The North American Ing Cup
Tournament Format
The Ing Cup is run as a four-round Swiss tournament with a sixteen player field. Players with similar records are paired against each other and
a perfect score is required to win the event. Games are played under the Ing Goe rules, which have several special features:
- Both stones and empty intersections count as points
- Repetition of a full-board position is forbidden ("superko")
- Disputed positions may be played out rather than adjudicated
- Multiple stone suicide is permitted
- A komi of 8 points (equivalent to 7.5 points under the Japanese rules).
Except for very unusual positions, the Ing rules are equivalent to the AGA rules.
A translation of the Ing Rules is available online and a more thorough discussion of the Ing rules was published
by Janice Kim, Michael Simon and Phil Strauss.
Games are played with 90 minutes of thinking time per player, plus an additional byo-yomi with 5 periods of 60 seconds.
Qualifying
The field of sixteen players is selected (as of 2006) according to several criteria:
- The top five players from the previous year's tournament
- Six players selected from players active in AGA tournaments (generally two players from each of the AGA's three regions)
- Youth player: winner of the Ing-Redmond Cup
- President's pick: selected by the AGA president
- Two representatives from Canada
- One representative from Mexico
The youth player and president's pick have been recent additions to the selection criteria. Other selection processes have been used in other years.
Each player must be a citizen or permanent resident of the country they represent and be
members of their national go association. The AGA requires that its representative have played at least ten rated
games against players 6 dan or stronger over the past twelve months. The Canadian Go Association selects its
representatives through a national tournament.
In recent years, a Mexican representative has not been available and the AGA has selected an alternate player.
The five players selected from the previous year's tournament are seeded into the tournament's top positions. The remainder of the field is ordered according to their AGA rating.
Final Standings and Tiebreaks
Final placings the number of games each player has won (their primary score). Ties between players are resolved according to:
- A1: the sum of defeated opponent's primary scores (SDOS)
- A2: the sum of other opponent's scores (SOOS)
- B1: the sum of defeated opponent's A1 scores
- B2: the sum of other opponent's A2 scores
Prizes
- 1st place: $2000
- 2nd place: $1500
- 3rd place: $1000
- 4th place: $500
The top five players in the tournament are automatically seeded into the following year's tournament.
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