Tie-breaking in Swiss-system Tournaments

Tie-breaking In Swiss-system Tournaments

Tie-break systems are used in chess Swiss system tournaments to break ties between players who have the same total number of points after the last round. This is needed when prizes are indivisible, such as an official "champion", trophies, or qualification for another tournament. Otherwise players often share the tied spots, with cash prizes being divided equally among the tied players.

If the players are still tied after one tie-break system is used, another system is used, and so on, until the tie is broken. Most of the methods are numerical methods based on the games that have already been played or other objective factors, while some methods require additional games to be played, etc. The idea behind the methods based on the games already played is that the player that played the harder competition to achieve the same number of points should be ranked higher.

Harry Golombek points out deficiencies in most of the tie-break systems and recommends a playoff if there is time. If not, he recommends Sonneborn-Berger and then the player who has the most wins. For Swiss tournaments, he recommends the Buchholz system and the Cumulative system (Golombek 1977:322).

For Swiss chess tournaments for individuals (not teams), FIDE recommends - in an Annex to the FIDE Tournament Regulations regarding tiebreaks - first, the result of the direct encounter(s) between the players (if any), followed by the Tournament Performance Rating, the average rating of opponents and a playoff.