Accelerated pairings
Acceleration is an option of the Swiss system (Round-Robin and Keizer do not use it). In a large field played over few rounds, an ordinary Swiss can take several rounds before the strongest players meet, and the winner may only be decided by a single late game. Acceleration adds fictional points to the top of the field in the early rounds, so leaders are paired against each other sooner and the standings settle faster. The fictional points are removed as the tournament goes on, so the final ranking is decided entirely by real results.
You choose an accelerated system as the tournament’s variation, on the same form where you pick the pairing system.
Methods
| Method | Notes |
|---|---|
| Baku acceleration system | The FIDE-standard acceleration (Dutch, 2026 rules). A good default. |
| Haley system | A classic two-group acceleration. |
| Soft Haley system | A gentler Haley that tapers the added points. |
| Progressive accelerated system | Uses three groups for a finer split of a large field. |
| Custom accelerated system | You define the acceleration yourself, round by round. |
| Initial score accelerated system | Seeds starting points, optionally carried over from another tournament. |
Settings
The settings depend on the method:
- Group-based methods (Baku, Haley, Soft Haley use two groups; Progressive uses three) split the field into Group A, Group B (and Group C), each defined by a minimum and maximum starting rank. The top group carries the fictional points.
- Custom accelerated system — Accelerated rounds: a list of rules, each giving the fictional points to add and the range of rounds and pairing numbers it applies to.
- Initial score accelerated system — Initial pairing scores: the starting points to give players (see below).
Acceleration only affects pairing, not the score shown in the standings. Players never keep the fictional points.
Initial score: chaining tournaments
The Initial score system gives players a starting number of pairing points. These can be carried over from another tournament — choosing a source event and tournament, a coefficient, and how missing players are filled.
Its main use is chaining several independent tournaments into one running standing — for example a slow, a rapid and a blitz — where you want each leg’s result to feed the pairings of the next. Because the carried-over points are only virtual pairing points, they do not stop two players meeting again in a later leg.
Carrying scores across tournaments this way is not valid for official FIDE events. Use it for club and festival formats, not rated competition that must follow FIDE pairing rules.