13
votes
Accepted
How is Buchholz score calculated in a Swiss tournament?
The information is hidden away in Standards of Chess Equipment and tournament venue for FIDE Tournaments section 13.4.
13.4. Buchholz System
13.4.1. The Buchholz System is the sum of the scores ...
8
votes
Why can't FIDE use a Non-Deterministic Gender Neutral Swiss Pairing system?
The current algorithms are deterministic. I have no idea why you would want a non-deterministic algorithm. The advantage of the deterministic ones we currently use is that they can be easily done by ...
8
votes
Is there a tournament system that pairs players based on ratings being similar?
Swiss tournaments somewhat attempt to do what you want in their later rounds. Also, tournament organizers often have different ratings-based sections for larger Swiss events to reduce the number of ...
8
votes
Accepted
Overruling last round color check in Swiss
According to C.04.3 FIDE (Dutch) System:
A.6 Colour differences and colour preferences
The colour difference of a player is the number of games played with white minus the number of games played with ...
8
votes
Accepted
What is the color of a forfeit?
FIDE document C.04.2 General handling rules for Swiss Tournaments gives the answer:
Only played games count in situations where the colour sequence is meaningful. So, for instance, a player with a ...
7
votes
Looking for online Swiss pairing software
You could try this free service: https://swisssystem.org/
It’s simple and easy to use. It works fine on mobile devices. The maximum player count is 200.
7
votes
Accepted
Which pairing programs have been authorized by FIDE for use in FIDE rated tournaments?
FIDE publish a list of such programs here.
Currently there are 10 programs on the list varying in price from completely free (Tornelo, STOP), free on Linux (Vega), partially free (ChessManager) to 150 ...
6
votes
How can I know if the chief arbiter has "cheated" in the pairings and possibly report it?
I participated in a local, FIDE-rated tournament. In its first round,
the chief arbiter paired the players 4 times
This has happened to me too, although not as many as 3 repairings that I am aware. ...
6
votes
Accepted
Swiss-pairing algorithm
is there any good and free software available for setting up swiss
tournaments? All of those I've tried have very few options and little
functionality available.
Vega is a swiss pairing program ...
6
votes
Can a non-rated tournament having all categories play in a single group and then the ranking decided based on overall performance?
I have seen both approaches. They're both fair enough to use, although it might be slightly fairer to separate them. Ideally you want the last round to have the two strongest players in a category ...
5
votes
Looking for online Swiss pairing software
SWIPS is also online tool for managing tournaments. It includes much more than just a swiss system and round robin, but you can use it solely for that purpose if you want.
Right now its free, ...
5
votes
Is there a tournament system that pairs players based on ratings being similar?
I want to give an unequivocal "No" as the answer, but that's too simple. General Swiss pairing rules (for where you want to find a winner from lots of players / teams and few rounds / ...
4
votes
Swiss-pairing algorithm
As for tournaments with swiss system, many computer programs are paid. That's why I decided to create a freeware program (REALLY free). Name of my program is VinczeSwiss. The VinczeSwiss program is ...
4
votes
Looking for online Swiss pairing software
An offline alternative is Vegachess, which it is also homologated by FIDE. AFAIK Vegachess just uses javafo as its pairing engine. Linux version of vegachess is free to use and Windows version not ...
4
votes
Accepted
In what way is it allowed to alter tournament pairings in favor of a player?
It says the exact opposite.
C.04.2 A It is not allowed to alter the correct pairings in favour of any player.
So no, you can't.
Where it can be shown that modifications of the original ...
4
votes
Accepted
How do I determine the bye player in a Swiss tournament?
In the first round, it should go to the player with the lowest initial ranking. After that, it depends, but it would ordinarily go to a low ranked player in the lowest score group.
According to rule ...
4
votes
Accepted
Record Swiss top tie
There are a couple of records of this sort in the relevant Wikipedia page. To quote:
Thirteen players tied for first with 5–1 scores at the National Open held on March 17–19, 2000 in Las Vegas: ...
4
votes
Accepted
Pairing Preference in Swiss Tournament System
There are various Swiss pairing systems. On the assumption that because you are asking in a chess forum you are asking about the most commonly used Swiss pairing systems in the chess world. After your ...
4
votes
Accepted
What is a good approach to conduct a round robin event for 20 players in order to select top 6?
To get the fairness of a round-robin without quite so many games...
First, separate your players into 2 groups of 10. I'd suggest making the groups each have a good mix of players rather than having a ...
3
votes
A Swiss nightmare
Assume a 9 round Swiss tournament with 2^9 players, White always wins. Will the pairing computer (definitely not super quantum) go berserk?
Thank you for clarifying the difference between NA (...
3
votes
Accepted
How can I use JaVaFo in my pairing program?
According to the website for the engine it was written by international arbiter Roberto Ricco:
The author
JaVaFo is authored and intellectually owned by Roberto Ricca, former programmer, ...
3
votes
Accepted
Predicting color and opponent
One sure-fire way is for you to buy your own copy of Swiss Manager, the pairing software used in this particular case, and reproduce the tournament and then do the next round pairing once all the ...
3
votes
Swiss system pairing algorithm stuck
Is this situation logically possible?
Certainly.
This is one of the known problems with using Swiss pairing when the number of rounds is close to the number of players. It is called "jamming". ...
3
votes
Looking for online Swiss pairing software
If you are looking for an easy-to-use, FIDE-approved online platform, take a look at ChessManager.
3
votes
Accepted
Multiple teams from the same country in Swiss system
There is a tradeoff between making the pairings that "should" be made according to the strict pairing rules, and attempting to prevent collusion. Imagine this scenario:
Russia 1: 8.5
Russia 2: 8
...
3
votes
Why can't FIDE use a Non-Deterministic Gender Neutral Swiss Pairing system?
Surely we can create opt out for gender pairings which occur
consecutively?
Yes, we could. We can make whatever rules we like, after all. But I don't think we should.
Such a rule would have to ...
3
votes
Accepted
Can a non-rated tournament having all categories play in a single group and then the ranking decided based on overall performance?
Can a non-rated tournament having all categories play in a single group and then the ranking decided based on overall performance?
Certainly and it is often the best option. Note that this is also ...
3
votes
Accepted
Correct swiss pairings for a group of 4 players
There are four people currently tied with the most points, where #1 and #3 have just played White (for example), while #2 and #4 have just played Black.
All else being equal, the pairings would ...
3
votes
Accepted
Manual pairings in tournaments
I had recently participated in a tournament and I think there is some manual pairing hidden inside which causes my friend to play against me.
You are wrong. To a trained arbiter the pairings are very ...
2
votes
Swiss system chess tournament
Swiss system has nothing to do with time controls. It is a tournament pairing system based on the principle that in each round players with so far similar results are paired together, and that each ...
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