Chess pairing information

Essential information on chess pairing, all-play-all (Berger) pairings, chess tie break methods and chess grading/rating systems plus other useful resources.

Pairing Systems

Chess pairing systems

There are numerous different Swiss chess pairing methods. The main ones are:

• FIDE Swiss pairing rules
   
• Dubov system (also recognised by FIDE)
   
• ECF Swiss pairing systems
   
• Kaps pairing system (not sure of the origins of this system)

Tournament Director for Windows uses the ECF Swiss chess pairing system.

All Play All chess pairing systems

Each of these generates different chess pairing combinations for all play all. The best known is the Berger system.

• Berger tables
  Calculation for Berger pairings
   
• Cyclic and First Fit
   
• Polygon method

Tournament Director for Windows use the Berger all play all chess pairing system.

Tie break systems

The main Tie Break systems are defined on these pages.

• FIDE recognised tie break methods
   
• A Complete list of tie break methods

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Grading Systems

Tournament Director for Windows implements the FIDE rating and ECF grading systems. The ECF grading is main grading system including the automatic submission of the results for ECF Grading.

• ECF Grading system
  This is an excellent explanation of the ECF Grading system and its workings.
   
• FIDE Rating system
  Here is an explanation of the FIDE rating system
   

Here is additional background to the ELO system on which FIDE Rating system is based.

As an aside, here are the details of the Scottish grading system

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Links

Chess related websites and other tournament organisation software is given on the links page