GENERAL HANDLING RULES FOR SWISS TOURNAMENTS

Approved by the Council on 28/10/2025

Applied from 1st February, 2026

1.      Pairing Systems

1.1     The pairing system used for a FIDE rated Swiss tournament should be one of the published FIDE Swiss Systems. Accelerated methods are acceptable if they were announced in advance by the organiser and are published under FIDE-Approved Accelerated Systems.

1.2     Pairing systems or accelerated methods not published by FIDE may be permitted, provided that a detailed written description of their rules:

1.2.1      be submitted in advance to the Qualification Commission (QC) and temporarily authorised by them; and

1.2.2      be included in the tournament regulations and explicitly presented to the participants before the start of the tournament.

1.3     While reporting a tournament to FIDE, the Chief Arbiter shall declare which official FIDE Swiss system and acceleration method (if any) were used, or provide the temporary authorisation(s) given by the QC as per Rule 1.2.1.

1.4     The Swiss Pairing Systems defined by FIDE pair the participants in an objective, impartial and reproducible manner. In any tournament where such systems are used, different arbiters, or different tournament handler programs approved by FIDE, must be able to arrive at identical pairings. However, the use of such systems is deprecated, unless a tournament handler program approved by FIDE is available for them, provided with a free pairing-checker able to verify tournaments run with that system.

1.5     It is not allowed to alter the correct pairings in favour of any participant. Where it can be shown that modifications of the original pairings were made to help a player achieve a norm or a direct title, a report may be submitted to the QC to initiate disciplinary measures through the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission.

2.      Initial Order and Late Entries

2.1     Before the start of the tournament, a measure of the participant’s strength is assigned to each participant. The strength is usually represented by rating lists of the players. If one rating list is available for all participating players, then this rating list should be used. It is advisable to check all ratings supplied by players. If no reliable rating is known for a player, the Chief Arbiter should make an estimation of it as accurately as possible.

2.2     Before the first round the participants are ranked in order of, respectively

2.2.1      Strength (for example ratings)

2.2.2      FIDE-title (GM-IM-WGM-FM-WIM-CM-WFM-WCM-no title), for individual tournaments

2.2.3      Alphabetically (unless it has been previously stated that this criterion has been replaced by another one)

 2.3    This ranking is used to determine the participant's Tournament Pairing Number ("TPN"); the highest ranked participant gets #1 etc. If, for any reason, the data used to determine the rankings were not correct, they can be adjusted at any time. The TPNs may be reassigned accordingly to the corrections. No modification of a TPN for this reason is allowed after the fourth round has been paired.

2.4     A Late Entry is a participant who is only taken into account for the pairing of rounds after the first. If admitted to the tournament, late entries receive no points for unplayed rounds (unless the rules of the tournament say otherwise), and are given an appropriate TPN and paired only when they actually arrive.

 2.5    Due to late entries, the TPNs given at the start of the tournament are provisional. The definitive TPNs are given only when the List of Participants is closed, and corrections made accordingly in the results charts.

3.      Pairing, Colour and Publishing Rules

3.1     Adjourned games (in an individual competition) or adjourned matches (in a team competition) are considered draws for pairing purposes only.

3.2     Participants who withdraw from the tournament will no longer be paired.

3.3     Participants known in advance not to play in a particular round are not paired in that round and score zero (unless the rules of the tournament say otherwise).

3.4     Only played games or matches count in situations where the colour sequence is meaningful. So, for instance, a participant with a colour history of BWBuW ("u" for unplayed, i.e. no valid game or match in round-4) will be treated as if their colour history was uBWBW. WBuWB will count as uWBWB, BWWuBuW as uuBWWBW and so on.

3.5     Two paired participants, who did not play their game or match, may be paired together in a future round.

3.6     After a pairing is complete, sort the pairs before publishing them. The recommended sorting criteria are (with descending priority):

3.6.1      the highest score of the higher ranked participant of the involved pairs;

3.6.2.     the highest sum of the scores of both participants of the involved pairs;

3.6.3      the smallest TPN of the higher ranked participant of the involved pairs.

4.           Competition Rules

4.1     Any prospective participants who have not confirmed their presence to a FIDE competition before the time scheduled for the drawing of lots shall be excluded from the tournament unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise.

4.2     The results of a round shall be published at the usual place of communication at announced time due to the schedule of the tournament.

4.3     If either

4.3.1      a result was written down incorrectly, or

4.3.2      a game or a match was played with the wrong colours, or

4.3.3      a player's rating has to be corrected,

and this is notified to the Chief Arbiter within a given deadline after publication of results, the new information shall be used for the standings and the pairings of the next round. The deadline shall be fixed in advance according to the timetable of the tournament. If the error is notified after the pairing but before the end of the next round, it will affect the next pairing to be done. If the error is notified after the end of the next round, the correction will be made after the tournament and only for submission to rating evaluation.

4.4     Once published, the pairings shall not be changed unless one of the following situations occurs and the Chief Arbiter considers that changing the pairings is in the best interest of the tournament:

4.4.1      the accidental pairing of two participants who have already played each other

4.4.2      the rules of the specific competition explicitly allow the Chief Arbiter to modify the pairings

4.4.3      two participants close in the standings are without an opponent and both agree to play each other

4.4.4      a late entry is admitted to the tournament, the changes to the published pairings are minimal and are agreed by all participants involved

4.4.5      unforeseeable circumstances (such as a sudden withdrawal or an incorrectly recorded result) affect the top boards of the final round (Note: "top boards" are those identified as such by the Chief Arbiter)