HOW DOES A SWISS SYSTEM TOURNAMENT WORK?
Most of our competitions are run on a
Swiss system basis. Most people enter them, but never really understand
what they are. This is designed to be a brief guide to explain the
concept. First thing to establish is that every player plays in every
round.
Rule 1 is that no player should meet a player more than once. It is
loosely possible to run a 6 round Swiss with 7 players, but it will mean 6 of
the players receiving a bye in one of the rounds. Which player those 6
don't end up playing will depend rather more on luck of the way the pairings
work that score. Sometimes we have done double round all-play-all's with 4
players (this is obviously not a Swiss system) or else merged 2 sections.
During the course of a Swiss system, players are paired against players on the
same the score as far as possible. The aim also is to balance
colours so that players receive an equal number of blacks and whites, but this
is not always possible. Priority is given to players who need to balance
their blacks and whites when considering who plays which colour. It is
rare but possible for a player to receive the same colour more than 2 rounds in
a row.
TO FINISH