From: Eric Cheymol IMAGINET FR> Date: 13 may 1998 Subject: Requirements for rating european games Dear Shogi Players, In the last Gent tournament, an agreement has been made between the FESA representatives of Belgium, France and The Nederlands (with the presence of the FESA Chairman and the European Elo Officer). With this agreement, all even games played with at least 30 minutes and 30 secondes of byoyomi can be rated in the european elo list (Previously, the minimum was 45 minutes + 30 secondes). But with only 30 minutes for each player, we recommend to play with a byoyomi of 40 secondes (this makes a big difference and can help to lower the number of blunders). This minimum time limit is effective for all games played since the 1st january 1998. So if you have played some even games (especially in clubs) with this minimum time limit since the beginning of 1998, you can rate them by sending me the results. (The Dusseldorf tournament is concerned). This modification has some advantages : 1. The FIST tournament in Tokyo should be played with a time limit around 30 minutes for each player. In the last amateur Ryu-O sen, the time limit was 30 minutes and 40 seconds of byoyomi. If we want to perform good performances in japanese tournaments, we need to train with such faster games. 2. More games can be played in a single day : in the first day in the Gent tournament, we played 6 rounds (which is the higher number of rated games played for one day up to now). This can be a good help to organize some one day tournament (only 4 possible games in one day can be not enough with a high number of players). 3. This is a first step before using a Pan-Atlantic Rating System : games in the US tournaments are played with a shorter time limit than our. (Pieter Stouten and Larry Kaufman work hard for it). Of course, you are free to organize tournaments with 45'+30" or 60'+30" (like in the EC) or even higher (for a local Meijin sen !!) :-)) Best wishes, Eric ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Eric Cheymol Get the last european Shogi news at mailto:echeymol imaginet fr http://www.imaginet.fr/~echeymol ----------------------------------------------------------------------