: http://www.KasparovChess.com