- About the Tournament and Players
The Final will bring together 20 best players of Renjuclass, who earned their final seats in one of the two ways - top 10 of previous Final and top 10 of last Qualification.
If any of the 20 finalists (10 from last final, 10 from last QT) gives up his right to play in the Final, then the 11th place player of this QT will take the seat in Final, and so on, with the condition that the player must be currently active. For that, the player has to be signed up for Autumn Qualification for RCT-5. If there is a vacancy in the Final, then the substitute player will be automatically promoted from QT-5 list to Finals.
The player who will start playing in the Finals, cannot play at the Autumn QT at the same time. The player who gives up his right to play in this Final, will have no compensation seat for the future - he has to start his way up from QT again. Those who fail to reach the top 10 in finals, will still have the chance to re-enter the Final through the Spring QT in 2004. Those who reach the top 10, they will keep the direct seats for next Finals.The following players have the right to sign up for Finals this time:
1. FIFAWORLDCUP
2. linas2
3. yyfcsd
4. luwenzhe
5. dvoeglaz
6. jahre
7. Liuchao
8. yangxuzl
9. lingdodo
10.coco_yuang
11. Intotherenju
12. Beerman
13. Volodymyr
14. Alan
15. guminzhao
16. bawangwan
17. serdyuk
18. whte
19. penitent
20. nick_hopperIf they will not sign up by the deadline, their seat will become vacant and the substitute player will take it.
- Signups and Participation
All the people with the right to play in this Final can sign up during the Sign-up period. Before the end of the sign-up period the player has the right to cancel his signup if he decides he has no time to play or has other reasons that do not give him chance to participate. After the signup deadline passes, the player is obligated to do his best in the tournament and play it fairly and well until the end of the tournament. Quitting at any point before the official end of the tournament or failing to open or join the games may result with deducting 3 credits from the student's account. - Game Rules
All the tournament games are to be played according to International Renju rules. However, the official rules are perhaps too detailed and complicated, therefore I explain them here briefly:
- The size of the renju board is the 15x15 grid. There are two players playing on it using black and white stones.
- The first move of the game is to be played in the center of the board. It is played by player with black stones.
- Whoever gets 5 stones in a row is the winner of the game.
- There are some limitations for black according to renju rules: Black cannot make double-three (3x3), double-four (4x4), overline (6 or more stones in a row). If black player creates any of those mentioned patterns, black loses the game automatically.
Any disputable situations can be sent to referee for judgement.
White has no limitations. All forks and lines are allowed.
- Opening Rules
Every game has to begin according to the Opening Rules.
- Every player will know from the tournament system (it will be published after the end of signup period) who is tentative black and who is white in each particular game.
- The tentative black player has to open the game. He has to set the opening position of three stones (2 black and 1 white) as follows: The first stone is black and has to be placed in the center of the board.
The next stone is white and has to be placed nearby the first stone (in 3x3 central area). The next stone is black and has to be placed inside the 5x5 central area. There are 26 different ways to open the game. You can see it on the following two diagrams.
According to the diagrams above, tentative black player has to set the opening of 3 stones, having 1 choice for first stone, 2 choices for the 2nd stone and 26 choices for the 3rd stone.
- After seeing the first 3 stones on the board, the tentative white player has to choose whether he wants to change the color or not. If tenative white player thinks that the position is too good for black, he has a right to swap in that moment. If he swaps, then the tentative black player will continue as white and plays the next white move (the 4th move in the game). If the tentative white did not swap then the tentative white plays the 4th move by himself.
- Now, it has become clear who is finally black and who is white in the game. There are 4 stones are on the board now. Here comes the last opening rule:
The black player has to offer two choices of the 5th move (black's 3rd move). The 5th moves cannot be symmetrical. The white player will select one and continue with his 6th move. - There are no further opening rules and the game continues until someone wins the game or the game ends with draw.
- The purpose of opening rules is to make the game as balanced as possible so that both sides could have a chance to win.
- Playing in the Tournament Games Server
All the games are to be played in Tournament Games Server. The interface of the server meets all the necessary requirements of the tournament.
Players submit moves or press buttons using a mouse there. There is no need for additional software or email. The players are recommended to have the broswer version 4.0 or higher (either Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer).
More information about how to use the game server is available in Game Server User Guide.
Caution! Please be aware that the games are NOT to be played in regular Play Games server of renjuclass, but in special Tournament Games Server under then Tournament link. All games that are opened in wrong server are invalid. - Time Limit
All the games are to be opened with the time limit 40 days. That means, both players have 40 days to finish their game. When the time runs out, the player loses the game.
The Server will count the remining time for both players, and automatically ends the game when the player runs out of time.
The players are not allowed to change the game to 'untimed' mode.
There is no 'vacation mode' for players. The clocks keep running throughout all the tournament. - The End of The Game
Every game ends with either black win, white win, or draw. The game is won when the player puts 5 in a row, or when the opponent resigns the game, or when the opponent had moves into a forbidden point as black.
The game is draw when...- The board is full enough of stones (I hope this will not be necessary) so that there is no theoretical way to get 5 in a row.
- The players agree to make a draw - one player offers the draw together with submitting his next move and the opponent accepts it. If the opponent does not want to accept the draw offer then he can just refuse it by playing his next move.
- The referee can decide the game to be draw when the game is delaying the tournament and the position is very likely to be draw, but only if that game does not decide the places from 1 to 10.
- Tie Break
The tie is broken by following rules (in order of appearance):
- The total score of the player (sum of all his wins and draws)
- The Berger Coefficient
- The result of game(s) between players of same points and same Berger
- The Number of wins
- Additional match (only if the question is about reaching to top 10 or leaving out)
- Fair Play
Every player is expected to have good manners and attitude towards the opponents and referee.
The player has a right to use any renju books, databases, magazine, articles or any other passive forms of renju material.
The player must not ask any other players help or analyse his games together with other people. The player must not use any renju programs to analyse his games. - Arguments and Questions
The players should try to reach an agreement in any argument without interference of referee. If they are unable to reach an agreement then the issue should be sent to referees' team and the referees will judge it.
All tournament related questions can also be sent to the referee. For example, if the player does not understand some of the game or tournament rules, or if the player is not sure if some particular fork is forbidden for black or not.
The Referee of this Final is Zhou Shan Zhen (Alan). - The results
The Tournament Table Manager will input the game results to the tournament table and keeps it updated.
All the players who complete the tournament will get creditpoints. The amount of creditpoints will be announced after the end of the tournament.
The Tournament Table Manager of this Final is Wenzhe Lu (luwenzhe). - Referees rights
The referee will use these rules as a basis in his judgements. The referee has the full right to make decisions about the situations that are not describled here in rules page. - Tournament Director
The Tournament Director of this Final is Ando Meritee. Any technical problems can be reported to Tournament Director. Do not contact the Tournament Director with any of the issues which should be handled by the referee. - Starting Information
The information about the exact tournament system, number of rounds, opponent names and how to start the games - all can be read from Starting Information link in the tournament page. The Starting Information will be available during or after the end of Signup period.