For indivisible prizes, such as trophies,
championship titles, free entries, etc., the following Tiebreak systems are
used to break ties among players with the same final score.
What
if several players are tied at the end with the same score?
The tiebreak systems used are:
The computer adds up the scores of
each tied player's opponents (a half‑point is
counted for any rounds that the opponent did not play), and disregards the
least-significant (usually the lowest scoring) opponent (the Modified Median System). The player with the highest total has played
opponents with the best scores in the tournament‑‑ in theory, the
hardest opponents.
If the players are still tied, the
low scoring opponents’ scores are counted as well (Solkoff Tiebreaks).
If the players are still tied, the
computer then adds each player's score to his/her score from the previous round
(the Cumulative System). Thus, if a player won his first game, lost
his second, won his third, won his fourth, and drew his last game, his score in
the tournament would be 1 point after round 1, still 1 point after round 2 (he
lost), 2 points after round 3, 3 points after round 4, and 3 ˝ points after round 4. His Cumulative Tiebreaks
would be 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 3˝ = 10˝.
To break ties among players who are
still
tied with the same Cumulative Tiebreaks, the computer then repeats this process, but it
adds all the Cumulative Tiebreaks of the opponents of each tied player
(the Cumulative Tiebreakers of the
Cumulative Tiebreakers, or CTBCTB system).
This almost always breaks the tie. The Cumulative System rewards players who win
earlier when the opponents are easier, then face tougher opponents.