Overview: The 2007 Arimaa World Championship tournament will determine the best human Arimaa player. The winning player will be declared the 2007 Arimaa World Champion and receive a prize of $500 USD. The tournament will begin on November 7th and finish by early January. The participants will play one game per week over the Internet in a floating double elimination tournament.
Registration: Interested players should register before the deadline of November 4th. There is a small registration deposit of $10 USD. After the tournament the deposit will be returned if you do not forfit or resign any of your games.
Location of games: All games will be played in the Arimaa gameroom over the Internet. The players are responsible for providing their own reliable computer and Internet connection. There will not be a rematch if a player loses a game due to problems with their computer or Internet connection or even the game client program. However, if there is a problem with the game server, the tournament director will consider a rematch.
Time of games: The players will play one game per week. At 12am (GMT) Monday Nov 6th the players will be notified of the other player they have been paired with. The players will have 24 hours to submit a web form to indicate what times they are available to play during the upcoming week between Wednesday and Sunday. If a player does not submit this within the allowed time then any preferred times they had previously submitted will be used. If no preferred times have been provided then any time will be considered a preferred time. On Tuesday the tournament coordinator will fix the game time based on the input from both players and notify them of the scheduled game time. The earliest a game could begin is on Wednesday and the latest is on Sunday. If a player does not show up for the game within 3 minute after the scheduled start time then that player will lose by forfeit. In case of a valid reason the tournament director may consider rescheduling the game.
Tournament format: Floating Double Elimination
The tournament coordinator runs a program which is used to pair the players, assign a bye in rounds with odd number of players and to select the color of each player. The pairing algorithm attempts to best meet the following constraints:
- Everyone plays until they have lost two times. At the end of each round, any player who has lost for the second time is eliminated.
- If an odd number of players remain, the bye must go to some player among the players with the fewest byes so far.
- Minimize the number of pairings occuring for the Nth time. ...
- Minimize the number of pairings occuring for the fourth time.
- Minimize the number of pairings occuring for the third time.
- Minimize the number of pairings occuring for the second time.
- Give the bye to the player with the fewest losses.
- Give the bye to the player with the highest rating.
- Pair players with a similar number of losses against each other.
- Maximize the sum of the squares of the differences in rank among remaining players.
- All games are played according to the Arimaa Match Rules.
This tournament format is designed only to clearly recognize a first place winner. Recognition of second and third place will be done based on number of games won. Highest pre-tournament ratings will be used to break ties for third place. In case of ties for second place addition games will be played to break the tie. A two-way tie for second will be broken by a one-game playoff. A three-way tie for second will be broken by first pairing the two players eliminated in the second-to-last round and the winner playing the last eliminated player. In these tie breaker games the colors are assigned so that a player plays the color they have played a fewer number of times. If this is equal then the player with the lower rating selects the color. If this is equal the player who was eliminated in the second-to-last round selects the color.
Time controls: All games will be played with a time control of: 90s/90s/100/7m/6h
Breaking draws: Draws are not allowed and will be broken according to the Arimaa Match Rules.
Notes:
- The games must be played in one sitting and cannot be adjourned. A player will not be allowed to take back a move once it has been submitted.
- The games will contribute to the players' ratings.
- Players are forbidden from using advice or suggestions from others or programs while playing the games. Any player doing so will be eliminated from the championship matches and will not be allowed to take part in future matches.
- The tournament coordinator will carry out the tournament in compliance with the stated rules and does not make any decisions that will effect the course of the tournament. A player may serve as the coordinator.
- The tournament director will serve as the arbitrator in case of disputes. Should a dispute arise about the outcome of a game, the director will review the game and decide if the game should be replayed.
- The director will also make the final decision on matters of pairing and color assignment. However, the pairings and color assignments are done as much as possible using a program and the need for intervention should be rare.
- The director may require any player to have a web-cam turned on for monitoring during the games. Also the director may send a representative to be present with any player during the games. A player who does not comply will lose by forfeit.
- All decisions made by the director shall be considered final and binding by all parties.
- Omar and Aamir Syed reserve the rights to modify the championship tournament details in the future to resolve any logistical problems that may arise.
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