Standings and tie-breaks

The Standings page#

Standings shows the ranking after the rounds played. For a Swiss tournament the table has the rank, the name, the rating, the points, and one column for every tie-break of the tournament, in the order in which they are applied. The page header says Standings after round N. Players still level after every tie-break are ordered by rating and name, or share a place, as the setting Players still level share a place (Settings, Tie-breaks, advanced) says (see below).

• The Category filter above the table shows one category at a time (Categories and norms).

• The column Rds (rounds present) and the extra-points columns appear when they are switched on (Players page, Display).

• W-We and We (FIDE's expected score and the difference with the actual score, Table 8.1.2) can be shown.

• A Keizer tournament shows the Keizer table (rank, name, rating, value, Keizer points) instead of the tie-break table.

• Under a heading Not final the page warns when a game is postponed and still to be played, or when boards have no result. In a round robin, a board without a result in a round that a later, complete round has moved past counts as a postponed game, and the warning says how many there are (see Postponed games).

• A player who withdrew keeps their row, with the points scored so far, and is marked withdrawn beside the name (also in the printed standings). In a round robin the rule below can take such a player's results out.

• Print opens the standings as a document; Public page opens the published page of a published tournament.

• Right-click a player (or press the context-menu key or Shift+F10 on the name, or tap it on a touch screen) for a small menu: Players Card opens the same card the Players page and the Pairings page open, and Open the Players list goes to the Players page. The same works on the individual ranking of a team tournament; the team table has no card, so no menu.

The standings are recalculated from the games every time they are needed, so they are always in step with the results.

Standings after an earlier round#

The page always shows the standings after the latest paired round. The printed standings can be made for an earlier round by adding ?round=N to the address of the print page (Printing): only the games of rounds 1 to N count, with the byes of those rounds.

Points and scoring#

A win scores 1, a draw ½ and a loss 0 unless the Scoring page says otherwise (any values can be set, including the 3-1-0 system, but not before the first round in FIDE mode: see Tournament set-up). A pairing-allocated bye scores as set on the Scoring page; an absence scores as set there too (Byes and absences). Extra points (administrative bonus points) are added only if the tournament counts them.

Tie-breaks#

The tie-breaks decide the order of players who have the same number of points. They are set on Settings, Tie-breaks. The program follows FIDE's C.07 (Tie-Break Regulations, 1 March 2026), and the calculations are done by the same engine that pairs the Swiss rounds.

Choosing#

• Preset. A preset fills the list at once: FIDE Round Robin (DE, WIN, SB, KS), Disparate Swiss (wide rating range) (BHC1, BH, SB), Regular Swiss (BHC1, BH, PS), Old Swiss (classic) (PS, BH, SB), or Custom for any list of your own. A new tournament starts with the default of FIDE for its type: individual Swiss BHC1, BH, SB, DE, WIN, PS; individual round robin DE, WIN, SB, KS; team events MP, GP, DE, BB, SB.
• Add a tiebreak is a small builder. Step 1: pick the tie-break itself from the short list of base ones (Buchholz, Sonneborn-Berger, Progressive score and so on). Step 2: only the adjustments that tie-break accepts appear: a cut or median, Forfeits count as games, Fore, the Koya limit, for team events the score basis (match points or game points) and, for SSSC, a normalising factor (any whole number from 1). A preview shows the resulting code and name; Add tie-break puts it in the list, and is greyed out with a reason when that combination is already there. Move up and Move down change the order (the first one applies first); Remove takes one out. Without a tie-break, tied players share a place.
• The list can be changed until the first round is paired.

The available tie-breaks#

All the individual tie-breaks of C.07 can be built. The tie-break list of the builder is grouped as below; the codes are C.07's own. Where a tie-break is based on the rating, an unrated player is counted as described under Rules the program applies.

Results and games

Your own

Buchholz

Sonneborn-Berger and Koya

Progressive score

Rating-based

Team events have their own list: MP (match points), GP (game points), EMGSB, EGMSB, EGGSB, BH:GP, EDE, TBR, BBE, SSSC, BB (see Teams). They are the last group of the list.

Every code in FIDE's "Mandatory Tie-Breaks - TRF26" table can be picked, under the spelling the table uses: that spelling is also what the TRF 202 and 212 lines carry, so a file goes out and comes back with the same codes. The suffix /P means "forfeits count as games against the scheduled opponent" and exists for Buchholz, Fore Buchholz, Sonneborn-Berger, the four extended Sonneborn-Bergers (EMMSB, EMGSB, EGMSB, EGGSB), the extended direct encounters and SSSC. SSSC also takes /K<n>, with any whole number from 1: the normalising factor the competition's rules state, in place of the computed one (C.07 Article 13.4.2 b). Team events additionally offer the table's match-point and game-point forms (BH:MP/C1/P, FB:GP, PS:MP, KS:GP/L1, AOB:MP/F, WIN:MP, MPVGP and the rest).

Rules the program applies#

• Unplayed games (C.07 Article 16). A player's own unplayed rounds contribute a "virtual opponent" to Buchholz-type sums, and an opponent's score is adjusted for the games that opponent did not play. The program applies this in full, for byes, forfeits and absences. A setting on the Scoring page (Treat a round sat out as a voluntary unplayed round, advanced) chooses how absences count.

• Rating-based tie-breaks and unrated players. The rating-based tie-breaks (ARO and its cuts and medians, TPR, PTP, APRO, APPO, RTNG) are dropped when an unrated player is in the field, unless the tournament regulations say how an unrated player is counted. Say it in Settings, Tie-breaks, How an unrated player is counted in the tie-breaks, before the first round:

  • Fixed rating: every unrated player counts as the rating typed in Rating of an unrated player in the tie-breaks; while that is empty, the rating-based tie-breaks are dropped.
  • Lowest rating in the field: every unrated player counts as the lowest rating of the tournament.
  • Average rating of the rated players: every unrated player counts as that average.

  The page says which tie-break was dropped and why. The number worked out is the one written to the tie-break line of the TRF, so a checker computes the same values.

• Rating-based tie-breaks when a player has more than one rating. In a tournament that lasts more than 30 days (Settings, Tournament, Tournament lasts more than 30 days) a player can get a new rating mid-event. C.07 Article 10 advises against rating-based tie-breaks then, and when they are used anyway counts every player at their first rating, unless the tournament regulations say otherwise. That is the default. The regulations can say otherwise in two ways, both in Settings, Tournament:

  • Rating-based tie-breaks use the rating valid in round: every player counts at the one rating valid in that round, for the whole event.
  • Rating-based tie-breaks use each round's rating: each opponent counts at the rating they held in the round the game was played - a game in round 2 at the old list, one in round 7 at the new. ARO (and its cuts), TPR, PTP, APRO and APPO all follow it, and the per-round working on the public standings shows the rating each game counted at. RTNG still sorts by the first rating, and whether a player counts as unrated is still decided by it. This one overrides the round above.

  Above the standings a line says which of the three is in force.

• Players still level after every tie-break. Players still level share a place (Settings, Tie-breaks): off (the default), the remaining ties are ordered by rating and then by name and numbered one after the other; on, they all show the same place, such as 2=, and the next place is skipped. A drawing of lots (below) can settle such ties instead.

• Round robin. Buchholz and the tie-breaks built on it (the Buchholz group above) are not used in a round robin (C.07 Article 8); the page says so.

• Round robin, a player who withdrew early (C.05 6.6). A player of an individual round robin who withdrew (Withdrawn from the tournament in the registration form) or was expelled having completed fewer than half of their games (over the board; forfeits and postponed games not yet played do not count) is taken out of the standings: their results stay in the cross table and count for rating, but not for anybody's score or tie-breaks. The player is shown after the others, with - for the place and the note withdrawn, not counted. At exactly half or more the results stay and count. The TRF report always keeps every game. The rule is FIDE's and does not ask where the tournament came from: a round robin imported from a SWAR file with a player marked forfait général is read the same way. The public results site marks the row too (OpenResults).

A tie-break that cannot be calculated for a tournament is not shown as a column of zeros: it is dropped, with a note.

The working of a tie-break#

For team events the Working line under each value lists the contribution of each round (the opponent, what it was worth, a forfeit, a bye). For individual standings the same information is published to the results site (see Publishing), where a reader can ask why they stand where they do.

Manual ranking (a hand-set order)#

An arbiter may need to set an order by hand, for instance after a play-off that was decided over the board. On the Standings page, Enable manual ranking turns the tournament's order into a list that you can change:

• the order is first set from the current standings;
• each row has controls to move it up or down (Reorder);
• Re-seed from current order starts again from the computed standings;
• Disable manual ranking goes back to the computed order.

While it is on, a banner says Manual ranking is ON on every page, the print and the public page that shows a rank. When a result or a bye changes after the order was set, the banner says that the order may be out of date.

Drawing of lots#

When players are still level after every tie-break, Draw lots for ties on the Standings page puts the players of each tied place in a random order and records the result as the manual ranking above. The button is shown only while somebody is level; it asks for confirmation first. Drawing again gives the same order: the order depends on the players and on a number drawn once, the first time lots are drawn, and kept with the tournament, so a draw cannot be repeated until it pleases. Players who join a tie later, or ties that appear because a result changed, are ordered by the same number. The draw is written to the audit trail. It is not offered for Keizer or team tournaments.

External tie-break values#

A tournament that uses a tie-break the program does not calculate can add the code EXT (External value) to its tie-break list. The Standings page then shows a column in which you type, for each player, the value calculated outside the program (a number, comma or point as decimal separator; empty clears it). A higher value ranks higher. EXT is not a C.07 tie-break and is not written to the TRF. The values can be typed until the tournament is archived.

Custom tie-break formula#

When the regulations want a tie-break FIDE does not have - "forfeits lost, the more the worse" is the usual one - build it as a formula. In the builder, pick CUSTOM - Custom formula (not FIDE) under Your own. The builder then shows:

• a warning: Not a FIDE tie-break - only use it if your tournament regulations name it, with this formula;
• three starting points, each with its explanation:
  • Forfeits lost (fewer is better), the default: −1 × forfeit losses, higher is better. Of two players level on everything above it, the one who failed to turn up less often goes first. Byes and games lost at the board do not count.
  • Forfeits won count for you: +1 × forfeit wins, higher is better. The other way round, for regulations that want a forfeit win rewarded.
  • Your own formula: an empty one to fill in yourself.
• the formula as rows: a sign (+ counts for, − counts against), a weight (0 to 1000, decimals allowed) and a figure. Add a figure adds a row (up to eight); ✕ removes one.
• Which total ranks first: Higher is better or Lower is better. With a sign per row and a direction for the whole, the same figure can count either way.

The figures are counted from the results: wins, draws and losses over the board, games played over the board, forfeit wins, forfeit losses, full-point, half-point and zero-point byes (the pairing-allocated bye is a figure of its own), pairing-allocated byes received, games played and won with Black, unplayed rounds, points, Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger. The formula only multiplies and adds: nothing you type is run as code.

Add tie-break puts CUSTOM in the list; move it where the regulations put it. A tournament has one custom formula, saved with the other tie-break settings. When it sits above a FIDE tie-break, the list warns that it decides ties before any FIDE tie-break below it.

On the Standings page the column is headed CUSTOM, a line above the table gives the formula, and pointing at a player's value shows the working, term by term (for example −1 × Forfeit losses (2) = −2). Prints carry the column and the formula under the table. On the results site the column is headed CUSTOM, and its name is the formula marked Custom tie-break, not FIDE; it has no per-round working there, because it is not a per-round sum.

The formula travels with the tournament export and import. It is not written to the TRF: like EXT, it has no code there, so the tie-break line lists only the FIDE tie-breaks and the file sent for rating is the same as without it. It is for individual standings only; team events do not offer it.

Prize places#

If categories have a prize count (Categories page), the places inside a category that receive a prize are marked in the standings of that category. This is informational: the program does not allocate prizes.