September 2026

Beginner Tak Tournament

Information Sheet

Welcome to the Beginner Tournament, an entry-level tournament for Tak organized by the US Tak

Association (

ustak.org

)

Registration begins August 31st 2026 and ends September 5th 2026

Tournament begins September 7th 2026 and lasts 6 weeks on average

●

You do NOT need to be a member of the US Tak Association to participate.
●

You do NOT need to be a resident of the US to participate.
●

Registration is 100% FREE!

Sign Up Here

All new players get an opportunity to compete in these Beginner tournaments. However, once you

receive a merit-based prize from one of these, you graduate out of this category, but you are then

more than welcome to compete in the higher-level tournaments as well as any “Opens” that the

USTA offers.

Games will be scheduled through the

Tak Talk Discord

in the #tournaments channel. Your matches

and running points accumulation will be pinned there as well.

Games will be played on

https://www.playtak.com

. If you have never played Tak at all or never played

on that site, please familiarize yourself with it before your ﬁrst match. A quick primer for the game

can be found in this 2 minute

How To Play Video

. Reach out via the Discord if you need any help with

anything.

Tournament Structure:

The tournament starts with Round Robin groups, meaning you will play 1 match (2 games) against

each other person in your group in an effort to accumulate points. There are 4 total points available

in each match: 2 for each game win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. The player in each group with the

most points after the Round Robin stage will move on to a single elimination ﬁnals bracket.

Merit Prizes

1st Place - First pick of the following:

●

Wolf and Hawk metal capstones

from Worldbuilder’s Market
●

Beginner Travel Tak Set

2nd Place - Remaining prize from above

Participation Prizes

Just for completing all your matches, you will be entered into a drawing for participation prizes:

●

High-level game review (2 available) - a high-level player will evaluate your game and provide

constructive feedback.

Example

●

Paperback version of

Mastering Tak: Level I

(2 available)

Rules

Standard Rules

are used except where modiﬁed below:

●

Games are to be played using the “New Game” function on

playtak.com

. Select the “Beginner

Tournament” preset dropdown to populate the settings as follows:
- ○
  
  Game Type
  
  is Tournament
- ○
  
  Board Size
  
  is 6x6
- ○
  
  Time
  
  is 15 +10
  - ■
    
    Each player starts with 15 minutes on the clock. Each move completed by a
    
    player adds an additional 10 seconds to that player’s time.
- ○
  
  Komi
  
  is 2.
  - ■
    
    Komi is a value added to the second player’s (Black’s) ﬂat count score in the
    
    event that a game ends via board ﬁll or material exhaustion (i.e. Does not end in
    
    a road). Komi is used to offset ﬁrst player advantage.
- ○
  
  The only parameter you will need to enter yourself is your opponent for the game.
●

Each match consists of 2 games, where the players alternate starting colors. The colors of the

ﬁrst game of a match should be randomized.
●

Please coordinate your matches on Discord in the #tournaments channel.
- ○
  
  Threads will be created to help organize Round Robin groups.
●

To keep to schedule, players must complete 2 matches per week unless directed otherwise by

the Tournament Director.
●

Tiebreaks for Round Robin stage will go in the following order:
- ○
  
  Head-to-head results
- ○
  
  If there remains a tie after this, 2-game Blitz matches of 3 +5 time controls on size 6
  
  board, with alternating starting colors will be played until a winner is decided.
●

Tiebreaks for the Single Elimination stage will be Blitz matches as outlined above until a

winner is decided.
●

USTA

Tournament Default Policies

apply.

September 2026 Beginner Tak Tournament Information Sheet

Tournament Structure:

Merit Prizes

Participation Prizes

Rules

September 2026

Beginner Tak Tournament

Information Sheet