Chess Olympiad 2024: What is Swiss Format? Rules, points system, pairings explained

A total of 193 teams in the Open section and 181 in the Women’s will battle it out over 11 rounds in the Chess Olympiad in a Swiss Format.

Representative Image: This will be the first time since 1926 that the world’s biggest multi-national chess tournament returns to Budapest.  | Photo Credit: REUTERS

The 45th edition of the Chess Olympiad will take place in Hungary from September 10 to 23.

This will be the first time since 1926 that the world’s biggest multi-national chess tournament returns to Budapest.

A total of 193 teams in the Open section and 181 in the Women’s will battle it out over 11 rounds in a Swiss Format.

What is Swiss Format?

Swiss format is a prominent way of conducting a chess tournament, in which players/teams aren’t eliminated over the course of the competition.

In the opening round, teams/players with a higher rating are manually paired with lower-rated ones.

After this, pairings are based on the performance in the initial round: teams/players who win are matched with other winners, and losers with losers, with an effort to avoid colour repetition. Eventually, the participant with most points win the tournament.

Swiss scoring system

Loss: +0 points

Draw: +0.5 point

Win: +1 point

A Swiss Format is used in competitions with large number of entrants which makes a full round-robin tournament practically impossible.