Renju International
Federation (R.I.F.)
INTERNATIONAL QUALIFICATION
SYSTEM IN RENJU
In order to inspire and encourage renjuplayers all over the
world to make good results in important Renju tournaments,
and in many cases distinguish players for qualification to inter-
national tournaments, an international system with internal ran-
kings between renjuplayers from the whole world is introduced.
# 1. To achieve an estimation of quality of a players momen-
tal playing strength a system with individual coefficients (rating)
is used, an adapted variant of professor A. Elo´s system.
# 2. The official international rating coefficients for all renju-
players are calculated three times per year - April 30, August 31,
and December 31 - by the International Qualification Commission
in R.I.F.
The rating is based on results from individual games between
players in renju tournaments with direct play, and with a mini-
mum time access of 60 minutes per player and game, and with
no timelimit to watch before 60 minutes.
Following types of tournaments will entitle to international rating:
- World Championships (WC) finals
- International Qualification Tournaments for WC-finals
- Open International Tournaments in connection with WC
- National qualification tournaments for WC in R.I.F. member
countries (though not the countries regional qualifications)
- European Championships
- Other open international renju tournaments, sanctioned by
R.I.F. Central Commitee.
- National Championships in R.I.F. member countries, final
tournaments
- Some other important tournaments of national charactar,
which the R.I.F. CC may decide to sanction, if those tourna-
ments are open for all RIF players.
Requests regarding sanctioning a national tournament must be
made to CC, not later then three months ahead of the tournament.
International tournaments must be announced in the official journal
"Renju World" or in other official R.I.F. periodical, or a special invita-
tion must be sent to all R.I.F. member countries, which is received
by the official R.I.F. predecessors in these countries not later then
three months ahead of the tournaments.
# 3. The qualification commissions in the R.I.F. member countries
must send a report, after each concluded tournament in their country
(which entitle the players to international rating), to the International
Qualification Commission in R.I.F. about the results in tournaments
according to #2, which includes complete tables of all individual
results in these tournaments. If this will not be done after three
months after the tournament the responsible federation ha to pay a
fee (20 usd).
In December each year, a report is also given about players, who
are no longer members in the national renju federations, where after
ratings for these players are no longer published by R.I.F.
Players from countries without a national renju federation
connected to R.I.F. can get rating from all tournaments in 2nd §
where they have the right to participate ( if not the R.I.F. GA
or CC decides else).
# 4. Only tournaments, which are played according to the
International Renjurules of R.I.F., can entitle players to an
international rating.
Only results from games played in reality will be counted.
A game is counted as "played in reality" and entitles both play-
ers to receive rating if somebody won the game or they agreed
to make a draw in the game (no "walk over"). If a break is made
in a game and one player does not appear when the play is
about to continue, the game will be counted as "played in rea-
lity" for both players regardless of which the referee´s decision
about the result in the game will be.
# 5. In the beginning of a tournament the players have start
ratings, which are equal to their the current official rating coeffici-
ents. After a tournament, which entitles the players to interna-
tional rating, all contributions (positive or negative) to a given
players start rating coefficient are summed up. All players total
ratingcontributions in tournaments finished latest April 30, August 31,
and December 31, are summed and added to their current official
rating, which give all players new official rating coefficients on the
given dates.
(see #8 about how this start rating is calculated for "new" players)
# 6. The contribution (positive or negative) to a given players
start rating coefficient in a tournament is calculated as:
F x ( Et - Ee )
where F is equal to the total contribution (positive or negative)
to a players start rating coefficient,
C is equal to 32 (e.g. the "ratingvalue" of one gained
point on a renjugame),
Et is equal to the total number of gained points by the
player in games, which entitle to rating in the tourna-
ment,
Ee is equal to the expected number of points, which
the player must achieve to receive no rating contributions
at all in the tournament.
# 7. To find Ee for a player, a calculation is made:
Ee N / ( 1 + 2^(dK/120))
dK (P(1) x K(1) + P(2) x K(2) + ....... + P(M) x K(M)) / N - K
where dK is equal to the difference between the average start
rating coefficients for the opponents and the start rating
coefficient for the player,
^ is a sign for exponent
K is equal to the start rating coefficient for the player,
P(1), P(2),..., P(M) is equal to the number of games the
player has played against the respective opponents,
K(1), K(2),..., K(M) is equal to the start rating coeffici-
ents of the respective opponents,
M is equal to the number of opponents,
N is equal to the total number of games played in the
tournament by the player.
After the calculation, F is rounded to the nearest interger.
(see the appendix for a table, which makes it easy to estimate the rating
contributions
based on results in individulal games)
# 8.a. A "new" player, who has not earlier played in a tournament
which, entitles to international rating, must play at least three games
in a tournament to be entitled to receive a start rating coefficient in
a tournament. If a "new" player has played in such a tournament
before, but has not yet received an official international rating
coefficient, his start rating in this tournament is equal to his start
rating in the last previous tournament with the achieved rating
contributions added.
b. The "new" player, will achieve a start rating coefficient (K0),
which is inside the interwall 2000 - 2400 at his first appearance in
a tournament, which entitles to international rating, if the average
rating (Ka) for all his opponents he has played with in the tourna-
ment is 2200 or higher. If Ka would be lower then 2200, then K0
is calculated in the interwall (Ka - 200) <K0 <Ka + 200).
c. Though, a player who gains 0 points in a tournament in all mat-
ches against players, who have an official international rating coeffi-
cient, will not achieve a start rating in the tournament.
No rating contributions, based on results in matches where both
players do not have a start rating, will be calculated for either player
in such matches.
d. The start ratings for the "new" players are calculated after all
matches in a tournament are finished, and are based on results
in the individual matches.
If one or several "new" players take part in a tournament, start
rating coefficients for these players must be calculated first, before
the calculations of rating contributions for all players begin.
The "new" players are considered to have the same playing
strength in the beginning of the tournament as in the end of the
tournament. This means that the rating contribution to a "new" players
start rating must be zero as long as the start rating coefficients is
higher then the lowest rating in the interwall and lower then the
highest rating in the interwall, according to point b. If the start rating
coefficient is set to the minimum level in the interwall, the player can
get a negative contributuion of rating points, and if the start rating
coefficient is set to the maxumum level of the interwall the player
can get a positive contribution of rating points.
For the "new" players: Ee Et and
K0 (P(1) x K(1) + P(2) x K(2) + ....... + P(M) x K(M)) / N - dK
dK 120 x log2 (N / Ee - 1)
where log2 indicates the logaritm with the base 2.
Though, K0 must be inside the interwall, according to point b.,
and the conditions in point c. must by be paid attiontion to.
Rating contributions are calculated for all players in a tournament,
who are entitled to start ratings, according to the formulas in §6 & §7.
# 9. A renju player, which due to different reasons has lost
his official rating coefficient, can regain his old rating again
when his national renju federation approves.
After five years absence of an internationally rated player,
from tournaments entiteling to international rating (according
to #2), official RIF-rating is no longer published.
Though, by renewed activity the player regains his old rating.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Appendix
Table based on the formulas in #6 & #7 for an estimation of ratingcontributions
in individual games.
If a player having the start rating K1, has higher (or same rating) then a
player with
the start rating K2, the rating contributions in a game rounded to an
interger and
with different results in the game would be:
rating difference K1 wins K2 wins draw
0 - 10 + 16 + 16 0
11 - 32 + 15 + 17 + 1
33 - 54 + 14 + 18 + 2
55 - 76 + 13 + 19 + 3
77 - 100 + 12 + 20 + 4
101 - 124 + 11 + 21 + 5
125 - 149 + 10 + 22 + 6
150 - 176 + 9 + 23 + 7
177 - 204 + 8 + 24 + 8
205 - 236 + 7 + 25 + 9
237 - 272 + 6 + 26 + 10
273 - 313 + 5 + 27 + 11
314 - 363 + 4 + 28 + 12
364 - 427 + 3 + 29 + 13
428 - 521 + 2 + 30 + 14
522 - 724 + 1 + 31 + 15
725 - 0 + 32 + 16
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R.I.F. Qualification Commission
Bengt Asplund
Tre Liljor 6
S - 113 44 Stockholm, Sweden
basp@algonet.se
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Decisions made by the R.I.F. GA in the meeting on May 2, 1996.
1.) Calculations are made for a number of old tournaments (see
below), from August 1988 to April 1996, and the first Official Rating
List will be valid from 1 May 1996.
The list of old tournaments for the years 1988 -1996 to be inclu-
ded and counted in the process of the rating calculations is as below:
1988
Stockholm Summer Trophy
Meijin tournament & final
4th Soviet Open team Championship
Swedish CS-final
1989
1st Soviet CS, 1st league
1st Soviet CS-final
Swedish WC Qual. final
Japan WC Qual.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Meijin tournament & final
Federation Cup in USSR
2nd Soviet CS, 1st league
Swedish CS tournament
1990
Leningrad New Year Prize
Swedish CS tourn.
2nd Soviet CS-final
Open Soviet team CS
Karepa
Swedish Open CS
Meijin tourn. & final
Tokyo Int. Tourn.
3rd Soviet CS, 1st league
1991
Leningrad New Year Prize
3rd Soviet CS-final
Swedish CS tourn.
Japanese WC Qual.
Swedish WC Qual.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Baltic Cup in Riga
Meijin tourn. & final
Tokyo Int. Tourn.
4th Soviet CS, 1st league
Linköping Open tourn.
Tallin Int. tourn.
1992
S:t Peterburg New Year Prize
Latvia CS-final
Swedish CS tourn.
4th Soviet CS final
Swedish Open in Arjeplog
Karepa
Meijin tourn. & final
Riga Independence Cup (Latvia Open)
Tokyo Int. tourn.
1st Russian CS, 1st league
S:t Peterburg New Year Prize
1993
1st Russian CS-final
Latvia CS final
Latvia WC Qual.
Armenia CS final
Swedish CS tourn.
Estonia WC Qual.
Karepa
Japanese WC Qual.
Swedish WQ Qual.
Int. WC Qual. tourn.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Meijin tourn. & final
2nd Russian CS, 1st league
Tallin New Year Prize
1994
2nd Russian CS final
Swedish CS tourn.
European Team CS
Latvia CS final
Karepa
Kyoto Memorial Int. tourn.
Armenia CS final
Meijin tourn. & final
3rd Russian CS, 1 st league
1st European CS in Tallin
1995
3rd Russian CS final
Swedish CS tourn.
Latvia CS finals
Baltic league
Japanese WC Qual.
Swedish WC Qual.
Latvian WC Qual.
Int. WC Qual. tourn.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Armenia CS final
Meijin tourn. & final
4th Russian CS, 1st league
2nd European CS in S:t Peterburg
1996
4th Russian CS final
Latvia CS finals
Swedish CS final
( "CS" means Championships, "WC" is World Championships)
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2.) In a few tournaments results are still not gathered (or incomp-
lete) by QC.
If it is impossible to get complete results from these tourna-
ments before the end of May 1996, these tournaments will be
excluded from the rating calculations.
3.) The rule in #8c. will not be used when calculating rating
contributions in tournaments played earlier then 1996. Also, the
minimum time access in games played in tournaments before
1996 is only 45 minutes / player.
4.) Such national tournaments as the yearly first league of Russia,
the Baltic league and qualification tournaments ahead of Meijin tournament
may be such tournaments to be sactioned by RIF CC.
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RIF GA in S:t Petersburg
May 2, 1996