In Swiss tournaments with a wide range of (mostly reliable) playing strengths, the results of the first round(s) are usually quite predictable. In the first round, only a few percent of the games have a result other than "win to the stronger part". The same may happen again in round two. It can be shown that, in title tournaments, this can prevent players from achieving norms. An accelerated pairing is a variation of Swiss pairings in which the first rounds are modified in such a way as to overcome the aforementioned weaknesses of the Swiss system, without compromising the reliability of the final rankings. It is not appropriate to design an entirely new pairing system for acceleration, but rather design a system that works together with existing FIDE-defined pairing systems. This result is normally achieved by rearranging score brackets in some way that is not only dependent on the points that the players have scored. For instance, one of the possible methods is to add so-called "virtual points" to the score of some higher rated players (who are supposedly stronger) and henceforth build the score brackets based on the total score (real score + virtual points). The following chapters will describe the methods that were statistically proven to accomplish the aforementioned goals. The Baku Acceleration Method is presented first, because it was the first that, through statistical analysis, was proven to be good and stable (and is also easy to explain). Other accelerated methods may be added, as long as they can be proven, through statistical analysis, to get better results than already described methods or, if their effectiveness is comparable, to be simpler. Unless explicitly specified otherwise, each described acceleration method is applicable to any Swiss Pairing System. |
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Premise |
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The Baku Acceleration Method is applicable in any tournament where the standard scoring point system (one point for a win, half point for a draw) is used. |
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Initial Groups Division |
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Before the first round, the list of players to be paired (properly sorted) shall be split in two groups, GA and GB. The first group (GA) shall contain the first half of the players, rounded up to the nearest even number. The second group (GB) shall contain all the remaining players. |
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Note: | for instance, if there are 161 players in the tournament, the nearest even number that comprises the first half of the players (i.e. 80.5) is 82. The formula 2 * Q (2 times Q), where Q is the number of players divided by 4 and rounded upwards, may be helpful in computing such number - that, besides being the number of GA players, is also the pairing number of the last GA player. | |||
3. |
Late entries |
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Note 1: |
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Note 2: |
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4. |
Virtual points |
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The "accelerated rounds" are the ones in the first half (rounded up) of the tournament. |
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Note: |
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5. |
Pairing score |
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01. Non-Elected Commissions
02. Financial Regulations
03. Electoral Rules
08. FIDE Ethics
01. International Title Regulations (Qualification Commission)
02. FIDE Rating Regulations (Qualification Commission)
03. Regulations on Registration & Licensing of Players
04. Registration, Transfer & Rules of Eligibility for Player
06. Regulations for the Titles of Arbiters
07. Regulations for the Titles of Trainers / FIDE Endorsed Academies
08. Regulations for Accreditation in Chess in Education
09. Regulations on Seminars & Title Award for Organizers
11. FIDE Online Arena Regulations
02. Chess Equipment
04. FIDE Swiss Rules
C.04.1 Basic rules for Swiss Systems
C.04.2 General handling rules for Swiss Tournaments
C.04.3 FIDE (Dutch) System
C.04.4 Other FIDE-approved Pairing Systems
C.04.5 FIDE-approved Accelerated Systems
07. Tie-Break Regulations
08. FIDE Chess Calendar
01. FIDE Individual World Championship Cycles
02. Chess Olympiad
02. Olympiad Pairing Rules
03. Cycle for Competitions for Men`s and Women`s National Teams
04. Other FIDE Competitions
01. General Regulations for FIDE Competitions
14. Bids Evaluation Criteria
19. FIDE World Corporate Chess Championship
07. Regulations for the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships
01. Laws of Chess