lichess.org
Donate

changing the tiebreak in swiss events

EDIT: SONNEBONN-BERGER IS THE CURRENT TB SYSTEM IN LICHESS SWISS TOURNEYS.

Sonnebonn Berger is a very solid tiebreak system in round robin tournaments. However, in swiss, I think it finds little purpose.It exceedingly emphasizes on the points of a player's opponent in the initial stages of the tournament. It also discounts the strength of opponents a player faces in general. To put things into perspective, in a tournament which was hosted by NM Chess-Network, I scored 7 out of 9 and lost only to the guys who finished first and second with 9/9 and 8/9. However, since it's an SB tiebreak and the points of the opponents whom I lost to doesnt count, I ended up having the worst tiebreak among the huge pack who ended up with 7. I think it is unfair on players who played well against equal opposition and won, got to a higher level, and lost to a top seed. It doesnt give that extra incentive of having beaten the equal-slightly better players and playing in the top boards against better players.
In Swiss tournaments I think Sum of [all] Opponents' Scores makes much more sense. In an all play all this doesn't work.
Yes, I forgot to add that..Buchholz might've been much better for swiss events imo
Form the FIDE handbook
handbook.fide.com/index.phtml?chapter=C02

"11.5.3. The tie-break in Swiss Tournaments:
11.5.3.1. The Buchholz Cut 1 (the sum of the scores of each of
the opponents of a player reduced by the lowest
score of the opponent)
11.5.3.2. The Buchholz System (the sum of the scores of each
of the opponents of a player)
11.3.2.1. The greater number of wins.
11.3.2.2. The greater number of wins with Black (unplayed
games shall be counted as played with White). "

So it should be Buchholz minus 1. The minus 1 is to neutralise the effect of a bye.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.