What is Swiss Format?

To understand a swiss tournament, you must first understand what "swiss style" is. It's actually very simple:

Round one:
All players are paired randomly.

Round two:
The winners of round one will play each other, the losers of round one will play each other.

Round three:
The players with 0-2 records play each other, likewise with the 1-1s, and the 2-0s.

Round four:
The 0-3s play each other, as do the 2-1s, the 1-2s, and the 3-0s.

Sometimes, however, it is not possible to pair players with exactly the same records (due to drops or draws), so you may have to play up or down a record.

After an amount of rounds set at the beginning of the tournament (based on the number of players), the player with the best record wins. As more than one player will have the same number of match points at times, a series of 3 tie breaker systems are applied:

1.     The total number of match points earned by opponents that defeated the player. The purpose of this tiebreaker is to benefit players who lost to tougher opponents.

2.     The total number of match points earned by opponents that the player defeated. The purpose of this tiebreaker is to benefit players who had tougher opponents in general.

3.     The sum of the round numbers in which the player lost. Each round number is squared prior to being summed. The purpose of this tiebreaker is to benefit players who lost in later rounds. All other things being equal, losing in later rounds is an indication that a player played tougher opponents in general because they were paired against players with like records.

Finally, after the last round, instead of the best record winning, the top 8 players (sometimes top 16, sometimes top 4) go on to a single elimination tournament in which they play each other seated by their tournament ranking at the end of the swiss rounds. 1 vs. 8. 2 vs. 7. 3 vs. 6. 4 vs. 5

Swiss is designed to let the top players meet in finals instead of round one.

(Thanks to Jym Resciniti of Fly-by-Nite Events for