Tie Break

Forgive an old fool for not knowing...but what are the tie break points, how are they awarded, and when are they used?

It's a method of determining tournament placings when the scores are tied.

The system used on chess.com:

The total points of opponents you have beaten

+

half the points of opponents you have drawn against.

Expanding on that: if 2 people have the same score, then their tie break points are what advanced one of them to the next round of a tournament. I believe there is an article about tie breaks somewhere...

Check out these two links- they should explian tie breaks pretty well.

http://www.chess.com/tournaments/help.html#tiebreak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonneborn-Berger_system

Thank you for educating me on this. (...and I thought chess was an easy, uncomplicated game...)