Individual pairing systems

An individual tournament uses one of four pairing systems, chosen on the tournament form (see Managing Tournaments). Each pairs players against each other.

Swiss

Players are paired round by round according to their current standings, so that players on similar scores meet. It handles any number of players and is the usual choice when there are more players than rounds.

• Pairings use the FIDE Dutch system, with a built-in consistency checker.
• With an odd number of players, one player receives a pairing-allocated bye (PAB) each round. Zero-, half- and full-point byes can also be assigned by hand.
• Prohibited pairings (same club, federation or team) can be kept apart, as hard rules or as soft rules that relax from the bottom of the field.

Prohibited pairings must not be used for official FIDE events — they override the FIDE Dutch pairing rules. Reserve them for club and festival formats.

Variations:

• Standard swiss system — pairs purely on the standings.
• Six accelerated variations add fictional points early on so the leaders meet sooner. See Accelerations.

Round-Robin

Every player meets every other player. The full schedule is generated up front (the Berger tables), so there are no pairing decisions during the event, and there are no byes — an odd field is handled by the table itself. Because the schedule is fixed, players cannot be added once pairings exist.

Variations:

• Berger — single round-robin: each pair of players meets once.
• Double-round Berger — double round-robin: each pair meets twice, with the colours reversed.

Because every round is known in advance, moving on to the next round is an explicit step: when you navigate past the current round, Sharly Chess asks whether to end the round (making the next one the current round) or just take a look at the next round, and warns you if boards are still without a result.

The tournament form offers the FIDE 6.6 participation rule for round-robins: a player who withdrew or was expelled having completed less than half of their games is dropped from the final standings and their games are annulled — they no longer count in the opponents’ scores and tie-breaks (the results stay in the crosstable).

Knock-out

A cup format: the players are seeded into a bracket, the loser of each match is out and the winner moves on, until one player is left. The number of rounds follows from the size of the field, drawn games are decided by advancement tie-breaks (or by the arbiter after a play-off), and the ranking is by the round reached.

See Knock-out for the bracket, the settings and how matches are decided.

Variations:

• Single elimination — one game per match, one loss and you are out.
• Single elimination — two-game matches — each match over two games with colours reversed, decided on aggregate.
• Double elimination — a first loss drops the player into a lower bracket; a second loss eliminates. The two bracket winners meet in a Grand Final.
• Double elimination — two-game matches — double elimination with two-game matches.

Keizer

A ranking-value system built for long-running club tournaments — a weekly evening championship over many rounds, where not everyone plays every week. Rather than count game points, each player carries a value derived from their current standing, and pairs the players who are present for the round.

See Keizer for how it scores and its settings.

Variation: Keizer.

Which one should I use?

• More players than rounds → Swiss (add an acceleration for a large field over few rounds).
• A small field where everyone should meet everyone → Round-Robin.
• A cup or play-off where the loser is out → Knock-out.
• A club championship over many evenings with changing attendance → Keizer.