What are Tie-Breaks?

A visitor asked what are WP, SB and PS as can be seen in the chess results as the above. Surely for someone new to a chess tournament needs to learn a lot like understanding the pairing and the results. GiLoCatur also experienced the same thing before. It is good for chess newbies especially the parents to learn and understand chess terms. Don't be ashamed to ask as a Malay idiom (betul ke?) says "Malu Bertanya Sesat Jalan".

GiLoCatur is not an expert in chess terms but will try to explain them based on what known. So, if my explaination or fact is not right please someone correct me.

SNo. in the above chart is the seeding or starting rank number. Normally, the rank is based on the chess rating. For local chess tournaments, it is often based on the national ratings. The latest national ratings is based on July edition. Click here if you want to check one's national ratings. National ratings can be earned when partipating in a nationally-rated tournament. Beside national rating, there is FIDE-rating which only can be earned when participating FIDE-rated chess tournaments which are not many organized in Malaysia. For players who do not have ratings, they will be ranked (sorted) based on alphabetical order.

SB refers to Sonneborn-Berger. It is a tiebreak system. In simple words, if you win againts a player his or her score will be added, if you draw half of your opponent's score will be added. Therefore, you will get more points in SB if the opponent that you defeats wins more.

PS refers to Progressive Score. It will calculate your points based on a progress table. For example, if your results are - win, loss, win, draw then your progressive scores are 1, 1, 2, 2.5. Thus your PS will be 6.5, the sum of the progressive scores.

rat refers to your ratings (national or FIDE) and TPR refers to Tournament Performance Ratings which is your earned ratings in that particular tournament. So, if you win againts higher rated you will earn higher TPR, but if you lose to lower-rated or unrated it will decrease it.

Hopefully, the above explaination helps and provides better understanding for parents or new players in a chess tournament. You can check this link to learn further.