A special to Phil The Hat for compiling this information.

Scoring explanation for tournament sections: Players are given a score for their play in the games. Two points for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss. If you draw a game in your section, while another player wins, they will advance before you because they have more points. A win is always stronger than a draw.

Type	Description
Round Robin	The players are divided into sections and the players play 1 game (or one of each colour) against everyone else in the same section. After that the winner of the section moves on to the next round. In the event of a draw, all tying players advance to the next round. The tournament continues, until only one player remains. This is the type used for the official GoldToken Tournaments.
Olympic	These run the same as a Round Robin Tournament but are limited to specific clubs (the Olympic Teams and the site sponsored Marathon club) and are Tournament rated.
Club	These run the same as a Round Robin Tournament but are limited to specific clubs and are Friendly rated. Clubs can request an official club match against their team mates or another club in divisions by sending a request to Jacob1987. Club owners have the choice of players joining on their own or being automatically added.
Multi Player Round Robin	Played the same as a Round Robin Tournament but scored a bit uniquely. In multi-player site tourneys, there is normally always a "winner" and frequently a "loser" who was the first to be eliminated. If two or more players are eliminated during the same move, there may be just a winner and all the others could conceivably show as scoring a draw. The point values change though, depending on when a player was actually eliminated. For instance, the player who was the last eliminated will score more points than that of the 1st or 2nd players eliminated. The Chart below shows how many points are due to each player in a tournament, eg 2nd place in a 5 player match gets you 3 points:

Number of players->	2	3	4	5	6
First place	2	3	4	5	6
2nd place	0	1	2	3	4
3rd place	.	0	1	2	3
4th Place	.	.	0	1	2
5th place	.	.	.	0	1
6th Place	.	.	.	.	0

Type	Description
Knockout	A knockout tournament is the same as round robin, except that there are only two players per section. As soon as you lose one game you are out. If there is an odd number of people in a round one person receives a bye into the next round. This is usually chosen randomly, or based on ratings. Sometimes seeded players (those with highest ratings from previous tournaments are automatically given byes in the early rounds).
Ladder	A Ladder is a continuous tournament. Everyone is ranked with the best players at the top of the ladder and the worst at the bottom. You are allowed to challenge any other player who is above you in the ladder (sometimes there is a restriction on how far above you, you can challenge). If you win, you take that person's place in the ladder and they and everyone between you move down one. Note that the official ladder tournaments at GoldToken, do not operate the same way as a normal ladder tournament. See Ladders for details.
League	In a league everyone plays everyone else in the league a fixed number of times. Points are awarded for a win, lose or draw, and the winner is the one with most points after all games are played.
Single Elimination	You sign up to play if you win you continue on to next round of play. Is this the same as a simple knockout tournament? Yes, it is
Double Elimination	Double Elimination runs similar to Single Elimination. In Double Elimination, there are two Brackets: The Main Bracket (aka Winners Bracket) and the Elimination Bracket (aka Losers Bracket). Everyone starts out in the Main Bracket. Anyone that loses a game in the Main Bracket will fall into the Elimination Bracket where they have a 2nd chance to advance. If a player wins a match in the Elimination Bracket, they are still alive in the tournament. If they lose a match anytime within the Elimination Bracket, they are eliminated and listed as out of the tournament. The process continues in each round as players from the Main Bracket fall into the Elimination Bracket to square off against those that have either just fallen into the Elimination Bracket or have advanced within it. Eventually, only 1 player will remain undefeated in the Main Bracket and receives a bye if there's an uneven number of players, until every game within the Elimination Bracket is completed and only 1 player is left standing after completing the Elimination Rounds. Once there is 1 person left in each bracket, these two players face off in the Tournament Finals. For the player in the Elimination Bracket to win the tournament, they must win TWO games against the player in the Main Bracket. Should the player in the Main Bracket win the first match, the tournament is completed as that player has won all matches and gone undefeated. Should the player in the Main Bracket be beaten, the 2nd match would be the deciding match and, also, be known as the Eliminator Match. Whomever wins this match would win the tournament outright. Draw and loss are identical for the purpose of double elimination, you need to win the game to advance. In other words: Draws count as loses in double elim, except when there is no winner in any game of that round, only drawn ones. This effectively prevents players from unfairly drawing to stay in the tournament running.
Swiss	In a Swiss style tournament there is a set number of rounds. Each round every player plays against just one other player. Pairings are usually chosen so that the players who have the highest score so far play each other and those who have the lowest score play each other. For the first round, or when people have equal scores, the pairings are either random or seeded based upon a players ranking from previous tournaments. All players play in every round, and the player with the highest total score at the end is the winner. Scoring is usually 2pts for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. If the number of players is odd, then the player with the lowest score so far, gets a BYE (2 pts). If he has already got one in a previous round then another player gets the Bye. Pairings, when all else is equal, are based on ratings. This is the case always in the first round. In chess, at least, the highest rated player gets matched with the lowest, 2nd highest with 2nd lowest, etc. This may seem strange but the purpose is to preserve the seeding of the high-rankers and avoid upsets. Second point: byes go to the player with the lowest score (who did not previously have a bye) with preference being given to the lowest rated player in that low score group.
Swiss HTH	Head-To-Head tournaments only work with Swiss pairings and require that everyone be present on GoldToken during the entire match. If you are not, your games will happily timeout in the given time allowed by the tournament after it starts. In HTH tournaments, each round simply starts on the specified time and when all the games are completed in each round. Players don't need to stay in the HTH room while they wait, and can go anywhere, but they risk missing the game if they are elsewhere. It is suggested that players keep a very close eye on their game sheet, as once each round starts, the game can time out in the allotted time allowed. IMPORTANT NOTE: It helps to clear your browsers cache before starting an HTH match. Otherwise, if your cache is corrupted, your browser might stall during crucial play. If this happens, you have only the time allowed per move to clear your cache and log back into your account to play your match before being timed out.
Divisions	Tournaments with divisions separate the players into groups by rating, where as those without divisions do not.

Number of Players When Tournament Begins	Number of Swiss Rounds Needed
2	2–3 (best 2 out of 3)
3–8	3
9–16	4
17–32	5
33+	6

Specific Information Regarding Club Tournaments
Club vs Club Matches	You need 5 or more players total per club team to play. As for figuring out who has enough, you can always just challenge them and if you don't have enough players, the system will let you know. The idea is that the clubs officers would contact each other first and agree on a match, rather then just send the challenge... but "cold-calling" works too. If a Inter-Club Challenge is rejected, this will show on your Clubs page and will disappear after a weeks time. Inter-club challenges are Tournament rated.
Inner Club Tournaments	Inner club matches are set up either by wiki, or by sending Jacob1987 a club match request. Club matches set up on GoldToken's system can be Round Robin, Double Elimination or Swiss style tournaments. If set up on the site system, Jacob1987 will send you a direct link to your clubs match, so you can provide the link for your members to join. Whether by wiki or site match, inner club games are Friendly rated.

If you know any other types of tournament, please send them to Badger.

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Want to view your past and won tournaments?

1. Click on the Tournaments link at the top of your game sheet
There you will see a page that looks something like this:

Tournaments

See Ladder Tournaments
See Inter-Club Ladder Tournaments
Tournament Signups: 33
Tournaments in progress: 832
Completed tournaments:	 4198
Your active tournaments: 1
Your won tournaments:	3
Your completed tournaments: 66

2. Click on the Your won tournaments link to view your won tournaments
3. Click on the Your completed tournaments link to view your past tournaments