How do pairings work?
Virtually all chess tournaments are paired using the Swiss System. The rules that govern this system are too numerous and complex to address here, however, they are covered in detail in the U.S. Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess book. (This link is dead, and when it was alive, it probably pointed to an older version of the rule book.) Here are the basics for the Swiss Pairing System. Before the first round, each player is placed on the pairing sheet based on his or her rating. Players are listed from the highest rated to the lowest rated. Unrated players are placed randomly below the lowest rated (usually in alphabetical order). To start the first round, the group is split in half and the top half plays the bottom half. For example, if 20 players are entered in a section of a tournament, the highest ranked player plays the 11th ranked player in round 1, the second-highest ranked player plays the 12th highest, etc. If there are an odd number of players, then the lowest rated pl
