Pair Go
The literal meaning of Pair Go is go played by teams of two. Tournaments are often arranged where the pair is one female and one male. One reason for this is to encourage ladies to play since in singles tournaments females are generally heavily outnumbered by males.
In formal Pair Go, each player plays in turn without consultation. For informal pair go, anything the players agree on, including discussion before or after a move may occur.
A summary of the Pair Go Association's rules:
- Two teams play, each a male/female pair.
- For handicap games, a team's grade is the mean of the individual players.
- Normal rotation is Black lady, White lady, Black man, White man, etc.
- In handicap games, the Black lady's first move is the placing of the handicap stones.
- During the game, no consultation except:
- Is it my turn?
- You played out of sequence.
- May I resign partner? (Yes, you may resign partner. / No, you may not.)
- How much time is on the clock?
- If an out of sequence play is noticed before the next play and it was intentional, the game is forfeit by the player. If unintentional then a 3 prisoner penalty is handed over and normal rotation continues from the player under discussion. No moves are undone.
picture by domi, inspired by KGS nicknames http://domidesign.free.fr/
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Pair Go has become an arena for international competition: see http://www.pairgo.or.jp/ .
Rengo, or 'pair-go' is played by teams of two or more people each. Each team plays in turn, just like a normal match, but players in each team take turns to play each move, without discussing.
Rengo can be played with players of different strengths, as long as the 'strength per team' is roughly equal. Any difference in strength in teams can be compensated for by handicap. It is common to add the 'kyu values' (dans count as negative :-)for each team and give a handicap of half the difference between teams.
Discussion on moves before they are played is not allowed, but direct kibitz (or slaughtering) of moves just after they are played is mandatory - especially as long as it is done in a constructive way.
Rengos can be a good way for low-level kyus to learn from stronger players, but stronger players will often pull their hairs out as they try to correct blunders made by their partners. :-))
Several Go Servers support rengo matches.
- on IGS: type help team go
- on KGS: click New Game and choose Rengo as the game type
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Pair Go Tournaments:
Information on Pair Go Tournaments throughout the world.
-BaghwanB
See also: