What are Silver and Bronze positions for FIDE direct titles?

Question

I refer to https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B01DirectTitles2017 for the following question:

Direct titles are awarded based on your performance in certain tournaments.

A gold finish is being 1st after tiebreaks with any other players in your point group. 1st equal means the best 3 players who are tied for highest points, ranked after tiebreaks.

That much is clear, however the definition for Silver and Bronze performances are not written.

Long ago I found information online describing how Silver and Bronze are awarded, and I recall in some scenarios Silver was not awarded at all, maybe if there are two Gold winners for example, or perhaps two people tied for first, then the 3rd place would get a Bronze instead. I also remember it being possible to have multiple Silver and Bronze winners.

I did some search but could not find anything about them now. Could someone in the know shed some light on the exact definition and criteria for obtaining the Silver and Bronze positions?

Answer 1

From what I can tell, Gold, Silver, and Bronze are awarded to the top three players on tiebreaks, with no possibility of more than one person in a section getting any particular medal.

This flyer for the 2021 North American Junior U20 Chess Championships says under "Prizes":

Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals to top 3 players in each section (on tiebreaks if necessary).

And it has the following table:

Direct Titles – subject to FIDE Handbook (see Table for Direct Titles) 
Place                                Section  FIDE Title/Norm
Gold Medal                           Open     IM title and GM norm
=1st, Silver or Bronze on Tiebreaks  Open     IM title
Silver, Bronze Medal                 Open     FM title and IM norm
Gold                                 Girls    WIM title and WGM norm
=1st, Silver or Bronze on Tiebreaks  Girls    WIM title
Silver, Bronze Medal                 Girls    WFM title and WIM norm

As you can see, it contemplates getting Silver or Bronze while also getting Equal First. This would be impossible if more than one person could get Silver, or if Equal First didn't count in the medal places.

Of course, if the second place person in the Open section gets Equal First, they win IM from that so the FM title and IM norm they win from Silver won't do much for them, but they still get the medal.