- 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.
