Prizes

Chesstide computes prize awards automatically from your prize structure and the current standings. You define the structure once in Settings → Categories & Prizes; the Prizes tab then always shows who wins what.

Defining the prize structure

In Settings → Categories & Prizes, create one prize list per scope: the general ranking, a category (U12, +50, women…), or — in team tournaments — a board. Each list is a series of places with an amount in euros; an amount of €0 means a trophy or medal without prize money.

Two settings shape how awards are distributed:

• Cumulative — may one player collect prizes from several lists (e.g. 3rd overall and first U16)? If not, the extra prize rolls down to the next eligible player.
• Split method per list:
• Place — strictly by final rank, tie-breaks decide. Players still level after every tie-break take different amounts, awarded in the order the standings list them (rating, then name).
• Shared — tied players share the tied places' money equally.
• Hort — half the money is shared equally among the tied players, the other half follows the tie-break ranking.

Categories assigned by hand

Most categories are a filter: you set the age, rating, gender or club criteria, and every player who matches is in. Some prizes cannot be described that way — a fair-play prize is decided, and you may run a category Chesstide does not model at all.

For those, set a category's Membership to Assigned by hand in Settings → Categories & Prizes. The criteria disappear, and a Manage players link takes you to a two-pane picker: the participants on the left, the players in the category on the right, arrows to move your selection across. Save, and the standings, the category filter, the prize lists and the public participants tab all follow.

A few things worth knowing:

• Nobody is in a hand-assigned category until you put them there — it is never "everyone".
• A category has one kind of membership or the other. Switching one back to By criteria discards its list of players.
• Only current participants can be assigned. A player who cancels after being named keeps their place in the list — they stay on the picker, tagged no longer entered, so you can leave them there or take them out deliberately.
• Once the standings are final the list is frozen, like the categories themselves — reopen the tournament to change it.
• A points or cumulative challenge can have hand-assigned categories too, on the group's Categories page; there you pick from the players who entered a counting leg.
• Team tournaments keep criteria-based categories only.

Prize order

The prize lists are shown in the order you arrange them in Settings → Categories & Prizes — use the ▲ / ▼ buttons on each list. That order is what the Prizes tab, the printed prize list and the public tournament page all follow, so you can put them in announcement order for the closing ceremony.

The order does more than that when prizes are not cumulative. Awards are settled from the richest prize down: each prize goes to the best-ranked player on that list who isn't already holding one. When two prizes are worth the same amount, the list placed higher is settled first — and takes the better-ranked player.

An example. Adam, Betty and Charles finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd; Betty and Charles both belong to Category A and Category B. The prizes are €500 for the general 1st place and €250 for the 1st place of each category.

1. The €500 is the richest prize, so it is settled first: it goes to Adam.
2. Category A and Category B are both worth €250. Whichever you placed higher is settled next and takes Betty, the better-ranked of the two remaining players.
3. The other category then takes Charles.

Betty and Charles each collect €250 either way — but which category they are announced under is your choice, made by ordering the two lists. Prizes of different amounts are never affected: the richer one is always settled first, wherever it sits in the list.

The Prizes tab

The Prizes tab shows each list with its awards table — place, player, points, amount — and a grand total. It's computed live from the standings: there is no separate "assign prizes" step. If the standings are stale, the tab tells you to recalculate them first (see Recalculating).

Print produces a clean prize list for the closing ceremony.

Tip: Announce the split method in your tournament regulations before the event — Shared vs Hort can move real money between tied players, and the discussion is easier before round 1 than at the prize table.