WAGC #39 Tokyo, Japan

[Javaness2]

Ah, that's a shame. I did the same 2 years ago. I know you could say it's the player's responsibility, but I think the organisers could help by banging on doors or at least telling players to arrange a telephone wake up call.

In my opinion could say is putting it rather too mildly, it is the player's responsibility.

[hyperpape]

Mexico having 6 wins caught my eye. I wonder if that's a first for them.

[Uberdude]

Mexico having 6 wins caught my eye. I wonder if that's a first for them.

Yes, first top 10 for Mexico I believe. He did benefit from losing early though (like me 2 years ago) which meant he got easier opponents than those who won early. So he finished 8th with 6d- 4d-(dhu) 2d+ 2d+ 1d+ 3d+ 4d+ 5d+. Cristian Pop on the other hand had a poor tournament this time ending with 4 wins in 23rd, but faced considerably tougher opposition and a bad last day: 5d+ 7d- 6d- 4d+ 7d+ 6d+ 6d- 6d-.

dhu finished 26th with 4 wins: 6d-(Surin) 5d+(Mexico) 3d+ 6d-(Frejlak) 1d+ 6d-(Kuronen) 5d+ 4d-. So on paper worse than me but actually I think he did better given opposition (I got 21st with 5 wins: 6d- "1k"+ 3d-(forfeit) 1d+ 3d- 5k+ 1d+ 5d+).

Also big well done to Stanislaw Frejlak 6d of Poland who finished 4th with 6 wins, ahead of Japan! ("6d"+ 7d- 6d+ 4d+ 6d+ 5d+ 6d+ 7d-)

[Uberdude]

Ah, that's a shame. I did the same 2 years ago. I know you could say it's the player's responsibility, but I think the organisers could help by banging on doors or at least telling players to arrange a telephone wake up call.

In my opinion could say is putting it rather too mildly, it is the player's responsibility.

Yes, I agree it is the player's responsibility, but my point is the organisers could anticipate that some will fail in this and take steps to mitigate it. I see that more as a service to my opponent, who I felt bad for having travelled half way round the world only to get one fewer game than he should, than me.

Aside, I also saw players getting byes at this WAGC, I think it would be better to get some local Japanese player(s) as a ghost so everyone gets a game, surely not hard at the Nihon Ki-in. At the 2016 WAGC they had a ghost local (low dan) Chinese, but then when one player didn't turn up rather than dropping out the ghost to make an even number of participants they left her in the draw and gave out byes!

That 2016 WAGC was my first international tournament so I suffered from inexperience. For the KPMC I will likely attend later this year I have learnt and plan to:
- Get there several days before to overcome jet lag (leave from work permitting)
- Arrange wake up call with reception rather than rely on alarm/phone clock
- Complain to hotel and change room if noises stop you sleeping

Saying "Make sure you get to your game on time, you will forfeit if 20 minutes late. We suggest arranging a wake up call with hotel reception." during the opening ceremony / intro would be a good idea IMO and only takes 10 seconds.

[drmwc]

So Christian Pop did make it? I wonder if the post about him not making it was utter nonsense; or if it had a grain of truth.

[tj86430]

Saying "Make sure you get to your game on time, you will forfeit if 20 minutes late. We suggest arranging a wake up call with hotel reception." during the opening ceremony / intro would be a good idea IMO and only takes 10 seconds.

Yes, why not, but aren't all participants more or less adults? If yes, then everyone should be able to figure it out all by themselves.

If someone is participating in a world championship and can't figure out how to get to their match in time, how do they survive in everyday life?

(I suspect that if someone has difficulty achieving that, then the suggested ten second reminder wont help much)

[dfan]

If someone is participating in a world championship and can't figure out how to get to their match in time, how do they survive in everyday life?

(I suspect that if someone has difficulty achieving that, then the suggested ten second reminder wont help much)

This person may be able to answer your question. He seems to be managing okay.

[Uberdude]

but aren't all participants more or less adults? If yes, then everyone should be able to figure it out all by themselves.

No, there are usually a few children/teenagers, and some pretty young: 2 years ago the Vietnamese player was 13 and Indonesian similar. You can see the ages on the contestant page.

If someone is participating in a world championship and can't figure out how to get to their match in time, how do they survive in everyday life?

I'm a generally functional adult who goes to work Monday to Friday on time. But in everyday life I don't change timezone and get jet lag, regularly go to bed around 11-12pm, am not disturbed by a raucous frog orgy outside my window, and have a bedside alarm clock that works well (but normally wake up naturally beforehand).

With 60 players and 4 days of play that's 240 opportunities for an oversleep. So even if everyone is a functional adult mistakes happen so having a missed game or two doesn't seem so surprising. Rather than feeling smug that one wouldn't be so silly as to miss a game, I think it's more helpful to try to reduce forfeits. (I remember that story about the Japanese pro who went upstairs in the Nihon Ki-in for a rest during the lunch break and fell asleep and forfeited his game).

[Calvin Clark]

It is a perennial problem that some players oversleep, especially for the first round. It looks bad not just for the players but the organizers, too. Maybe there should be a buddy system or something more proactive.

I was also puzzled by the byes and agree that a ghost player is a good idea.

[Bill Spight]

It is a perennial problem that some players oversleep, especially for the first round. It looks bad not just for the players but the organizers, too. Maybe there should be a buddy system or something more proactive.

One thing I learned in my 20s, both from writings and (a bit) from experience, is that jet lag is serious. This is not just a question of oversleeping, but of alertness and concentration. The first day of a world championship event bringing many players together from around the world should be ceremonial. That would not completely eliminate jet lag, but would allow players' diurnal clocks to adjust to some degree. And besides, a social day would have other benefits.

----
Hint to players. Before traveling, if possible, adjust your daily schedule as much as possible to the time zone to which you are headed. You may be able to do this somewhat gradually, for instance, by getting up 30 min. or an hour earlier each day.

[Javaness2]

I certainly underestimated my the effect of jet lag when I went to my first international tournament. For me two days were not enough to shake off the effects, I needed to have 3. If I went again to such a tournament, and I really wanted to try to get a good result, I might negotiate for a flight a day earlier and pay extra for a night in a hotel. Several ifs there.
Being woken up in the night is another hazard - sometimes it's the frogs, sometimes it's the other players. Regardless, I think it's something you should probably think about yourself if you're not a morning type.
The main bads to avoid are [1] to not to miss the plane and [2 (for your association)] to not to miss the invitation email.

[hyperpape]

It looks bad not just for the players but the organizers, too.

Agreed. This is one of many cases where the interesting question for someone in charge is not "who is responsible?", but "how do we make this event better?"

[gowan]

The estimates given above are mostly too small for the time to recover from jet lag. A more accurate estimate would be #days = (0.5) x #hours of time shift. That would mean five to seven days to recover from traveling from the USA to Japan. That matches my own experience and I measured the recovery by how long it took my normal sleep times and bodily functions to return to normal. This is just an estimate and recovery time could vary from person to person. In practice if I were traveling from the USA to Japan to play in an important tournament I would try to get to Japan a week before the tournament. My personal physician has suggested to me that using melatonin can help to reset the diurnal clock.