From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> WIZARD <dot> NET>
Date: 26 may 2000
Subject: Re: Shogi World Championship -Swiss or Knockout

At 12:27 PM 5/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
>The tournament wanted to honor the invitees as seeded players and gave
>them a bye to A-Class without classification match knowing that many of
>the invitees would be knocked down to B or C Class should they go
>through the classification match under the Swiss system.

     That was reasonable.

>The tournament thought it would not be a good courtesy to treat these
>invitees coming from long distance same as the other general
>participants and gave them an opportunity to play 3 rounds of serious
>matches against Pros with $1,500 stakes.
>Please look at the result of Pros'  51 wins and 6 losses, the 4 top
>players of the tournament actually won against Pros with Kakuochi
>(without Kaku). Chiaki Ito and Takushi Asada each won 2 games and K.
>Egoshi and Kisao Ichihara won one each. K. Egoshi and C. Ito won through
>the tournament to the final.
>
>The tournament committee thought that it would be a great experience for
>many invitees to play against Pros.
>Pros too told us on many occasions that they worked very hard and
>serious and enjoyed the Pro/Am very much.
>
     The Pro-Am event was indeed a great success and a valuable experience.

>Dear Larry and others, we invite your offer of the system (format) and
>time schedule that could fit to this tournament with following
>conditions.
>1) Total Numbers of the players between 70 and 80. (Most of them are Dan
>Players)
>2) Time Allowance:
>May 20, Saturday 09:15 - 18:00 (Lunch break one hour)
>M ay 21, Sunday 09:00 - 15:00 (Lunch break one hour) and the
>Championship Match begins at 15:30.
>3) Awards ceremony 17:30 and Dinner party : 19:00 - 21:30
>4) To make a program that all participants including Pros can enjoy.
>Pros go back home saying that it was a great tournament and they want to
>come back again.
>5) There were 20 invitees (actually 19 due to visa problem of Mr.
>Nikonov from Russia) who won the qualifying tournaments but their level
>of skill is various between 5 Dan to 6 Kyu.
>6) Do not use any Dan, Kyu, Ratings for the classification.
>
     All chess events use ratings for pairings, so I don't know what your
objection to using shogi ratings for pairings would be, but it is still
quite possible to use the Swiss system even with this condition.

>The committee worked hard to find the best formula and reached to the
>program as you enjoyed.
>However, the committee will be very pleased to receive any proposal of
>alternative formula that could fit to the this tournament with the above
>conditions.
>Commenting the system will be easy but it must be practical to such a
>tournament with large participants of very competitive level within the
>limited time table.
>
>Dear Larry,
>Please show us a practical time schedule with your alternative system,
>which could fit to this tournament.
>The tournament is willing to use any alternative system if there is
>better one fitting the limited time schedule.
>Best Regards,
>Shigeki Masui,
>Executive Director of the Tournament.
>
     Your schedule amounts to allowing for eight rounds plus the final
championship game.  So here is one proposal; perhaps it can be improved upon:

     The tournament is set up as an eight round Swiss, but with certain
modifications.  Within any score group, pairings are at random (avoiding
repeat pairings, or pairings from the same country {city for U.S.} unless
unavoidable}.  There are no sections; everyone plays in the same event.
However, the seeded players get byes (one point each) for the first two
rounds, during which time they play in the Pro-Am event similar to this
year's event.  In later rounds, every else gets one game against a Pro
under similar conditions, which game counts for the tournament.  For those
games, handicap will be determined based on the player's score at that
time, according to a formula to be decided.  After 7 rounds, the top four
players (using tie-break points if necessary) go into the semi-finals and
finals.  In the eight round, the top four are paired off in such a way as
to minimize repeat pairings of the same players; if that is not possible,
then #1 plays #4, and #2 plays #3.  Everyone else plays the eighth round by
normal Swiss pairings, competing for fifth place and any further prizes the
organizers choose to offer (such as top kyu, top shodan, top woman, top
junior, etc.).  The final is contested between the two winners of the top
two matches.  The two losers can either play off for third at the same
time, or else third can be decided by who had the better standing in the
first seven rounds.
     Advantages:  All players get at least eight serious games, of which at
least one is against a pro.  A player who loses early can still expect to
reach the final four with only one loss, and may still be the winner.
Every one gets an official game with a Pro, not only the seeded players.
Final is still contested at a known time and can be observed by all, as
this year.  Seeded players still get a free ride for two rounds, since they
won some event to get seeded.  No need for multiple directors, charts, etc.
for each division; everyone is in one event.

     Larry Kaufman