Rengo tournament

In rengo tournaments, handicaps are usually assigned considering the average strenght of the team.
I’m against handicaps because I don’t trust online ranks, but the general opinion seems to be different. Edit: (nevermind, it’s winning now. I remember that when I voted I was the only one who voted “no handicap”)

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I changed my vote to no handicap, because that is my personal preference, but I’ll accept whatever we all decide.

Maybe I won’t dislike it as much in rengo :woman_shrugging:t2:

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I will play whatever the outcome. However, I don’t think averaging is trustworthy because, as noted above, I think the weaker players are more important to the outcome than the stronger players. Imagine if your team has a beginner who misses most ataris or plays on the 1-line in the opening.

In that case I would probably need a lot of stones. Low ranks are not always well defined, but I imagine a 20k can easily give 9 stones to such a player and win.

If we had a 1k and 25k versus two 11k players, do you think the team with the 25k player would have a realistic chance of winning, even with a handicap? I do think it would be an interesting game, but I doubt it would be fair.

Hmm. 2x11kyu>1kyu+16kyu (my guess)

If the 25k is really 25k (=wins about 50% of the games against a solid 16k, e.g. a bot) in my opinion yes. The difference between 1k and 11k is not small (although I have been both 1k and 11k recently :grimacing:).
11ks average strength would be a little higher than the other team thought

I think we should aim at making teams which are not too heterogeneous. If possible, avoid more than 9 stones difference between 2 teammates.

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Why 1k and 25k against two 11k? Rank average would be 13k for 1k and 25k.

In my experience 1k and 25k against two 13k that would roughly be fair. I did not play with a spread as much as 24 ranks though, more like 9 ranks, not sure if that changes anything.

The handicap would be only two stones, and I don’t think that is enough for the team with the 25k player. I am only trying to illustrate the point that the weak player is much more determinative than the strong player for the reason already stated. Averaging doesn’t really take that into consideration.

You make it sound like you’ve proven that point. I’d say it’s just an opinion - with some good reasoning behind it, but still far from a proof. My - admittedly limited - experience is telling me the opposite.

I don’t understand this? Doesn’t being “really 25k” mean winning 50% against other 25k? If you are winning 50% against a sure 16k then you are 16k right?

Average strength to determine handicap in Rengo is very standard and I see no reason to deviate from that - if handicap is chosen. The reason not to is if ranks are not accurate/trusted but then I think the answer is to not use handicap at all rather than to try and come up with a different system. By definition in this case we’ve decided that ranks are somewhat meaningless so driving some system linked to them is surely meaningless.

I’m sorry, i forgot to add “with 9 stones” but I thought it.

In my experience having the weakest player doesn’t mean being the weakest team, but in the tournaments I played usually there weren’t big gaps

I’m not claiming proof, only making what I think is a reasonable argument.

So it seems we are heading towards

  • strict rengo
  • 2 persons/team
  • not sure if it’s Round Robin or setup with rounds. I guess it also depends on the number of teams involved.
  • 4 teams minimum
  • 19x19
  • No handicap.
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What jlt said.

This post is a wiki, post your name and/ or your team, so we can start scheduling.


Team 1: a8090 (1d) and OnoKakafeniks (5k)
Team 2: @martin3141 (2d) and @Conrad_Melville (7k)
Team 3: @jlt (1d) and @yebellz (6k)
Team 4: @_Sofiam (1k) and @proxy1 (7k)
Team 5: @teapoweredrobot (6k) and @Feijoa (6k)
Team 6: @Jon_Ko (4k) and @Gia (18k)


(I’m on my phone, can someone do the table thingie above?)

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I’m interested in participating :slight_smile:

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I don’t understand. Does this mean that two dans can get together and form a team? I thought the idea was to have balanced teams (as much as possible) since there are no handicaps.

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Not if we can help it.
But unless we start with a roll call we won’t be able to tell.

So let’s start with a finalized player list and if some people feel better playing with their usual team mates I’ll try to accommodate (unless it’s 2 dans or something).

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Rule question for anyone: since this is a strict rengo, are teammates allowed to consult only on the question of resigning (i.e., yes or no, without discussing moves or strategy)? Although I helped edit the documentation, I don’t remember the answer to this.