How to read a chess tournament table

Which columns appear varies: a club table usually shows points and Buchholz only, an official one shows every tie-break named in the regulations.

The least obvious part of the table is the round cell. It is three elements in a row:

The notation:

• w played White, b played Black;
• 1 win, 0 loss, ½ or = draw;
• + a win because the opponent did not appear, − a loss for not appearing;
• U or BYE a bye with a point awarded;
• an empty cell means the round was not played.

So 7b½ reads as «played number 7 with Black, drawn», and 0+ as «there was no opponent, a win by forfeit recorded». More on byes - byes and forfeits.

These are two different documents and worth telling apart.

• The Swiss table - rows are players, columns are rounds. Each cell records who they played that round and how it went. Everybody has different opponents, so the table is linear.
• The round-robin crosstable - a square: players along both the rows and the columns, with the result of their game at the intersection. The diagonal is dashes, since nobody plays themselves - the round-robin system.

In a crosstable any game is easy to check: find where the two names intersect. In a Swiss table you have to look up the opponent's number in the cell for that round.

1. 1. Find your row by name or by starting number.
2. 2. Check every round cell: the right opponent, the right colour, the right result.
3. 3. Add the points up: a win is 1, a draw 0.5, a loss 0. The sum should match the points column.
4. 4. If you doubt the coefficient, find the rows of all your opponents and add their scores. That is the Buchholz.
5. 5. Compare yourself with your neighbours on the same score: if the totals match but the places differ, the difference must be explained by the tie-breaks named in the regulations.

If something does not add up, tell the arbiter before the prize-giving rather than after: once the prizes are handed out, results are no longer corrected - arbiting.

On paper the table is updated by hand after every round: the arbiter enters the results and recomputes the sums. That is the ten to fifteen minute pause that drags evenings out.

In the Vibe Chess app the table is live: the players record the result, the opponent confirms it, and after each round the points and the Buchholz recompute themselves. Participants see it on their phones and the organizer can put it on the screen in the hall - running an event without paper.