04.2. Regulations for Swiss System Tournaments

Short title: "FIDE Swiss Rules"
Approved by the General Assembly of 1987.
Amended by the 1988, 1989, 1997, 1998 General Assemblies and 1999 Executive Board.

Scope: These regulations are to be used in FIDE competitions and in FIDE registered competitions which are declared to be conducted by "FIDE Swiss Rules". In this case, only minor departures from these regulations are permitted, and such departures must be declared before the competition begins and the attention of participants specially drawn to the departures.
If a computer is used for making swiss pairings and an evaluation of results, this is regarded as an aid for the arbiter. He may accept or change the output; nevertheless the arbiter has the final responsibility.
Note: In the version of Reg. C.04A (FIDE Swiss Rules (1987) approved by the 1987 General Assembly, it was decided (Reg. 12.7) that the exchange of opponents, for example, so as to balance colours, should be limited to opponents with a rating difference of 100 points or less. The 1988 General Assembly decided that this restriction should apply only to "Maxi-tournaments", i.e. tournaments in which the number of participants is greater than 2ⁿ (2 raised to the power of n) where n is the number of rounds.
In the FIDE Swiss Rules (1988), approved by the 1988 General Assembly, passages in Rules 10.2 and 10.8 that are placed in parentheses, as well as Rule 12.7, are to apply only to Maxi-tournaments.
Other 1988 amendments have also been incorporated.

A. Basic Principles of Swiss System Tournaments

B. General Pairing Rules

C. Brief examples of pairing

D. Miscellaneous