Heats or Games?

[Pedro Saavedra]

It has been a long time (over thirty years) since I played in a crossboard tournament. I seem to recall that some tournaments scored by the heat and others by the game. In other words, if on a given round you won both sides of the opening, in some tournaments you would get the same number of points as if you won one side and drew the other. Yet in others, it was games that counted. Not knowing which way it was done cost me a point in a tournament once (Illinois State B group, 1978 in Pekin).

Am I correct that both systems have been used, but that counting games is the norm these days? The question came up in Gold Token. Clearly for ladders counting heats is the only sensible thing, since you play only one heat. But for tournaments one could do it either way. Does ACF currently require tournament organizers to do it one way rather than the other?

Pedro

[rich beckwith]

Pedro,

It's usually up to the local association to set these rules. Other than the masters division at 3-move Nationals (scored by 4-game heats, with tough deck, as needed), I think all current US events are scored by game. Based on past voting, the masters seem to prefer heats (but not so much at GAYP), and Majors/Minors strongly prefer scoring by game.