Interesting theme: what to require from the Hnefatafl World Champion. Traditionally (since 2008) Fetlar and later Copenhagen has been chosen because the variant has a suitable complexity and a suitable game length for a tournament.xerxes wrote:I think it is a pity that we are reverting to two rounds of Copenhagen for the World Championship - which should perhaps be renamed the World Copenhagen Championship. If it is going to continue as a purely Copenhagen format, perhaps we could also have an annual triathlon type championship to find the World Champion across the different formats ? This could be run in the spring so as not to interfere with the September championship.
The mixed form last year (Tawlbwrdd + Copenhagen), personally I did enjoy, but I do play a lot of both.
The mixing had a price:
- the tournament was harder work for the players. With 36 players, each strong player would do 16 "easy games" and 14 tough games. With the proposition this year it's only 10 "easy games" and 10 tough games; about the minimum possible with two rounds.
- And also it was nail-biting to follow how top players had to bite the dust on the Historical Hnefatafl.
- Copenhagen: white wins after 35 moves, black after 64 moves. All in all average game length 45 moves.
- Tawlbwrdd: white wins after 29 moves, black after 42 moves. All in all average game length 35 moves.
We have three lines of variants: The Strong King games (Copenhagen, Fetlar), the Historical Hnefatafl (weak king) and the Sea Battle tafl (unarmed king).
For each line there is a strongest player, and it could be the same player or it could be three different players.
There could (theoretically) be three "sub-champions" for these lines, but it appears to be a good thing to be able to appoint one World Champion only.
For xerxes' idea of a triathlon, it would be natural to use Copenhagen + Tawlbwrdd + Sea Battle 11x11, all on 11x11 boards.
If the triathlon idea was to be used for the championship tournament, I assume it would take the same system as described above but x 3. So for the strong player 30 "easy games" of three variants and 30 tough games of three variants. 60 games... I assume that would be the minimum possible with two rounds (for 36 players).
It could be managable for the players this way: on the first day of the tournament 10 games are started (Sea Battle), five days later 10 games more (Historical Hnefatafl), and yet five days later 10 games (Copenhagen). This is Round 1. Round 2 the same way but with ten days intervals.
Winner of it all: World Hnefatafl Champion.
Would be interesting, I think.