Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

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  • Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

    I'm curious about what TD's are using for tiebreak formulae in Swiss events and what players think is the fairest tiebreak.
    FIDE has a recommended list of tiebreaks: https://www.fide.com/component/handb...7&view=article which starts with direct encounter then greater number of wins.
    SwissSys offers 20 options that are simply listed in alphabetical order from "average opposition" to "win count".
    Last edited by Paul Leblanc; Sunday, 24th July, 2016, 05:57 PM.
    Paul Leblanc
    Treasurer Chess Foundation of Canada

  • #2
    Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

    Originally posted by Paul Leblanc View Post
    I'm curious about what TD's are using for tiebreak formulae in Swiss events and what players think is the fairest tiebreak.
    FIDE has a recommended list of tiebreaks: https://www.fide.com/component/handb...7&view=article which starts with direct encounter then greater number of wins.
    SwissSys offers 20 options that are simply listed in alphabetical order from "average opposition" to "win count".
    I think ARO (Average rating of Opponents) or some variation, would be superior in a Swiss to number of wins.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

      Originally posted by Fred McKim View Post
      I think ARO (Average rating of Opponents) or some variation, would be superior in a Swiss to number of wins.
      Only if the ratings are reliable. Youth ratings rarely are. Professor Glicko has devised a rating system that goes beyond the work of Arpad Elo.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glicko_rating_system

      It gives both a rating and measure of the reliability of the rating. The Australian Chess Federation has switched to this system. The ACF does not want organizers to start wondering about the true meaning of the rating deviation. Instead, it uses some symbols to denote the reliability of a rating.

      Originally posted by ACF
      A rating is followed by either a !!, a !, a blank, a ?, a ?? or a g.

      A !! indicates a very reliable rating.

      A ! indicates a reliable rating.

      A blank indicates the rating is unreliable..

      A ? indicates the rating is very unreliable.

      A ?? indicates the rating is extremely unreliable.

      A g following a number indicates the player needs that many more games before he will get a rating.

      A x following a rating indicates that it has expired since the player has not played a rated game in over 10 years. If a player with an expired rating returns and plays in an ACF rated event their new rating will be closely linked and in line with their performance rating and not necessarily their old expired rating. A player with an expired rating is not an unrated player.

      Only players who have a rating followed by a ! or a !! and have a career total of at least 30 rated games are eligible for listing in the Top lists.
      A reliable rating is required to appear on Australia's top 30 players list.

      Although Glicko rating computes a rating deviation, no tiebreak is making use of this information. This is not surprising because FIDE does not use the Glicko system.

      The reliability of ARO as a tiebreak and of the Dubov Swiss pairings which is based on ARO, is related to the reliability of the ratings. The more "?" and "??" ratings, the less reliable the results will be. Dubov Swiss uses ARO internally to determine pairings. The players due for White are sorted in order of increasing ARO. http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.ht...9&view=article

      ARO is a poor choice of tiebreak with Dubov pairings. Dubov's primary objective was to ensure that equal scores will correspond to equal rating performance. The differences in ARO for equal scores in a Dubov tournament without half-point byes is going to be negligible.

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      • #4
        Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

        Originally posted by Pierre Denommee View Post
        Only if the ratings are reliable. Youth ratings rarely are. Professor Glicko has devised a rating system that goes beyond the work of Arpad Elo.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glicko_rating_system

        It gives both a rating and measure of the reliability of the rating. The Australian Chess Federation has switched to this system. The ACF does not want organizers to start wondering about the true meaning of the rating deviation. Instead, it uses some symbols to denote the reliability of a rating.



        A reliable rating is required to appear on Australia's top 30 players list.

        Although Glicko rating computes a rating deviation, no tiebreak is making use of this information. This is not surprising because FIDE does not use the Glicko system.

        The reliability of ARO as a tiebreak and of the Dubov Swiss pairings which is based on ARO, is related to the reliability of the ratings. The more "?" and "??" ratings, the less reliable the results will be. Dubov Swiss uses ARO internally to determine pairings. The players due for White are sorted in order of increasing ARO. http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.ht...9&view=article

        ARO is a poor choice of tiebreak with Dubov pairings. Dubov's primary objective was to ensure that equal scores will correspond to equal rating performance. The differences in ARO for equal scores in a Dubov tournament without half-point byes is going to be negligible.
        I have designed a variation on ARO, where there is a minimum rating used based on the AR of the top three or five rated players.

        Median and cumulative are still nice and simple choices.

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        • #5
          Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

          Originally posted by Fred McKim View Post
          I have designed a variation on ARO, where there is a minimum rating used based on the AR of the top three or five rated players.

          Median and cumulative are still nice and simple choices.
          Kind of echoing what Pierre said: Personally, I've always felt like using ratings in any way to form tiebreak metrics to be too arbitrary. I'd rather use metrics that were determined in the course of competition, than a rating that may or may not be accurate and was determined before the event in question even started.

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          • #6
            Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

            Originally posted by Tyler Longo View Post
            Kind of echoing what Pierre said: Personally, I've always felt like using ratings in any way to form tiebreak metrics to be too arbitrary. I'd rather use metrics that were determined in the course of competition, than a rating that may or may not be accurate and was determined before the event in question even started.
            I agree with Tyler (and Pierre), I try to avoid using tiebreaks that involve rating, especially with Juniors whose ratings are swinging (usually upward) dramatically. For some of the events I work, like the CYCC and NAYCC, there is some sense in emulating the event they're "feeding" into, like the WYCC. But sometimes those get adjusted too. Finally, regarding various software, like Swiss-Sys, it has some glitches with tiebreaks. A good (bad?!) example was demonstrated to me just a few weeks by Andrew Peredun (SSM Chess, host to the 2017 CYCC & CO): Swiss-Sys does NOT properly calculate Buchholz when there are "unplayed games". Brian and I had do that part manually at the CYCC.

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            • #7
              Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

              Most TD's first tie break is "head to head". Not me, but most.
              I prefer "sum of opponents scores". Simple easy.
              The player who takes a bye is at a huge disadvantage.

              Any tiebreak based on ratings, bad. Will be challenged endlessly. Don't need the headache.
              Last edited by Bob Gillanders; Monday, 25th July, 2016, 01:54 PM.

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              • #8
                Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                Originally posted by Bob Gillanders View Post
                Most TD's first tie break is "head to head". Not me, but most.
                I prefer "sum of opponents scores". Simple easy.
                The player who takes a bye is at a huge disadvantage.

                Any tiebreak based on ratings, bad. Will be challenged endlessly. Don't need the headache.
                Any tie-break method posted early should survive any challenges.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                  Originally posted by Fred McKim View Post
                  Any tie-break method posted early should survive any challenges.
                  If it is announced at the beginning of the tournament, it probably will be accepted by the players. Some organizers used some " average of opponent's performance rating after the head to head and announce it before the beginning of the last round. If the first tie break ends ( head to head ) doesn't ends up with a winner, do you think average of opponent's " performance rating" is good ? It is so hard to calculate.

                  I would go for total number of points of your opponents would be a better tie break than this average of opponent's performance rating. Please take note that it is not based on your performance rating but your opponent's average rating.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                    Originally posted by Gary Hua View Post
                    If it is announced at the beginning of the tournament, it probably will be accepted by the players. Some organizers used some " average of opponent's performance rating after the head to head and announce it before the beginning of the last round. If the first tie break ends ( head to head ) doesn't ends up with a winner, do you think average of opponent's " performance rating" is good ? It is so hard to calculate.

                    I would go for total number of points of your opponents would be a better tie break than this average of opponent's performance rating. Please take note that it is not based on your performance rating but your opponent's average rating.
                    From the FIDE Handbook

                    (a) Average Rating of Opponents
                    The Average Rating of Opponents (ARO) is the sum of the ratings of the opponents of a player, divided by the number of games played.
                    (a1) The Average Rating of Opponents Cut (AROC) is the Average Rating of Opponents, excluding one or more of the ratings of the opponents, starting from the lowest-rated opponent.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                      Originally posted by Fred McKim View Post
                      From the FIDE Handbook

                      (a) Average Rating of Opponents
                      The Average Rating of Opponents (ARO) is the sum of the ratings of the opponents of a player, divided by the number of games played.
                      (a1) The Average Rating of Opponents Cut (AROC) is the Average Rating of Opponents, excluding one or more of the ratings of the opponents, starting from the lowest-rated opponent.
                      I agree if it is the average rating of opponents ( ARO ) but in this case, the organizer used average of your opponent's PEFORMANCE rating of the tournament.

                      If it is based on your average rating of opponents, I can understand it and if I play against all the strongest players in the tournament and if I tied for first, I will know for sure that I most probably will have the highest tie break as compared with my opponents.

                      I hope I made this clearer enough

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                      • #12
                        Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                        Two possible philosophies are average rating of opponents (perhaps modified by whether the player won, drew or lost against them); or
                        performance of opponents in the actual event (modified by whether the player won, drew or lost against them). The latter is Sonneborne-Berger.
                        It seems to me that actual points earned in a tournament by the opponents makes for a better tie-break than using their pre-event ratings.
                        Direct encounter seems fair to me as the first attempt to break a tie in the case of a two-way tie between players who happened to play a game with a decisive result.
                        Paul Leblanc
                        Treasurer Chess Foundation of Canada

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                          Originally posted by Paul Leblanc View Post
                          Two possible philosophies are average rating of opponents (perhaps modified by whether the player won, drew or lost against them); or
                          performance of opponents in the actual event (modified by whether the player won, drew or lost against them). The latter is Sonneborne-Berger.
                          It seems to me that actual points earned in a tournament by the opponents makes for a better tie-break than using their pre-event ratings.
                          Direct encounter seems fair to me as the first attempt to break a tie in the case of a two-way tie between players who happened to play a game with a decisive result.
                          >>

                          I totally agree with you.

                          1st tie break - direct encounter
                          2nd tie break should be actual points by opponents OR 2nd best use average ratings of your opponents and NOT average performance rating of your opponents. That way when you know that you have played against all the strongest players ( by rating ), if there is still a tie, the likelihood of you emerging as the champion is very high ( almost close to 100% )

                          The tie break should be " easiest to calculate instead of depending on the system to calculate "

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                          • #14
                            Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                            Originally posted by Bob Gillanders View Post
                            Most TD's first tie break is "head to head". Not me, but most.
                            I prefer "sum of opponents scores". Simple easy.
                            The player who takes a bye is at a huge disadvantage.

                            Any tiebreak based on ratings, bad. Will be challenged endlessly. Don't need the headache.
                            I fully agree that a desirable tiebreak will favor those who did not take a half or full point bye.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Swiss Tournament Tie Break Formulae

                              What does Hal Bond use in his events that require a tie-break?
                              Paul Leblanc
                              Treasurer Chess Foundation of Canada

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