Swiss-system chess tournaments and unfairness

L\'aszl\'o Csat\'o and Alex Krumer

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: The Swiss-system is an increasingly popular competition format as it provides a favourable trade-off between the number of matches and ranking accuracy. However, there is no empirical study on the potential unfairness of Swiss-system chess tournaments caused by the odd number of rounds played. To analyse this issue, our paper compares the number of points scored in the tournament between players who played one game more with the white pieces and players who played one game less with the white pieces. Using data from 28 highly prestigious competitions, we find that players with an extra white game score significantly more points. In particular, the advantage exceeds the value of a draw in the four Grand Swiss tournaments. A potential solution to this unfairness could be organising Swiss-system chess tournaments with an even number of rounds, and guaranteeing a balanced colour assignment for all players using a recently proposed pairing mechanism.

Date: 2024-10, Revised 2026-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des, nep-inv and nep-spo
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