City-County Chess Tournament for Jack

Jack qualified for the City-County chess tournament.  He did great, but came up short.  He won 3 out of his 4 matches, and beat kids that placed higher than him.  They only give awards to the top 5 and Jack was number 8.  He thought he got ripped off and was very confused as to why he didn't place when kids that he beat did.

Jack's chess teacher went up and inquired about it after the awards ceremony.  They said there are different ways to score a chess tournament and that it's at the chess tournament director's discretion on which way they score it.  This certain tournament was set up so that each match you won, they would put you against stiffer competition.  Jack won his first three matches so his forth one came against the top guy.  So, the moral to this story, is that if you are going to lose, lost your first game so that your competition is less?????  I don't know, I don't understand chess.....but I do know Jack LOVES it, so I guess I better start trying to understand it a little bit.  Either way, the little dude is super good at it and it's kind of amazing to me!

Here are all the STP kids that qualified for the tournament.......