In an attempt to use the USCF-recommended team tiebreak system for our scholastic championships, our state association settled on Rule 34G2 the U.S. Amateur Team System. This tiebreak is intended for fixed-roster tournaments which is fine for our high school section in which Team A’s boards 1-5 plays Team B’s boards 1-5 in matches. However our other sections are run as Swisses.
My question is: Is the following calculation of the USAT tiebreak for non fixed-roster (Swiss) tournaments valid and true to the intent of Rule 34G2?
Using the scores of the teams with tied final points we compare each tied team’s score against each other. We do this for each round and sum the results. Rule 34G2 then says multiply by the score each team finished the tournament with but for a non fixed-roster tournament this would be unnecessary because by definition they finished the tournament with the same scores or we wouldn’t be doing this calculation in the first place!
So, we determine the scores against each other of the teams who are tied and then sum them for each round–the higher number wins on tiebreaks.
USAT is applicable to pairings where one team plays only one other team at a time (team vs team matches). If there are alternates that do not play for a round (USAT allows five members on a team but only four play in a match) then it is still a team vs team pairing and simple USAT still applies.
If you are doing an individual/team (medley) event where the individuals are paired as individuals (with the pairings set to avoid pairing teammates if the teammates are in the same section), and the team score is the sum of the individual’s scores (or the scores of the top-scoring individuals on the team, which allows a four-player team to compete straight up with a ten-player team if only the best four scores are used) then USAT is not applicable. You should then use the sum of the individual’s tie-breaks (note that many medley events have more players on a team than are used for the team’s score - in those cases the players with the best score and first tie-breaks are used even if somebody with lesser first tie-break has a better second tie-break than somebody else on that team with the same score).
This is the exact same tie-break logic used for the scholastic nationals’ team trophies.
If you try to use team vs team results for a medley event then you may end up awarding the team trophy based on the first round pairing of the best player on one team versus the ninth player on the other team when only the top four individual scores are used for the team score. That would give an incentive for teams to not bring their weaker players (because it could hurt their tie-breaks) with the result that the tournament has a smaller attendance.
It’s probably best to avoid modified median when calculating the team tiebreaks, because the number of opposing scores summed varies depending upon the player’s score.
Thank you, jwiewel. That makes perfect sense.
To answer the SwissSys question about the software calculating the tiebreaks for us. Yes, it will, but to use the USAT tiebreak system the tournament must be run as a fixed-roster tournament.
Thank you again!
These forums are a real resource and service to the chess community.
WinTD won’t even let you do modified median for team time breaks for the reason you mention. (The real killer is the even score which drops both high and low from the modified median tie break calculation, so in a seven round tournament, 6-5-4-3.5 would have a major disadvantage relative to 5-5-4.5-4.)
It is obvious that 34G2 was intended only for team-vs-team events, not for medley events. The above posts make it abundantly clear that the use of 34G2 for medley events would be totally inappropriate.