Automatic handicap for automated tournaments

Hi admins,

I regularly participate in the live 9x9 tournaments that occur every 4 hours on OGS and the outcomes of these are fairly predictable… Have you considered making these and the other automated tournaments automatic handicap? I reckon it would make them more interesting…

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It might just be me, but I kinda like no handicap in 9x9 games. Half the time the 9x9 handicaps are really hard to overcome(in my experience), and I really don’t like them. I would prefer if those tourneys stayed no handicap(although I haven’t been on to do them as much recently so I don’t know if people care about my opinion).

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I fully more than 100% agree with you. It is just too often that weaker (DDK) players drop out when they are paired against stronger (SDK/D) players. It happens more often than not that the first round of an automated site wide tournament is a no show. This would probably happen less with a handicap. Go should be fun for everyone.
Good initiative and hope that it will be a succes!

Another alternative is reverse komi, possibly more suitable for smaller boards.

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Yet another alternative, a la Cho Chikun’s dojo:

There is a longer time limit where each player has a minute to move, and hayago where the players are given just 10 seconds to make a move. There is no time limit, so any given player can play 1 or 10 games in one day. The league also has a rating system. The ratings are based on the players’ winning percentages. There is a handicap, but one that was very different than the orthodox system of allowing the opponent to place the number of stones to the difference in rank. The stronger player gets 10 seconds less in their time for every number difference in rank. There is also a reverse komi rule. 0 komi, —3 komi, —5 komi, and —8 komi.

(Emphases mine.)

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On timer handicap: