Let us work out how to read a chess tournament table: what formats there are, what the cryptic abbreviations in the columns mean and why, on equal points, one player finishes above another. Inside: the columns explained, the result symbols and the tie-break order on different platforms.
Every tournament system has its own table format. Understanding the differences helps you find your way around any results page, from Lichess Swiss to the Aeroflot Open and the Russian championship Superfinal.
Everyone plays everyone once or twice. Where the rows and columns cross is the result of that game: 1, ½ or 0. The row total is the player's score. The main tie-break is the Sonneborn-Berger score. A recent example: the 2025 Russian championship Superfinal (round robin, 11 rounds, 12 players).
Not everyone against everyone, but only against players on similar scores. The columns: place, starting number, name, rating, points, tie-breaks (Buchholz, BH-Cut1, SB, progressive score, performance). There is no crosstable grid - instead there are result columns by round, naming the opponent and their number. The standard for open tournaments.
A bracket-style tournament chart. Each round is a mini-match of 2-6 games with a tie-break at rapid, blitz and Armageddon if the score is level. The standard for the FIDE World Cup and for the world championship in knockout format. The table shows the pairings, the score by game and who goes through.
It has special columns: match points (MP) and game points, or board points (GP). Match points: a win by 3:1 or 2½:1½ is 2 points, a 2:2 draw is 1 and a loss is 0. GP is the sum of the results by board. The main tie-break at the Olympiad is the Olympiad Sonneborn-Berger: points against an opponent × that opponent's match points, discarding the worst match.
What each abbreviation means and which tournaments it is used in. The notation follows FIDE Handbook C.07 and the Swiss-Manager standard.
| Code | Meaning | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Rk / No. / Place | The final place | Every kind of table |
| Sno / SNo | The starting number from the pairing | A Swiss |
| Name | The player's full name | All |
| RTG / Rating | FIDE Elo or a national rating | All |
| FED | Federation (the three-letter country code) | International tournaments |
| Pts / Points | The total score (1, ½, 0) | All |
| BH / Bu | Buchholz - the sum of all your opponents' points | A Swiss |
| BH-C1 / Bu-1 | Buchholz Cut-1 - without the worst opponent | Swiss, the FIDE standard |
| BH-M / Median | Buchholz without the best and worst opponents (Harkness) | Swiss, historically in the USA |
| SB / S-B | Sonneborn-Berger - a weighted sum | Round robin (main), Swiss (secondary) |
| Progr / PS | Progressive Score - the sum of the running totals by round | Children's Swisses, USCF |
| Perf / TPR | Tournament Performance Rating - the calculated rating for the event | Opens, IM and GM norms |
| ARO / AROC | Average Rating of Opponents (Cut-1) - the average rating of your opponents | A Swiss with a mixed field |
| WIN | The number of wins, forfeits included | FIDE-recommended secondary |
| DE | Direct Encounter - the individual game | All |
| Koya | Points against opponents on ≥50% | Round robin |
What each symbol means and how it affects the scoring. This is the FIDE standard; Russian-language tables sometimes add their own marks on top of it.
| Symbol | What it means |
|---|---|
| 1 | A win with White or Black |
| ½ / 0.5 | A draw |
| 0 | A loss |
| + | A win by default (a forfeit win - the opponent did not turn up) |
| − | A loss by default (a forfeit loss) |
| BYE / b | Missing a round with no opponent. A full bye is 1 point, a half-bye is ½ a point |
| PAB | A Pairing-Allocated Bye - 1 point with no game when the number of players is odd |
| * | The game was not played, was adjourned or did not take place |
| K | The player withdrew - the notation used in Swiss-Manager |
Heinz Herzog, Austria, since 2006
Audience: Worldwide, over the board · Tie-break: As set by the tournament regulations
The main global repository, with more than 40,000 tournaments. Closely integrated with Swiss-Manager: export at a single press. The standard for large opens from Gibraltar to the Aeroflot Open.
The Russian Chess Federation
Audience: Russia · Tie-break: As set by the regulations, most often BH-C1
The federation's official rating portal, with sections for ratings, players, tournaments and an API. Every Russian rated tournament is published here. An API is available for integration.
Lichess.org, open-source
Audience: Online · Tie-break: Sonneborn-Berger only
A minimalist table: place, name, rating, points, SB. It uses bbpPairings as its pairing engine; a full bye counts as a virtual draw in SB and a half-bye is not counted.
Chess.com
Audience: Online · Tie-break: BH-C1 → BH → SB → DE → Wins → Wins Black → AROC-1 → Rating
Eight successive tie-breaks - the most detailed list among the online platforms. Available through a club account.
vibechess.ru
Audience: Russian clubs, schools and networking events · Tie-break: BH, BH-C1, SB
A free Russian platform. Registration through a Telegram bot, a mobile arbiter view, PDF and CSV export and a public live table for spectators with a QR code.
When players are level on points, the order in which the tie-breaks are applied differs between FIDE, Lichess, Chess.com and the national federations. The higher a tie-break stands in the regulations, the «stronger» it is.
| Platform / regulations | Order of application |
|---|---|
| FIDE (Swiss, homogeneous rating) | BH-C1 → BH → DE → AROC → Wins → Wins Black → SB |
| FIDE (Swiss, mixed rating) | BH-C1 → BH → SB → Progressive → DE → Wins → Wins Black |
| FIDE (round robin) | SB → DE → Koya → Wins |
| Lichess Swiss | SB only, with a virtual opponent |
| Chess.com Swiss | BH-C1 → BH → SB → DE → Wins → Wins Black → AROC-1 → Rating |
| The Russian federation (by default) | Set by the regulations of the particular tournament, typically BH-C1 → BH → SB |
| USCF (USA) | Progressive → Direct Encounter → BH-M (median) → BH |
The main thing in a table is the final total. A win is 1, a draw ½ and a loss 0. The players are listed in descending order of points.
Where players are level on points, the places are decided on the tie-breaks - usually Buchholz (BH), the cut Buchholz (BH-C1) and Sonneborn-Berger (SB). The earlier a tie-break comes in the regulations, the «stronger» it is.
The header of the table, or the tournament regulations, gives the order: TB1, TB2, TB3. That is the sequence in which they are applied. FIDE recommends Buchholz Cut-1 as the main tie-break for a Swiss.
1 is a win, ½ a draw, 0 a loss, + a win by default (a forfeit win), − a loss by default, BYE/b missing a round. PAB is a Pairing-Allocated Bye, worth 1 point with no game.
This is the calculated rating at which the player played the tournament. It is used to confirm master, IM and GM norms. It is worked out as «the average rating of your opponents plus a bonus from the FIDE table for the percentage of points scored».
If the TPR is significantly higher than the starting rating, the player played the tournament above their usual level. That is the answer to «how did they do» - beyond simply the final place.
The Vibe Chess tournament app generates a public tournament table automatically: a unique link, a QR code for the screen in the room, real-time updates, every column in FIDE format (points, BH, BH-C1, SB) and an archive of past tournaments. It connects to any tournament in a minute, with nothing to install and nothing to register.
If you run the tournament in Vibe Chess app, the table comes out by itself: you enter the results of the games, and the points, the Buchholz score and the order of places are recalculated after every round. Creating a tournament is free and there is no limit on the number of players.
A table with points and Buchholz is exactly the case it is all calculated for. You choose the number of rounds.
Everyone plays everyone, the number of rounds follows from the field, and the outcome is clear with no extra tie-breaks.
A format with no rounds and no table: you choose an opponent on the spot, and the app shows who is free right now.
A finished tournament is exported as a TRF report - the FIDE data exchange format that arbiting software accepts.
An example of a finished report
This is what the table looks like to the players after a tournament. An online Swiss open, 7 rounds, 20 people. Where players are level on points, the places are decided by Buchholz (BH), the cut Buchholz (BH-C1) and Sonneborn-Berger (SB) - exactly as in the FIDE regulations.
| # | Player | Rating | Points | BH | BH-1 | SB | Perf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miloš Jovanović | 1798 | 5.5 | 28 | 25 | 21.8 | 1911 |
| 2 | Artyom Kovalyov | 1842 | 5 | 28 | 25 | 20 | 1749 |
| 3 | Bohdan Tkachenko | 1776 | 4.5 | 27 | 25 | 14.5 | 1759 |
| 4 | Ostap Melnyk | 1665 | 4 | 27.5 | 24.5 | 14.5 | 1759 |
| 5 | Dragan Petrović | 1688 | 4 | 27 | 24 | 14.5 | 1657 |
| 6 | Marek Svoboda | 1575 | 4 | 26 | 23.5 | 13 | 1702 |
| 7 | Piotr Wiśniewski | 1710 | 4 | 24 | 21.5 | 13.5 | 1653 |
| 8 | Olha Romaniuk | 1486 | 4 | 23.5 | 23 | 11 | 1688 |
| 9 | Katarzyna Wójcik | 1598 | 3.5 | 27 | 24 | 13.2 | 1597 |
| 10 | Vladislav Dubrovin | 1620 | 3.5 | 26 | 23 | 12.5 | 1652 |
| 11 | Goran Ivić | 1440 | 3.5 | 25 | 23 | 11 | 1636 |
| 12 | Łukasz Kamiński | 1553 | 3.5 | 23.5 | 21.5 | 12 | 1604 |
| 13 | Tomáš Procházka | 1463 | 3.5 | 23.5 | 21.5 | 10 | 1546 |
| 14 | Jan Novák | 1755 | 3.5 | 22 | 21.5 | 8.5 | 1578 |
| 15 | Radmila Sokolova | 1731 | 3 | 24 | 23.5 | 7.5 | 1570 |
| 16 | Danuta Lewandowska | 1418 | 3 | 23.5 | 23 | 8.5 | 1599 |
| 17 | Zoran Marić | 1642 | 3 | 20 | 19.5 | 5.5 | 1500 |
| 18 | Nikola Stoyanov | 1508 | 2.5 | 18.5 | 18 | 4.8 | 1436 |
| 19 | Jasna Kostić | 1530 | 2 | 24.5 | 22 | 6 | 1404 |
| 20 | Slavko Babić | 1395 | 0.5 | 21.5 | 19 | 1.2 | 1212 |
Sorted by: points → Buchholz → cut Buchholz → Sonneborn-Berger. The top three are highlighted.
The Buchholz is the sum of your opponents' points. For Miloš Jovanović over 7 rounds:
Five players scored 4 pointseach, but places 4 to 8 differ - and it was the Buchholz that separated them. The stronger your opponents were, the higher you finish on equal points:
All five are on 4 points, but the player in 4th has the higher Buchholz - they played the stronger field. That is exactly the point of the score: it rewards the harder road.
A summary report of a tournament with the places, points and tie-breaks of every player. There are four kinds: a crosstable for a round robin, a Swiss table, a knockout bracket and a team table. The standard output format is described in FIDE Handbook C.07, the Tie-Break Regulations.
A crosstable is an «everyone against everyone» grid for a round robin: where the rows and columns cross you see the result of that game. The main tie-break is Sonneborn-Berger. A Swiss table shows no grid, because not everyone played everyone - here there are result columns by round and Buchholz tie-breaks.
Buchholz Cut-1: the sum of a player's opponents' points minus the single lowest result. FIDE recommends exactly this as the primary tie-break for a Swiss - it removes the «luck of the draw» when a player happens to get a very weak opponent.
A win by default - the opponent did not turn up for the game. The player gets 1 point, but in most regulations that game is not counted in the Buchholz under FIDE rule C.07 (a virtual opponent is used instead of the real one).
A BYE is missing a round with no opponent. A half-bye is ½ a point (at the player's request) and a full bye is 1 point. A PAB (Pairing-Allocated Bye) is a full bye that the algorithm assigns when the number of players is odd, to the lowest-ranked player in the bottom group who has not had a bye before.
Sonneborn-Berger only, by the FIDE rule with a virtual opponent for unplayed rounds. That is done for simplicity: one number, a clear algorithm and no regulation settings.
Eight successive levels: Buchholz Cut-1 → Buchholz → Sonneborn-Berger → Direct Encounter → Number of Wins → Wins with Black → AROC-1 → Rating. It is the most detailed list among the online platforms.
It is the calculated rating for the tournament - the «level» at which the player played. It is worked out as «the average rating of your opponents plus a bonus from the FIDE table for the percentage of points scored». It is used to confirm master, international master and grandmaster norms.
At the Olympiad the Olympiad Sonneborn-Berger applies: for each of a team's opponents you take (points against them × that opponent's match points), minus the worst match. Whoever played the stronger teams comes out higher on the tie-break.
Yes. Export to chess-results.com is built into Swiss-Manager and works at a single press. Any tournament run in Swiss-Manager can be published instantly on the main global repository.
FIDE recommends Buchholz Cut-1 as the main tie-break for a Swiss. Sonneborn-Berger is used in the Swiss system as a secondary or tertiary tie-break, after BH-C1 and BH.
The sum of a player's points after every round. For example: a sequence of 1, 0, ½, 1, 1, 0, 1 gives running totals of 1, 1, 1½, 2½, 3½, 3½, 4½ → a progressive score of 17½. It rewards those who started strongly. In the USA it is often used as the primary tie-break.
In the Vibe Chess tournament app the public table is generated automatically - every tournament has its own link and a QR code that can be put up on a screen in the room. Spectators see the pairings, the points and the tie-breaks in real time with no registration. In Swiss-Manager it is done through the export to chess-results.com.
The player withdrew from the tournament. Their remaining unplayed rounds are handled under FIDE Article 16 as VUR (Voluntary Unplayed Round) - usually as draws (½) when calculating the Buchholz of the people who played them.
Standard Points were introduced to normalise alternative scoring systems (3-1-0 and others) while keeping the classical 1/½/0. The set of tie-breaks was widened, the dependence on the pairing reduced and the handling of unplayed games for Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger clarified.
How to run a whole tournament from start to finish is in a Swiss-system chess tournament online. Where the numbers in the Buchholz columns come from is in the Buchholz score. How the pairs are formed each round is in online pairing. Which software to build the table with is in tournament software. A chess evening in Moscow is in chess networking in Moscow.
