Welcome to the 2025 Western Server Challenge

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March 1st - March 31st

This is our 4th year running this event! Like in previous years, the goal is to play 100 rated games in a month! This event is designed to encourage more activity on the server and to help players get over any rank anxiety they may have. Don’t worry about de-ranking, losing, or performing badly. Simply play and have fun!

Games will take place on OGS and no where else. My reason for doing this is due to me being able to access the API for everyone’s games. I counted games manually one year and I never want to do that again! lol

I will be encouraging the three main board sizes, 9x9, 13x13, and 19x19. My feelings on this are, we don’t always have time for a full 19x19 game but we still want to play a game of Go. Small boards are great for quick matches. Many players use Go Quest and Baduk Pop for these same reasons. The 100 games will be size specific, but I will have a Grand Slam category for those who play 100 games on each size.

The settings for the games will be as follows…

All games must be ranked.
Chinese Rules (Encouraged but optional)
Time settings encouraged(minimum) are…

9x9
Byo-yomi 1m+3x10
Fischer 20s+10s up to 30s
Canadian 1m+5m/30

13x13
Byo-yomi 3m+4x10
Fischer 20s+10s up to 30s
Canadian 3m+5m/30

19x19
Byo-yomi 5m+5x10
Fischer 30s+10s up to 30s
Canadian 5m+5m/30

I encourage Chinese rules for the simple fact of it doesn’t punish newer players for trying things out. I always recommend my students to play out what they don’t understand. That is how we learn! But some rules sets will punish us for it. So in my opinion, I think this rule set is best for most.

In conclusion, I truly wish for everyone to have a great experience and remember that Go is a game to be played and enjoyed. It doesn’t need to be serious 100% of the time. I wish you all the most fun and exiting games for the month!

Shawn Ray
Clossius

7 Likes

Looks like fun! Thanks for organizing this again!

(PS I signed up as SamrakuNoHandi, so I’ll be doing only handicap games)

2 Likes

I’m confused. Which ones of the following time settings are accepted?

(screenshot is from the Automatch page)

1 Like

I assume 10m+10s/move, 5m+5x30s, and 20m+5x30s

@jlt I think @Clossius1 just took the automatch settings from last year and pasted that for this year

@Clossius1 There was a rework of the play page and automatch system, so for ease of getting games, you can take a look at which settings are on offer as @jlt mentions. Also it depends on board size I believe, but just Fischer and byo-yomi, no Canadian anymore.

Thanks for organising though, hopefully it’ll be successful :slight_smile:

4 Likes