About
LinksEGF Pair Go Points System
Qualification of European Pairs for the World Amateur Pair Go Championship
The Objective
The objective is a system that:
1) allows EGF members to nominate their pair individually,
2) gives large EGF members WP places more often,
3) gives EGF members with strong pairs WP places more often,
4) does not too much disadvantage to countries that cannot afford to send pairs to the EP
regularly due to financial or geographical reasons,
5) still works if no European Pair Go Championship takes place,
6) remains stable if Europe gets more or less than the usual 9-10 places,
7) is easy to maintain and does not require financial support,
8) the character of the European Pair Go Championship does not need to be changed,
9) support the aims and spirit of the World Amateur Pair Go championship as far as we
understand them from its sponsors, the Japan Pair Go Association,
10) helps the spread of Pair Go.
1 Candidate list
The EGF maintains a candidate list of all member countries to decide
on the European participants for the World Amateur Pair Go Championship (abbreviated as “World
Pairs”). Points are awarded to candidates based on rating and membership details of the
previous year and on the results of the European Pair Go Championship (abbreviated as European
Pairs) in the current calendar year.
Points gained by member countries according to their size
In every calendar year, the minimum of the following two numbers is called the size of
a member country:
(i) The number of individual members this country paid for in EGF membership fee in the
previous year. If the country paid the minimum membership fee, then the number is the number of
members equivalent to the minimum. If the member country did not pay its fee by 31st December
of the previous year, this number is zero.
(ii) Twice the number of players of that country in the last issue of the full European rating
list valid on 7th December of the previous year with Go Rating at least 1000. The nationality
of a player on the rating list is decided on by the rating list maintainer. Every player on the
rating list can have only one nationality. Mistakes or gaps in the rating data can only be
corrected if they are reported to the rating list maintainer by 31st December of the previous
year.
Every member country of the EGF receives points for the candidate list according to its size,
using the following formula:
Points gained at the European Pair Go Championship
The European Pairs should take place once a year if the EGF finds an organizer.
At the European Pairs, the member countries are ordered by the final placement of their
best-placed pair. Any pair can earn points for their country if the organizer of the European
Pairs accepts that pair as being from that country. All pairs other than these are ignored for
the purposes of ordering the member countries. Points for the candidate list are awarded to the
member countries according to this ordering and the following table:
Place 1: 60 points
Place 2: 51 points
Place 3: 43 points
Place 4: 36 points
Place 5: 30 points
Place 6: 25 points
Place 7: 21 points
Place 8: 18 points
Place 9: 15 points
Place 10: 13 points
Place 11: 11 points
Place 12: 9 points
Place 13: 7 points
Place 14: 5 points
Place 15: 3 points
Place 16: 1 point
If places are shared, then so are the points. Fractional points are truncated.
2 Nomination for the World Pairs
If the EGF is asked to nominate member countries for
the participation in the World Pairs, the following rules apply to the set of available
countries for the year in question:
a) Rotation Places (determined first)
One country, if existent, is chosen using the following criteria:
1. Any country requested to be nominated by the organizers of the World Pairs.
2. The country did not participate in the World Pairs during its last 7 years as an EGF member
in good standing.
3. More years of being an EGF member in good standing have passed since the country’s last
participation in the World Pairs.
4. The country has more points in the candidate list.
5. The last participation of the country at the European Pairs was more recent.
6. The country gained more points with their last participation at the European Pairs.
7. Lottery.
b) Candidate List
The countries for all remaining places are successively chosen using the following
criteria:
1. Any country requested to be nominated by the organizers of the World Pairs.
2. The country has more points in the candidate list.
3. More years of being an EGF member in good standing have passed since the country’s last
participation in the World Pairs.
4. The last participation of the country at the European Pairs was more recent.
5. The country gained more points with their last participation at the European Pairs.
6. Lottery.
c) Special Cases
A member country that has the right to nominate a pair may nominate any pair
acceptable to the organizers of the World Pairs. If a nominated member country renounces or is
unable to present a pair that meets the requirements for participation in the World Pairs, that
country will be removed from the set of available countries of the year in question and the
selection procedure above will be restarted.
If the EGF finds time is too short to use the rules above, the EGF can also select appropriate
countries for available places.
d) Selection for Handicap Pair Go tournament (update 2026)
This tournament has been introduced just recently and does not take place each year.
If there is an invitation for handicap tournament then this is an invitation tournament from the sponsor, even if the sponsor asks for suggestions from the EGF.
No points from the IAPGC invitation table are removed for them.
In case the EGF can choose, representatives (can be also individual players) are selected by active players, such as e.g. EGC host, EYGC host, European Pairgo Championship organisers; but also countries active in the development of Pairgo; EGF member countries can make suggestions whom to send.
The commission for European tournaments brings the selection as a suggestion to the EGF board, who will have the final decision.
Reduction of candidate list points
All member countries that are finally nominated for the participation in the World
Pairs will have their number of points in the candidate list reduced by the qualification
threshold. If their number of points gets below zero, it is set to zero.
The qualification threshold of the particular year is the number of points of the highest
placed country in the candidate list that was never asked to participate at the World Pairs
during the process of determining the representatives of Europe at the World Pairs via 2b.
3 Provisional regulations
The candidate list was initialized with the real data
starting from 1991.
For the purpose of initialization the qualification threshold in 2d was determined as the
number of points of the highest placed country in the candidate list that did not participate
at the World Pairs in the year in question.
Since the European rating list dates back to 1996 only, the following assumption was made for
the purpose of this initialization: For a member country, the first year yielding a positive
number in 1a(ii) was determined. This number was assumed to be the same for all earlier
years.
Gaps in old data of 1a (i) were treated similarly: If in a given year, a country was already an
EGF member, with the number of individual members paid for being unknown to the EGF, the number
of the next year with data available was taken.
This system came into effect in 2003.