Hnefatafl Internet Championship

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Hagbard
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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:31 pm

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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.
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.

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.
As for game lengths, an investigation gave the statistical averages
  • 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.
Both variants suitable regarding game length. But when regarding complexity, I believe that the Copenhagen has more elements of drama.

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.

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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:24 pm

Or 3 rounds could be necessary to limit the number of games!

Example with 27 players:
Round 1 nine groups of each three players.
Round 2 and 3 the same.
In a triathlon a strong player will then have 36 games, those are 24 "easy games" and 12 tough games.
(Number of groups = QRT(Number of players)).

Just a thought experiment:
If, similar to last year, Round 1 was Sea Battle, Round 2 was Historical Hnefatafl, and Round 3 was Copenhagen, then it would all be over after 12 games - 8 "easy" and 4 tough! (27 players)

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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Sat Jun 24, 2017 9:03 am

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sqAree wrote: Great rule proposition. With these conditions I would join the tournament this year if I have time.
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.
Casshern wrote: Just a quick thought regarding the World Championships. I like poker and I follow the world series of poker every year. Like talf, there are many different poker games (variants). So for 1 month during the world series of poker they have 50+ tournaments of different games/variants, culminating with the Main Event, which is always texas hold'em. I would say that Copenhagen is our Main Event. But it would be nice to have tournaments of other popular talf games. Copenhagen, Tawlbwrdd, Sea Battle, Fetlar, Berserk, Tablut, Ard Ri, etc. Each tournament can be run at different times depending on number of players and number of rounds. At the world series of poker, the player who does the best overall is named the Player of the Year. The winner of Copenhagen would be the World Champion and we could have a triathlon winner, similar to player of the year. This is just a thought that I had. Some players may enjoy playing other variants more that Copenhagen, however I think that Copenhagen should decide the World Championship.
As I read the remarks on the upcoming World Championship, the solution could be:

World Championship.
World Championship September 1st, two rounds of Copenhagen. This would for each strong player take about 10 "easy games" and 10 tough games.
The world championship tournament runs every year September 1st.
Winner is Hnefatafl World Champion 2017 and Hnefatafl Grand Master.

American/European Championship.
One round of Copenhagen for each area.
Finally America against Europe with the top nine players from each side.
This tournament could run every second year; next time March 1st 2019.
Winners are American/European International Hnefatafl Masters.

Triathlon.
A triathlon tournament March 1st 2018. Variants Sea Battle 11x11 + Saami Tablut + Welsh Tawlbwrdd. Would probably take two rounds.
The triathlon could run every second year.
Winner is Triathlon Tafl Master 2018.

Berserk.
One round of Berserk.
The tournament could run every year around January 1st.
Winner is Tafl Berserker 2018 etc.


We already had one such triathlon May 2015.
The variants were Sea Battle 13x13 + Irish Brandubh + Saami Tablut.
Winners were crust and altti (a split win. 14 players).

We also already had Berserk tournaments:
October 2012, winner Adam (7 players).
October 2013, winner Adam (8 players).
November 2016, winner Adam (10 players).


Continuously calculated bouquet of variants' top players.
By the way the top players of each variant is continuously calculated in this page based on all the archived games:
http://aagenielsen.dk/separate_ratings.php
Right now it's
Copenhagen: Herjan
Fetlar: Plantagenêt
Berserk: Adam
Irish Brandubh: Plantagenêt
Saami Tablut: Crust
Welsh Tawlbwrdd: Crust
Historical Hnefatafl 13x13: Crust
Historical Hnefatafl 15x15: Duhawk93
Sea Battle tafl 9x9: Crust
Sea battle 11x11: Duhawk93
Sea battle 13x13: Altti
Sea battle 15x15: Herjan
Total for all games: Casshern
Last edited by Hagbard on Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Xerxes
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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Xerxes » Tue Jun 27, 2017 10:55 am

That sounds good. I like the idea of a 'fixed' calendar.

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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Thu Jun 29, 2017 9:02 am

Hagbard wrote:Berserk.
One round of Berserk.
The tournament could run every year around January 1st.
Winner is Tafl Berserker 2018 etc.
The Berserk tournament could also be right after the World Championship Tournament like last year.
After the tough World Championship, running berserk is good relaxation.

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Hagbard
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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:31 pm

If we run out of Round 1 group names, here are some Eastern European Old Norse locations:
Gàrtharíki = the Kievan Rus' state
Kønugarthr = Kiev
Hólmgarthr = Novgorod
Miklagarthr = Konstantinopel (close to Bulgaria)
Jomsborg in Poland
Aldeigjuborg = Staraya Ladoga
Eysysla = Øsel, Saaremaa

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Hagbard
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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:41 am

This email came about AI-participants:
Hello,

I registered for the World Tafl Federation Hnefatafl Championship tournament 2017.

I would like to know if people can enter with an AI or it is really restricted to human ?

Regards
Arnaud
It's important that our World Champion is a human.
But also it's important to have the opportunity to test the quality of AI tafl players.

Could we, as an experiment this year, let AI players join the tournament? Supposedly no AI is yet strong enough to make it to the top final, but should an AI happen to qualify for the top final, I propose that it should be taken off the tournament and won instead the right to challenge all Grand Masters and International Masters. Voluntary for the masters, of course, some of them even are not active, but hopefully there are masters who would take the challenge.

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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Fri Jul 14, 2017 11:33 am

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Plantagenet wrote:I prefer the Knock-out system. It's better to play a single game against one person until the final round.
In 2016 we were 33 players. Two rounds and the winner was found after 80 days.
This year the timing is tightened a bit, and the winner is expected after 70 days, that is around November 10th.

A knock-out tournament with 32 players would take 5 rounds. The winner would be expected found after 180 days, that is around March 1st next year.

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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by edmond_dantes » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:35 pm

Because I'm here soon, I want to ask? Is it allowed to play two accounts from the same IP address?
I noticed that new accounts appeared before the tournament and entered it.
Does the site have a mechanism to monitor this?

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Re: Hnefatafl Internet Championship

Post by Hagbard » Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:41 am

edmond_dantes wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:35 pm
Is it allowed to play two accounts from the same IP address? ... Does the site have a mechanism to monitor this?
No, only one user name is allowed from the same IP address. Not only for the tournament but also generally.
It's automatically not possible to create a second user name.

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