Pair Teams by Game Points - Team Menu
In a fixed-roster team event, SwissSys normally pairs and ranks teams by match points (1 point for a match win, 0.5 for a tie, 0 for a loss). The Pan-American team rules group on Setup → Rules for pairing lets you switch to game points instead — that is, the cumulative individual-board score the team has piled up across its matches.
There is no separate Team-menu toggle for this. Both controls live in the Pan-American team rules group of the Rules for pairing dialog (Setup → Rules for pairing). They are two independent checkboxes — you can turn on either, both, or neither.
The two checkboxes
| Checkbox caption | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Pair teams by game pnts | The pairing method. When checked, teams are matched against each other by cumulative game points rather than match points. |
| Use game points for standings | The standings/score display. When checked, the team’s score column, tiebreaks, and prize ranking are driven by game points rather than match points. |
These two effects are decoupled. Checking only Pair teams by game pnts changes who plays whom but still shows match-point standings; checking only Use game points for standings leaves pairing on match points but reports the result by game points. The setting commonly described as “Pan American” team pairings is the combination of both.
Match points vs. game points
| Method | How it works | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Match points (default) | A team earns 1 for a match win, 0.5 for a tie, 0 for a loss | Most team events |
| Game points | A team is measured by the total individual board points it has scored | Pan-American style events; when margin of victory matters |
Notes and limits
- These options apply to fixed-roster team events. They have no effect in individual (non-team) tournaments.
- Use game points for standings is disabled when the event is set to FIDE rules.
- The game-points settings are mutually exclusive with the Rollins system and weighted pairings options in the same dialog — turning on either game-points checkbox clears those, and vice versa.
- Game points are tracked per board. See Game Wins - Fixed Roster Tournaments for how individual board results feed the team’s game-point total.
Example
Under the game-points method, a team that wins each match 3.5-0.5 ranks above a team that wins each match 2.5-1.5, even though both have the same number of match wins. Match-point scoring would treat the two as tied.
Related Topics
- Rules for Pairing - The dialog that hosts both game-point checkboxes
- Game Wins - Fixed Roster Tournaments - How game points are entered and tracked
- Team Tournaments Overview - Fixed-roster format explained