Depending on a number of participants the qualifications are either round-robin or swiss tournamets. 16 players qualify for the knockout finals.
The thinking time is 13 minutes without byoyomi. The games are played with handicaps according to rank difference.
The number of handicap stones depends on the rank difference D. It is 2, 3, 4 if D is between 5..9, 10..14, 15..19. For the same number of handicap stones the komi, starting from 8.5, is lowered by 2 for every additional rank difference. The maximum handicap is 4 stones and 0.5 komi.
