Tips needed for Board Order strategies in Team Chess Tourney!

Hi All,

We are scheduled to play an OTB round robin (8 teams) team chess tournament next week and we have to finalize the board orders (4 + 1 reserve) for our team. 

The rules are similar to a typical Chess Olympiad (Match Points, Game Points).

Would it be better to have the top two players in Boards 1-2 or 3-4 or 2-3 etc. The objective ofcourse is to have the best chances to score at least 2.5 out of the 4 boards in every round as much as possible.

Any advice on the same and any general tips on the board order strategies from those who have experience such team chess events would be welcome.

Thanks in Advance :).

I have always felt that the best board order strategy is to have your strongest player at # 2 so that it allows you to play him at 1 or 2 depending on the opposition.

I would put it as:

# 1 - Wild card player (usually every team has 1 guy who on his day can beat anyone, and should know enough opening theory to at least not blunder early but try and draw with strong opponents) 

# 2 - Strongest player

The next 3 boards should be the remaining 3 players in descending order of strength/ rating.

This allows you to float your strongest player between 1 and 2, depending on who needs to sit out.

The 4 +2 stategy is even more flexible, if its a possibility here.

Thanks Mayank :). Definitely agree with you, this is the usual strategy we use and has mostly been successful.

I was also reading some articles on web on how the Indian Olympiad team (seeded 19th but won Bronze last year) fielded their top two in Boards 3-4, essentially scoring 1.5 or 2 points from the last two boards and another 0.5 or 1 point from the first two boards in most of the rounds (thereby scoring 2.5 out of 4).

Thought this also sounded like an effective strategy. How do you think this compares to the earlier one.

I think it totally depends on the ability of the players to hold against stronger opponents.

In team events I think the top board game should be worth the most points with other boards decreasing in value.