Chess scoring
{{Short description|System of points scoring in the game of chess}}
{{about|points scored across a series of chess games|the moves in an individual game|Chess notation|and|Glossary of chess#game score}}
In chess, by far the most common scoring system is 1 point for a win, ½ for a draw, and 0 for a loss.
A number of different notations are used to denote a player's score in a match or tournament, or their long-term record against a particular opponent. The most common are:
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| style=min-width:6em|Format | Meaning | Example |
| A/B | Points scored (A) out of games played (B) | "... Fabiano Caruana, is second, with 7.5/11."[https://www.fide.com/news/1425 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: Firouzja and Lei triumph in Riga], FIDE, 8 Nov 2021 |
| A−B | Points for (A) − points against (B) | "Fischer won the tournament... with a score of 18½−4½"."From Morphy to Fischer", Israel Horowitz, Batsford, 1973 The games played is the sum of the "for" and "against" scores, so in this case, Fischer scored 18½ points from 23 games played. |
| +W −L =D | W wins, L losses, D draws | "Fischer 6.5/9 (+5 −1 =3)", meaning Fischer scored 5 wins, 1 loss and 3 draws for a total of 6.5 points out of 9.[https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79446 Fischer – Petrosian Candidates Final Match], Chessgames.com |
| +A or −A | Number of wins minus number of losses | "Fabiano came into the final round on an unbeaten +4".[https://chess24.com/en/read/news/firouzja-wins-grand-swiss-caruana-in-candidates Firouzja wins Grand Swiss | Caruana in Candidates], chess24.com, November 8, 2021 This refers to Caruana scoring 7 points in the first 10 rounds of the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021, which meant 3 points were scored against him, and 7 minus 3 is equal to +4. |
Less common systems
- Occasionally, in a match between two players in which draws do not count, the number of draws may be omitted, or mentioned separately. For instance, the World Chess Championship 1978 was won by Anatoly Karpov by a score of 6 wins to 5, with draws not counting. The match score is usually given as "6−5", or "6−5 with 21 draws".
- Sometimes a Three points for a win system is used: 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. This is usually shown as the number of points from number of games played, for instance "10 points from 6 games" for 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw.