Rematch

    Keywords: Tournament

Rematch is a tie breaker used in some of the more important go tournaments. As the name suggests, it is accomplished by having the tied players play more games.

A series of rematches between three or more players is possible, but a predetermined system should be used to prevent further ties.

When to use the rematch tie breaker

A rematch uses the players' go skills as the tie breaker, so it is usually thought of as being a very fair tie breaker. It is especially in place in

  • major tournaments (national titles etc.)
  • important round-robin tournaments (where SOS will fail)

When not to use the rematch tie breaker

  • in a typical amateur tournament there won't be enough time for the required extra games
  • if having a tie is not a huge problem, just having a tie can be better

Other considerations

A direct encounter is not a rematch

Consider the following example:

Four players (named Adam, Bengt, Cthulhu and Donald) who play a round-robin of 3 rounds. Adam and Bengt get 2 wins each, and Cthulhu and Donald get one win each, like this:

         A  B  C  D  Total
 Adam    X  1  1  0   2
 Bengt   0  X  1  1   2
 Cthulhu 0  0  X  1   1
 Donald  1  0  0  X   1

Now one might think that since Adam has won against Bengt, Adam must be the stronger player. However, it could also be argued that Bengt has won against Donald, who in turn has beaten Adam, and therefore Bengt is stronger player. Therefore any decision made on the basis of the direct encounter is likely to be controversial (see /discussion).

A rematch between Adam and Bengt, on the other hand, will give a whole game worth of extra data to make decisions by, so there should be more confidence in the final result.

Similar reasoning will also apply to any other situation where the tied players have the same SOS.

Avoiding another tie

If three or more players are tied, then a series of rematches can also result in a tie. You should have a system to eliminate this possibility.

One way to prevent another round of ties is to have a seeding (random or otherwise) for the players. Then, for example in a 3-way tie, you can have the two lowest seeded players play each other, and then the winner of this game gets to play against the top seeded one.


This is a copy of the living page "Rematch" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2009 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About