Canadian Overtime
Canadian overtime means that the overtime is managed by Canadian Timing (see also there). It is commonly seen in western tournaments and on Go servers.
Thereby, each overtime period has two main properties:
- the time available and
- the number of stones to play.
All the stones must be played before the time runs out. An example would be 25 stones within 5 minutes, an average of one stone every 12 seconds.
If the player succeeds, a new period starts, providing another set of stones to play. But if the player does not manage to play all the stones within the corresponding period, the player loses on time.
On Go servers, fast games are often controlled by Canadian overtime, usually referring to 25 stones per period. For instance,
"Anyone for a 1/5 game?"
asks for game with 1 minute main time, followed by 5 minutes per 25 stones. This setting leads to a brisk and steady pace (or a manic pace, depending on your point of view). A 200-move game played as 1/5 will rarely need more than 42 minutes.