6.3 Other Tournaments

The rules and conditions of tournaments not covered by sections 5, 6.1 and 6.2 are at the discretion of the tournament organiser.

Tournament organisers are asked to note that entrants may assume that:

• the playing rules will be as described in the BGA Rules of Go, and
• no smoking will be allowed in the playing area

unless stated otherwise on the entry form.

Further information and advice for tournament organisers is available in The BGA Organisers Handbook. This is currently under revision. There is some supplementary material in the Notes for tournament organisers at the bottom of the list of forthcoming tournaments.

Tournaments supported and recognised by the BGA are encouraged to publicise and solicit BGA membership for players who are not existing BGA-members.

Council will endeavour not to make changes to the requirements for tournaments, e.g. the Levy, without prior consultation with tournament organisers and normally with at least 3 months advance notice of such a change. Council will normally use the bga-policy mailing list for such consultation, so tournament organisers are encouraged to sign up to this list.

6.4 Levy

The BGA Levy is a fee paid by tournaments to the BGA in exchange for use of the BGA tournament equipment (sets, clocks, laptop, software and mobile phone), public liability and loss/damage insurance, publicity (see section 6.6) and submission of results to the rating system. The tournament levy is not charged for youth events and is intended to approximately cover the costs associated with the provision of these facilities on an annual basis, including equipment replacement and travel costs.

There is no requirement for tournament organisers to relate entry charges to the levy charge. The levy is charged in the method below partly to

• provide temporary BGA membership for non-BGA members and recognise that the equipment is effectively owned by BGA members, hence the reduction for BGA members, and
• also to provide tournament organisers with a simple way of predicting the cost when planning a tournament without having to make a specific commitment in advance of the event, irrespective of where the tournament is held within the UK and the number of players actually attending.

The BGA levies a daily charge based on the number of players in the main event of any tournament, with effect from 1st July 2010:

• £1.00 per day per player if a BGA member and qualifies for Concessionary BGA membership
• £1.50 per day per player if a BGA member or a member of a foreign national Go Association
• £4.50 per day per player if a non-BGA member (£3 per day for Concessionary entries).

Note: These charges are reduced by 50% for any tournament not requiring the provision by the BGA of any equipment. For events longer than two days discounts are available - please contact the BGA Treasurer to discuss details.

For new events with uncertainty over the number of entrants or which are experimental, the BGA Treasurer may on request reduce or waive the levy in case of loss. Tournament organisers wanting a waiver of the levy for other reasons should contact the BGA Treasurer in advance to agree it.

6.5 Underwriting

The BGA underwrites the costs of running the British Congress. By approval of Council, the BGA may also underwrite the costs of other tournaments considered important to the BGA, for example Toyota Tour events such as the London Open.

Tournament organisers seeking an underwriting arrangement should contact the BGA Treasurer in advance to discuss it.

6.6 Publicity

The BGA provides facilities for distributing tournament entry forms with the newsletter and hosting them on the BGA web site. These facilities and many other recommendations are described in Publicising Go Tournaments.

6.7 Tournament Dates

The BGA Tournament Coordinator maintains a calendar of tournaments and helps tournament organisers to identify free dates and to avoid clashing tournaments and reduced entries to tournaments in consecutive weeks. However, this help is advisory and the date of a tournament is ultimately at the discretion of the tournament organiser.

6.8 Book Stall

Books stalls are provided at tournaments at the discretion of the BGA Book Seller. (A BGA book stall is not usually provided at events where a local supplier is actually selling Go books and equipment, because we wish to encourage them to stock these).

6.9 Rules of Go

The AGM approved the AGA-style rules with no opposition by the AGM on 5th April 2008. The statement of the Go rules used in BGA tournaments is found in Rules of Play. This document is inspired by the AGA’s official statement of the rules and the BGA’S interpretation of those rules.

Tournament organisers can get an easy to digest statement of the rules in the AGA Summary to print out for display.

Players can get a crib sheet showing guidance in playing by AGA-style rules from Short Guide .

BGA referees should refer to Rules of Play for the definitive statement of BGA tournament rules of play.

6.10 International Representation

The BGA is asked to nominate official representatives for various international tournaments. In general we operate a points system to help Council decide who should be nominated. When such a system is in operation Council will normally nominate the person with the highest number of accumulated points, who has earned some points within the last 5 years. Players who attend the tournaments for which they are nominated will have their points reset to 0 after playing.

The main exception to this is the World Mind Sports Games which for 2008 used the existing EGF ratings list as a selection mechanism. Without committing a future Council players should assume that if the WMSG is held again that the ratings list as displayed on our website will be used again.

Please note that these are guidelines which may be not be followed by Council in exceptional circumstances (for example, someone becoming British Champion for the first time).

All nominations will be subject to the rules for attendance at the respective events, e.g. some may be restricted to UK-born or UK-nationals.

World Amateur Go Championship

Points are awarded to players in the Challengers’ League and the British Championship Title Match as follows:

the champion	9 WAQ points
1st in Challengers’ League (if not champion)	8 WAQ points
2nd in Challengers’ League (if not champion)	7 WAQ points
3rd in Challengers’ League	6 WAQ points
4th in Challengers’ League	5 WAQ points
5th in Challengers’ League	4 WAQ points
6th in Challengers’ League	3 WAQ points
7th in Challengers’ League	2 WAQ points
8th in Challengers’ League	1 WAQ points

Except that: if there are players on an equal number of wins at the end of round seven of the Challengers’ League, then the points for those league places are shared equally between the league places concerned.

A player taking part in the World Amateur Go Championship has their points reset to zero and this happens before any points for that year are awarded.

International Amateur Baduk Championship

Points are awarded to the eight highest-placed British players (by nationality or residence) in the British Open Championship. The winner receives 8 points, second 7 points, and so on down to 1 point for eighth. Points are shared between players who finish on the same McMahon score, with any fraction rounded to the nearest half integer (quarters rounded up).

If two or more players are tied on the same number of points, the tie-break is: first, priority is given to players who have been to the International Amateur Baduk Championship less recently; second, who played in the British Open more recently; third, who finished more highly placed in that British Open; fourth, nigiri.

Women’s World Amateur

Due to the long time since the last Womens World Amateur, Council decided to suspend this points system. The following has been retained for historic purposes:

This points system is used as a guide for selection of British representatives in international Women’s Amateur Go events, such as have been held in Japan and South Korea. Points will be awarded to women competing in the British Open. Points are given according to final ranking by McMahon score, with players tied by that score sharing the points assigned to the places. Up to eight players will be awarded points, with 8 points being given to the top player, 7 to the second player and so on with a decrement of one point each place.

International Amateur Pair Go

Points will be awarded to individuals in a pair. A point is gained per person for each game won in the British Pair Go Championship.

Only teams that have played together will be considered.

Current pairings will be given preference. This is interpreted to mean that normally only pairs who have played together in one or both of the two most recent qualifying Pair Go tournaments may be nominated.

European Amateur Pair Go

This is identical to the International Amateur Pair Go Qualification Points System.

Other International Events

The points systems described above may be used as guidelines when selecting representatives for other international events, as alternatives to the rankings from the most recent British Championships or the EGF ratings.