Rules 1 to 3 are so worded that they can equally be applied to ties involving more than two counties. But one cannot neglect the possibility that three such counties still remain tied after applying these three rules, each having won and lost an equal number of matches among the three counties. (If all the matches among the three counties were drawn then almost certainly the tie would be resolved by rule 2 or if not then by rule 3.

Some rather tricky possibilities are involved in trying to amalgamate game points and board counts from different matches, and rules 4 and 5 are designed to deal with these. Thereafter, rules 6 and 7 should dispose of the minute remaining possibilities of unresolved ties.

It must be borne in mind that a triple tie is by no means a negligible possibility, and that it would be very difficult indeed to arrange play-off matches between three counties. These rules, if imperfect, have the merit of resolving ties by unambiguous procedures agreed beforehand, rather than by post facto argumentation among interested parties. They can be applied to determine the first and second place in a zone rather than in the Union as a whole, and are equally applicable if each county plays each other county twice instead of once (since all matches between tying counties are considered.

All matches between the teams involved in the tie are considered first under rule 1, the under rule 2, then under rule 3, until one county is eliminated, when the procedure reverts to rule 1. Note particularly that there is no attempt to add together board counts from different matches at this stage, or to compare the lowest decisive board numbers of different matches. These refinements only come in if rules 1 to 3 fail to produce any effect.

Rule 1 The team with more game points wins the match.

Rule 2 The "board count" for each team is the sum of the numbers of the boards on which that team scored wins. All matches not decided by rule 1 are deemed to be won by the team with the lower board count.

Rule 3 All matches not decided by rule 2 are deemed to be won by the team which lost the lowest board on which there was a decisive result.

Example I - A beat B by 8 ½ to 7 ½; B beat C by 9 ½ to 6 ½: C drew with A 8 games to 8, but the board count for C was 31 while for A it was 38.

Result - Under rule 1 the match points are A3, B2, C1. So C is eliminated by rule 1 and C's "win" on board count against A is not relevant. Then rule 1 is applied to teams A and B and since the only match between them was a win for A, the top team is A and the second team is B. (NB Although in these examples only three tying teams will be mentioned, each having played the others only once each, the rules are still applied literally to all matches among the teams not yet eliminated from the tie, irrespective of how many teams there are or how often they played each other.

Example II - A beat B by 8 ½ to 7 ½: B beat C by 9 ½ to 6 ½; C beat A by 10 ½ to 9 ½. Since all matches were decided by rule 1, and match points were then 2 for each team, there was nothing to be gained by rules 2 and 3. Proceed to rule 4.

Example III - A drew with B 8-8; B drew with C 8-8; C drew with A 10-10. The respective board counts were 31-31; 29-33; 31-38. In the match between A and B, the lowest board which was not drawn was board 17, won by the B team player.

Result - None of the matches is decided by rule 1. Under rule 2 the match between A and B was still drawn, while B beat C and C beat A. So on match points the result was A1, B3, C2. A is eliminated, and then under rule 1 the match B v C was drawn but under rule 2 it was won by B. So B is the top team and C is the second team. The "win" by A against B on the elimination rule is not relevant, since it was never necessary to invoke rule 3.

Rule 4 The team for which the total game points scored in all matches, minus the total game points against them in the same matches yields the lowest result, is eliminated.

Example IV - Taking the game scores, as in Example II, the game scores under this rule are A0, B2, C-2. So C is eliminated, and then A beat B by rule 1 and so A is the top team and B is the second team. Note that it is necessary to subtract games lost from games won, otherwise team B has an unfair "handicap" merely because it was not involved in any 20-board match. Note also that B is not made top team by comparing A0 with B2.

Rule 5 The team for which the total board count in all matches minus the total board counts of their opponents in the same matches yields the highest result, is eliminated.

Example V -

By rule 1 each of the three teams has two match points, and since all matches are decisive rules 2 and 3 achieve nothing. By rule 4 the game scores are 0 for all three teams, irrespective of how many boards and hence of how many draws there were in each of the matches. By rule 5 the board counts are A 46-39 = 7; B 49-45 = 4; C 25-36 = -11. So A is eliminated, and then by rule 1 applied the match between B and C the top team is B and second team is C. Note that C is not made top team by comparing B4 with C -11.

Rule 6 The team which won the lowest board on which there was a decisive result is eliminated.

Example VI - In Example V, suppose that B had won on board 1 instead of board 5 against C, and C had won on board 10 instead of board 3 against A. Now rule 5 fails to divide the teams, all the board counts being 0. By rule 6, teams A and B are simultaneously eliminated by virtue of their wins on board 12. Note that two teams with equal worst performance on any rule are simultaneously eliminated. C is top team. The tie for second place between A and B is then decided by rule 1, and so A is the second team.

Rule 7 Irrespective of the outcomes of the matches, each team is awarded 2 location points for each match played in the territory of the opposing county and 1 location point for each match played in a neutral county. The team with the lowest number of location points is eliminated.

NOTES - In rule 7 as in every other rule, it is only the matches between the counties involved in the tie which are considered. As soon as any county is eliminated under any rule, the procedure reverts to rule 1 with all that county's matches henceforth disregarded. So rule 7 amounts to saying that if two counties are tied at the top on match points and the match between those two counties resulted in a draw on every board then the away team in that match becomes the top team. If that match was played in a neutral county, then we have reached the only conceivable set of circumstances in which a play-off match will have to be arranged.

(Adopted June 1980)