Most Swiss-system tournaments are unfair: Evidence from chess

L\'aszl\'o Csat\'o

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: The Swiss-system is an increasingly popular tournament format as it provides an attractive trade-off between the number of matches and ranking accuracy. However, few research consider the optimal design of Swiss-system tournaments. We contribute to this topic by empirically investigating the fairness of 52 Swiss-system chess competitions containing an odd (9 or 11) number of rounds, where about half of the players have an extra game with the white pieces. It is verified that they often enjoy a significant advantage: they are expected to score more points and have higher chances of performing above certain thresholds. A potential solution could be to organise Swiss-system tournaments with an even number of rounds and guarantee a balanced colour assignment for all players using a recently proposed pairing mechanism.

Date: 2024-10, Revised 2025-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des, nep-inv and nep-spo
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