UBC 2020 contender tournament official rules

Commentators

For the live stream, we have Nick Blasier (USA) and Masayuki "Mochy" Mochizuki (Japan), the current UBC champion and no. 1 ranked player in the world on both Giants and BMAB.

Location

La Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar. The date and location of the title fight, the winner of the contender tournament vs. Mochy (the champion), will be decided after the tournament.

Entry requirements

A participant has three different ways to qualify for an entry:

• Current top 32 on the Giants of backgammon ranking list from 2017. http://www.flintbg.com/giants.html
• BMAB grandmaster (GM3 or better). http://bgmastersab.com/PlayerStatistics.html
• Wild card for players, who can prove, under “official setup”, that they have BMAB GM level. Furthermore legendary players can be awarded a Wild Card.
• A player doesn't have to pre-register, before the 4th of February.

Prizes

• It is a winner takes all tournament, and the winner will win 5.000 euro, from our sponsor Gibraltar.
• 220*number of players will be added to the title fight between the contender and Mochy later in 2020.
• Additional sponsor prizes for the UBC champion.

Format

• Random draw opponents in each round, where the players collect points. All matches are 7-point matches.
• Day 1 (4th of February) – six rounds from 11 to midnight. After Day 1, we will narrow the field to 12 players. The top 10 ranked by points will qualify to Day 2, as well as the two lowest PR average players among the remaining field.
• Day 2 (5th of February) – six rounds from 11 to midnight. All points from Day 1 are reset to zero. After Day 2, we will narrow the field to the four semi-finalists. The top 3 ranked by points will qualify, and the best average PR player among the remaining 9 players. The average PR is decided by all matches, including the ones from Day 1.
• The semi-finals will be played the 7th of February. The schedule of the Final is undecided, either the 7th or the 8th of February, depending on how the schedule evolves. The semi-finals and final will be two 7-points matches in the match-up. In case of a tie in points, it will be the best average PR player over the two matches, who will win.

Point system

• One point for a match win.
• One point for an error rate win.
• In case of a draw in points between two (or more) players, these players will be ranked by their average PR, the lower the PR the higher ranked.

Clock settings

• 12 second delay pr. move.
• 14 minute time bank, pr. match.
• If the time bank runs out, the player will lose the match.
• In case of an unsuccessful roll (for instance a die falls out side of the board), the delay on the clock will be reset for the re-roll.

Analysis details

• There will be no push margins in terms of the winner of the Error rate battle. We will go to three decimal points on the XG analysis. In case of the extreme unlikelihood of a perfect tie on the third decimal, the error rate point will be given to the loser of the match, and both players will receive one point in the match up.
• 1st pass XG roller++
• Search interval: Huge
• Bear off database: 15 checkers over 6 points
• ME-tabel: Kazaross XG2
• Check mark in "Use Opening book", "Do not roll Opening book moves", "Wrong Double/Take is an error".
• No check mark in "do not calculate resign errors" & "Error compared to XG".

Dice

• No baffle box, players have to use a cup to roll themselves. This is for video quality and transcription.
• Dice on checkers. Legal dice can land on the playing surface in their right side of the board, AND on top of the checkers in their right side of the board, as long as the dice are facing upwards with no uneven angles. If the dice land anywhere else, it will be illegal dice.
• Both dice has to be rolled at the same time, obviously.

Transcription

Transcription service, will be provided by the company Deeper Solutions, with their revolutionary technology, which auto-transcribes the match through a video feed. There will be manual transcription service laborers available, in case the new technology fails. If any matters should arise, outside of this rules set, the tournament director Tue Rasmussen, will decide on the course of action.

The tournament direction has the right to change these rules until the tournament starts.