We thought we'd do the trophies differently this year. We'll offer prizes for 1st/2nd/3rd as before (and maybe 4th) but we won't share places, and instead use tie-breaks. This will mean the prize-giving should follow much more quickly after the last game is played (because Mr Onions won't have to sort how many trophies get which labels), but it does mean we will be awarding fewer prizes.
(We'll still be doing girls' prizes if we have more than one girl enter a section and where they meet a minimum score.)
So, previously we might have had five trophies awarded in one section after 6 games:
1st= PlayerA & PlayerB 5/6;
3rd= PlayerC, PlayerD and PlayerE 4/6
This season we will do something like:
1st PlayerA 5/6;
2nd PlayerB 5/6 (worse tie-break score than A);
3rd PlayerC 4/6;
4th PlayerD 4/6 (worse tie-break than C).
...with four trophies awarded and PlayerE (with a still worse tie-break) goes home with just an achievement certificate.
The tie-break procedure for Swiss System tournaments will be:
- Tie given to Sum of Progressive Scores (where there are enough rated players to enable realistic seeding), and, if that is tied:
- Tie given to player with the highest score for "sum of opponent's scores", but not including the lowest-scoring opponent (a score known as Buchholz Cut 1)
For any All-Play-Alls we will apply Sonneborn-Berger scores: summing the full score of each defeated opponent and half the conventional score of each drawn opponent.
Hope that all makes sense and is agreeable to everyone.