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Little Golem
   

Little Golem ([ext] http://www.littlegolem.net) is a turn-based game server offering go (9x9, 13x13 and 19x19) as well as several other games (see below for a full list). This server is centred around tournament play, although individual games are also possible.

The following provides some information about playing on Little Golem. For further information, see the [ext] offical FAQ (but beware that the official FAQ is currently somewhat out-of-date and not entirely accurate in places).

General Information

Little Golem uses only HTML (no Java or JavaScript), and should be usable on just about any graphical browser, and even on WebTV.

Time limits

Time limits on Little Golem are the same in all games: ten days plus 36 hours per move. In addition, each player has 20 vacation days per year. The following decribes the time system in more detail:

When a new game starts, both players have 240 hours on the clock. The clock of the player whose turn it is to move counts down one hour per hour. When a player makes a move, the time on that player's clock is increased by 36 hours subject to a maximum of 240 hours. When a clock reaches 0 hours, a vacation day is triggered if the player has any left, otherwise the player loses on time. When a vacation day is triggered, 24 hours is added to the player's clock in every game that the player is currently playing. Note that the triggering of a vacation day can cause the time on some clocks to exceed 240 hours.

Each player has 20 vacation days available after first joining Little Golem. The number of vacation days is restored to 20 at the beginning of each calendar year.

Ratings

There are three types of tournaments at Little Golem. The multi-round Monthly Cups and the single-round Rating Tournaments are rated. Non-tournament games (started by invitation or through the waiting room) and the multi-round Championships (at least according to the on-site documentation) are unrated.

Go ratings are displayed as dan or kyu ranks, but are internally handled the same as ratings for other games (20 kyu means 1500-1549, 19 kyu means 1550-1599, etc.). For chess and go, players can set their initial ratings, but for other games everyone starts at 1500.

The actual rating system in use has never been specified, but may be the same as the one given on [ext] this page (with K = 32), except that Little Golem does not use provisional ratings. Against a player of equal rating, you gain 16 rating points for a win and lose 16 for a loss. Against higher rated players, you gain more for a win and lose less for a loss, while against lower rated players you gain less for a win and lose more for a loss.

If a game is played with handicaps (which currently is only the case for 19x19 go monthly cup games), then the rating change takes the handicap into account.

Tournaments

All tournaments at present are all-play-all tournaments (round robins) and are won by the player with the most points (2 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss) with ties being broken by Sonneborn-Berger where possible. To play in a tournament, register in the appropriate place on the [ext] tournaments page.

All tournament games are rated. (If the documentation on the site is correct, then Championships are not rated.) The cross-table for a tournament shows two ratings for each player; the one in black is their rating at the time the tournament began, and the red rating in parentheses is their current rating.

Tournaments come in three types: rating tournaments, monthly cups and championships.

Rating Tournaments

Rating tournaments are four-player tournaments in which you play other players with similar ratings. A level n rating tournament features players with ratings ranging from 200n to 200n + 199 (at the time the tournament starts). A new rating tournament should start within a few minutes once there are four players of the same level in the queue.

(Recently the system has been changed slightly so that particularly high-rated players can enter rating tournaments a level below their own level. This is because these players would otherwise not be able to play in rating tournaments at all, there being insufficent players of the required level.)

Monthly Cups

All tournaments in the first round of a monthly cup have five players, and a new one should start within a few minutes once there are five players in the queue. There is no restriction on the ratings of players, so you are likely to meet players much stronger or much weaker than yourself if you play in a monthly cup.

All the winners of first-round monthly cup tournaments which started in a particular month go forward to a second round (assuming there were at least two such winners). The second round should start as soon as all the first-round tournaments have finished. If there are fewer than 10 first-round winners, they play in a single tournament to determine the winner of the monthly cup. If there are 10 or more first-round winners, then they are split into three (or perhaps more) tournaments, with the winners of these going forward to a third-round tournament. Note that you can play in more than one first-round monthly cup tournament in a given month if you like, but you only need to win one in order to qualify for the second round.

Championships

A new championship should start seven days after the last game of the previous championship has finished.

The first league of a championship is a single 9-player tournament, the winner of which will be the champion. The second league has two 9-player tournaments - assuming there are enough players, otherwise the tournaments will be smaller in size and/or number. The third league (if any) has four 9-player tournaments, again assuming there are enough players. Sometimes there is even a fourth league, with up to eight 9-player tournaments.

The winner and runner-up from each championship tournament (except the first league tournament) are promoted to a higher league for the next championship, and the lowest placed players may be demoted to make room for them. In practice, however, it is nearly impossible to be demoted from any league other than the first, because even if you lose all your games there will almost certainly be enough dropouts (players choosing not to play in the next championship) to enable you to keep your place. For the same reason, it is common to be promoted even without finishing in the top two of your tournament.

When a new championship starts, players who have registered for the championship but did not play in the previous championship are added to the lowest leagues in order of rating. In particular, for the first championship of a newly-added game the first league will contain the top 9 rated players who want to play, and the second league will contain the next 18, and so on.

Games available on Little Golem

The games currently (February 2003) available on Little Golem are listed below.

  • Go. For information about go, see Sensei's Library. :) Little Golem allows for 9x9 and 13x13 games as well as the standard 19x19. Each board size counts as a separate game, with separate tournaments and separate ratings. You should set your initial rank when joining Little Golem, unless you want to start at 20 kyu. The chosen initial rank applies to all board sizes. All games are played according to Japanese rules and, except for the 19x19 monthly cups, are even games with komi. The komi varies according to the board size. Because of the use of Japanese rules, automatic scoring is essentially impossible and the players have to score by marking the appropiate groups as dead. (In case of disagreement or uncertaintly, ask a stronger player or on the [ext] forum.)
    • 9x9 go. Komi is 5.5. If you have never played go before, it is advisable to start with 9x9 games, since turn-based games on larger boards take much longer to play.
    • 13x13 go. Komi is 8.5.
    • 19x19 go. Komi is now 6.5 in even games, although it used to be 5.5. The 19x19 monthly cups are played with handicaps (maximum 9 stones, traditional placement, 0.5 komi).
  • Chess. Ratings are roughly in line with FIDE ratings, and you should set yours before playing.
  • Hex. Played on a 13x13 board with swap option.
  • DVONN. One of Kris Burm's Project GIPF games. See [ext] http://www.gipf.com/dvonn/ for rules and basic strategy. Games in rating tournaments are played with random start positions (that is, the server plays phase 1 randomly), but in all other games (unrated games and monthly cup games) the players play phase 1 themselves. As this game has only recently been added, there is no championship yet; the first is due to start on 1 March 2003.
  • Four in a row. Also called Connect-4. Now played on a 8x8 board, although the first few games were 7x8.
  • Gomoku. The Japanese five-in-a-row game. True gomoku is a known first-player win, so the game played on Little Golem uses [ext] some extra rules to make the game fairer.


This is a copy of the living page "Little Golem" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.