Pairings and Tie-Breaks PDF

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7th IWICA YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP – PAIRINGS AND TIE-BREAKS
th
7 IWICA YOUTH CHESS
CHAMPIONSHIP
April 4th 2015
PAIRINGS AND TIE-BREAKS
1. Pairings
The pairings in chess tournaments are done by special pairing software. We use the SWISS MANAGER
pairing software, which for a long time is number one in the chess world and it is used for all the major
competitions such as World Championships, Chess Olympiads etc…
The most common type of tournament is the “Swiss System” tournament. It is used when the number of
players is too big for all the participants to play with each. It works in a way that the software is pairing
players with same or similar number of points. If there are odd number of players, one of them will have
no opponent for the current round, but he will receive a full point as if he had won. The system will
make sure that two players never play against each other more than once. Also, the system takes into
consideration the white/black pieces.
In a “Round Robin” tournament all players are playing against each other. It is used when the number of
participants is smaller. If there is odd number of players, one will be free each round. There are no
points given for that, since everyone will get to skip one round. We will use the Round Robin pairings in
case there is a group with only 5 or 6 participants, although that is not likely to happen.
In both pairing methods, if a player doesn’t show up for the game or he comes after the time specified
in the regulations, his opponent will win full point.
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7th IWICA YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP – PAIRINGS AND TIE-BREAKS
2. Tie-Breaks
It is unavoidable while conducting a chess tournament that many players will be tied with same number
of points, in which case different methods are applied to break the ties. The tie-breaks that are used in
Swiss pairing system are standard in whole chess community. The order in which they are used is a
choice of the organizer, who provides the information in the tournament’s General Regulations in
advance.
Tie-breaks in chess are not the easiest thing to process, and obviously some explanation of how the tiebreaks work should be given, especially for the parents who don't have experience in chess
tournaments. And here are some of the most popular and frequently used tie-break methods, from
small open tournaments to big top competitions:
Progressive score, or Cumulative score, or simply Progress
As most of the other tie-breaks, it favors the players who were longer at the top of the table, or
specifically in this case, it favors the ones who have more wins in the beginning of the tournament
rather than in the end. It is common knowledge that the second one is easier to do. How it works?
Example:
- Player A has 5 wins and one defeat, in this order: W, W, W, W, L, W. In the tournament table, his score
in each round will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5. The sum of his scores is 19.
- Player B has 5 wins and one defeat, in this order: W, L, W, W, W, W. In the tournament table, his
scores will be 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The sum of his scores is 16.
Therefore, Player A is better because he was at the top longer, and it is assumed that overall he had
better opponents.
Buchholz
Along with the Median Buchholz is the most often used tie-break in Swiss Pairing System. Buchholz,
named after its inventor Bruno Buchholz, is basically the sum of opponent's scores. The idea is that the
same result is more valuable if achieved against players with better performances in a given
tournament.
Example:
- The opponents of Player A have 28 points combined.
- The opponents of Player B have 33 points combined.
Player B is better because he played against better opponents.
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7th IWICA YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP – PAIRINGS AND TIE-BREAKS
Median Buchholz
It is the same as the Buchholz, only it cuts off the lowest ranked and the highest ranked opponent. This
eliminates the possible advantage that one of the players might get in the start.
In the end, Buchholz system is not so simple after all. More examples you can find in the FAQ section on
our website.
Sonneborn – Berger system
It is invented in 1882 and still it is applied in chess tournaments. The score in this method is calculated
by adding the sum of the conventional scores of the players he/she has defeated to half the sum of the
conventional scores of that he/she has drawn against. This tie-break is mostly used for Round Robin
tournaments.
Greater number of wins
This system favors the players who win rather than drew.
Example:
- Player A has 4 points, and his scores are W, W, L, L, W, W.
- Player B has 4 points, and his scores are W, D, D, D, D, W
Player A is better because he won 4 times, while player B won 2 times. This method is not considered to
be of great importance so it is almost never used as a top tie-break.
More games with black pieces.
It is a common knowledge that white pieces are advantage, so one of the supporting tie-breaks that is
used is this one, which favors players who played more games with black pieces.
Example:
Player A played with W, B, W, B, W
Player B played with B, W, B, W, B
Player B is better. This tie-break is used if players are equal by other tie-break methods.
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7th IWICA YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP – PAIRINGS AND TIE-BREAKS
Direct encounter
This tie-break is usually used at the back of the line, because more often there are not only two or three
players who are tied, but many, and direct encounter cannot be applied for all of them if they didn’t play
against each other. However, we will be using this tie-break, and you can read more about it in our FAQ
section.
A match
In some tournaments, if two players are tied at the top, a special tie-break is applied. The players are
playing an additional match of two extra games, on a faster time control. If the score after this match is
1-1, then one final game can decide the winner. In that game, the player with white pieces has time
advantage but he must win, while the player with black pieces has less time but only needs to draw the
game. This tie-break is a really nice way to decide the winner, but very often it is not practical because
the whole tournament is delayed because of that last match.
We hope that this article will answer lot of questions that parents, students or sometimes even chess
teachers have regarding the tie-breaks. Needless to say that the Swiss Pairing System is not perfect and
the same can be said about the tie-break methods. What an organizer can do is choose the tie-breaks,
publish them ahead of the tournament and use them in the order in which they were published.
Please visit our website to find out some more information. The FAQ section for Pairings and Tie-Breaks
is on the following address: http://iwica.com/youth/pairing.