What is Swiss Draw? A Complete Guide to How It Works

The Swiss-system tournament format was first used at a chess tournament in Zurich, Switzerland in 1895. In this format, all participants play the same number of rounds, and each round pairs players with similar records against each other.

Unlike round-robin (where everyone plays everyone) or single elimination (where one loss means elimination), the Swiss system combines the best of both formats.

In a Swiss-system tournament, pairings for each round follow these rules:

Let's look at an example of a 3-round Swiss tournament with 8 players (A through H).

In a typical Swiss tournament, points are awarded as follows:

The Swiss system has several advantages and disadvantages:

Here's how Swiss-system compares to elimination and round-robin formats:

The number of rounds needed to accurately determine standings can be calculated from the number of participants.

Formula: Rounds = ceiling of log₂(participants)

This gives us the following guidelines:

When multiple players have the same points, tiebreakers determine final standings. Here are the most common ones:

The sum of your opponents' scores. Players who faced stronger opponents get higher Buchholz scores. This is the most common tiebreaker in chess.

Example: If Player A's opponents had scores of 3, 2, and 2, their Buchholz would be 7.

Buchholz with the highest and lowest values removed. This reduces the impact of extreme values.

The sum of defeated opponents' full scores plus half of drawn opponents' scores. Players who beat stronger opponents score higher. Primarily used in round-robin tournaments.

The average win rate of your opponents. Commonly used in TCGs (Trading Card Games).

Your win rate in individual games within matches. Used in best-of-three (Bo3) formats.

The result of direct matches between tied players determines ranking.

Swiss-system tournaments are used in many different contexts:

As the birthplace of the Swiss system, chess uses it extensively from open tournaments to Grand Prix events. FIDE (World Chess Federation) includes Swiss-system rules in its official regulations.

Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, and Yu-Gi-Oh! all use Swiss-system for official tournaments. Typically, Swiss rounds serve as qualifiers, with top players advancing to a single-elimination finals.

Swiss-system is used for qualifier rounds with large participant pools. CS2 Major tournaments use a 'Buchholz Swiss' format for their group stages.

Many board game tournaments, including Shogi, Go, and Othello amateur events, use Swiss-system for fair competition.

With an odd number of players, one player receives a 'bye' each round, counting as an automatic win. Byes are typically given to the lowest-ranked player that round, and no player receives more than one bye during the tournament.

Generally no. Swiss pairing rules prevent rematches. However, with very few participants or many rounds, rematches may occasionally occur.

The recommended number is ceiling of log₂(participants). For 16 players, that's 4 rounds; for 32 players, 5 rounds. You can adjust based on time constraints.

It depends on your game. Chess typically uses Buchholz, while TCGs use Opponent Match Win %.

First by points, then by tiebreakers in order.