Tournament Rules
Carcassonne World Championship
Who can take part?
- The reigning World Champion. This person has the right to defend the title but no obligation to do so. In case the world champion cannot or will not defend the title, no player will fill this position.
- The national champions of each participating country. If the winner cannot attend or has already qualified, then the runner-up may attend in their place. Each player may participate in only ONE national championship per tournament season. In principle only someone who either has the appropriate nationality or lives temporarily / permanently in the organizing country may participate there. This last condition should prohibit "tournament tourists" taking part in a national championship. If unauthorized exceptions to this rule are being made by a national tournament organizer, the corresponding player is not permitted to qualify for the World Championship through this tournament and the next ranked player who fulfills the requirements will be invited instead.
- The winner of the 'All Other Countries' online tournament. This tournament is basically a national championship exclusively for all those players in whose country an own national championship does not exist. Therefore only people of this group and no one else may participate in this tournament! If the winner cannot attend or has already qualified, then the runner-up may attend in their place.
- The winner of the MSO online tournament. If the winner cannot attend or has already qualified, then the runner-up may attend in their place.
- The winner of the CCL online tournament. If the winner cannot attend or has already qualified, then the runner-up may attend in their place.
- A selected player from the top 3 nations of the WTCOC online tournament. Each of the top 3 nations may select one of their team to receive a qualification position, by a method of their choosing.
Players from Russia and Belarus please note the special restrictions when taking part!
Publisher Hans im Glück and Spielezentrum reserve the right to let other people take part as well (because they have qualified in another way or it was decided that they have earned a wildcard). Important: in case of an uneven number of players at the beginning of the world championship final it is decided by the tournament director alone who will play to get an even number; there will be no raffle or so (anymore) to determine that!
Rules of the Final
During the Carcassonne World Championship Final we will stream the event and take photos for press release and social media channels. All players taking part agree to this automatically.
The standard Carcassonne box is used for all games. Also in all games chess-clocks will be used. Each player may take up to 15 minutes for his own game - if he uses up all his time, then the player loses. The player activates the other player’s clock as soon as he finishes his move - this means AFTER he calculated the points (own and from the opponent). Tiles are set finally as soon as a player let them go - players are not allowed to change their decision of placement of tiles (and of course meeples) after they let them go.
The tournament uses the Swiss system, applying the Buchholz-method (or Solkoff) as a tiebreaker (the lowest result of an opponent is discarded) in a starting preelimination phase. The preelimination is a 6 round tournament at two player tables.
After these six rounds the best eight players play a quarter-final game (QF1: place 1 vs. place 8, QF2: place 2 vs. place 7, QF3: place 3 vs. place 6 and QF4: place 4 vs. place 5). The starting player is the player with the better results in the preelimation.
The winners of the quarter-final games play the semi-final games. In this round the winner of the 1st quarter-final (QF1) plays against the winner of the 4th quarter-final (QF4) and the winner of the 2nd quarter-final (QF2) against the winner of the 3rd quarter-final (QF3). The winners of the semi-final games play the final, the losers play a game for rank 3. The starting player in the elimination rounds is the player with the better results in the preelimation.
IMPORTANT: in the unlikely case of a draw / tie in all games (preelimination, quarter-final, semi-final and final round) the starting player always loses automatically!
Explanation Swiss system:
In the preelimination games the number of victories will be counted. We will use the Buchholz (Solkoff) method to resolve ties. This means that for every player the number of victories of his opponents will be summed up. For this the result of the weakest opponent will be discarded. If there are still ties, then we use the Bucholz (Solkoff) method with discarding the best and the worst result. In the case of ties with this method, the difference of victory points over all five games will be summed up and used as tie-breaker.
The schedule for the first round will be determined by drawing lots. After that the schedule will be determined by the current ranking, where the players ranked 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6 and so on will compete against each other. In addition to that we will take care that players do not have to play against each other twice (if possible). Then the next suitable player in the ranking will be determined (this will be done actually by a software solution). In every game the starting player is the player that has started fewer times. In case of ties the player placed at position one in a game by the software is the starting player.
Rules of the Carcassonne Games - Explanations / Clarifications:
All games are played with the basic Carcassonne game only. Depending how old your own game is please be aware of the following: cities with two tiles give four points (not two). The Farmer’s value is calculated like this: for every meadow the number of farmers is calculated and a player with the most farmers receives 3 points for every city at that meadow. Note that every player can get the points for one city in this manner more than one time!
Clarification for the Game Play:
During your opponent's turn you may choose and look at your next tile. But beware: the new tile has to be at anytime above the tabletop, so it is clear which one you've chosen. Make sure, you don't mistake your chosen one with another! You may look at it (secretly), but at the beginning of your turn before you add it to the "board", let your opponent have a look at it.
In case of an "edge of the table" event you can stop the chessclocks and rearange the tiles in the other direction to get more space. If this is not working we will provide another table to solve the problem.
When placing a tile and scoring points with it you always have to place a meeple from your supply prior to counting the points. This ensures you show your opponent that you have a meeple available. You have to keep the meeple(s) in your supply visible at all times so it's not allowed to hold them in the hands or hide them in any way.
General Rules:
You have to count the tiles each time before a new game starts to make sure they are all there because in the past it has happened that tiles accidentley dropped in the breaks between the games.
You can alway stop the chess clocks to discuss a problem with your opponent. If you can't solve it or if you have any questions you can always call for a referee. In this case just raise a hand and a referee will come to your table.
You have to play with the meeples that are provided at your table. The none starting player has the choice of colour. Only if both players agree you are allowed to play with your own meeples. Please be aware that at the table(s) where we are streaming the games your own meeples are never allowed and the tournament director decides which colours are used (due to the better visibility of some colours on screen).
It's not allowed to make any private notes during the game (like counting tiles on a sheet of paper). If you want to document your game for private use you are allowed to make a video but only as long as your opponent agrees and nobody will be disturbed by this. It is also not allowed to talk to visitors during the games! Due to the fact that we have players from over 40 countries and therefore a lot of different languages we could otherwise not prevent the possibility that visitors give unfair advice to players. You can of course talk to your opponent and the referees anytime during a game and you are free to talk to everyone else again afterwards.
This page was last updated March 19th 2025.