The FIDE Dutch system is a Swiss System pairing method which has developed over many years. If you are working with the FIDE Rule Set and choose Standard Swiss as the pairing method, this is what will be used.

 

The goal is to provide an "algorithmic" pairing method which will provide for an exact set of pairings in effectively every case, avoiding any "judgment calls" on the part of the arbiter in charge of the pairings. The overall description is quite complicated to cover even very rare special cases, but we will summarize the main points. Note that this was designed for use in "professional" chess tournaments, and many of the rules are not designed for scholastic or recreational tournaments.

 

Aggressive Color Correction

Correcting the maximum number of colors within a score group takes precedence over almost anything other than avoidance of repeat pairings.

 

"Hard" Rankings of the Players

To avoid judgment calls, players with identical ratings are ranked, first by title (for instance, a 2450 GM is ranked higher than a 2450 IM), and then alphabetically. (Under US Chess methods, players with identical ratings are freely interchangeable). If everyone has a rating, this will generally have little effect after the first few rounds because you would usually not have more than one person with a particular rating in a given score group. If you have many unrateds, however, those who are first in alphabetical order will systematically get tougher pairings than those with names that sort later.

 

Float Protections

Players who have had a "float" in the past two rounds will (if possible) not receive the same float. In many cases, it's impossible to avoid this—a player in clear first will have to be downfloated each round as long as she remains clear first. Note also that color correction takes precedence over this.

 

Specific Preference Order for Pairing Changes

If it's possible to correct the maximum number of colors in a score group (without repeating pairings), that will be done. Among different ways to do that (which we will call feasible pairings), there is a specific order in which those are examined, and this takes into account only the ranking of the players, not their ratings. First, any transposition (rearranging the players in the bottom half only) is preferred over any interchange (moving a player from the top half to the bottom half). Among transpositions, ones that keep the high boards as close to natural as possible are chosen over ones that alter the high boards—in particular, any feasible pairing which keeps the top board intact is chosen over any other pairing which has player #1 playing someone lower than his natural pairing.

 

Examples

 

Suppose we have the following, where (g) and (m) indicate GM title and International Master title respectively and W and B indicate what color they had in the first round.

 

 

If all pairings among these players are permitted, the FIDE Dutch pairings are 1 v 6, 2 v 9, 3 v 7, 4 v 8, 5 v 10. Because there are six players who had W, and just four who had B, there will have to be one pairing with two players who just had W—since leaving 1 v 6 intact takes priority if possible, that's the pairing that is used. Note that this would be the pairing if #1 were a 2650 GM (rather than 2450), and it would be the same pairing if #1 and #2 were both IM's with 2450 ratings, and the first was named Adams, and the second Bennett (so the first would be ranked higher alphabetically).
 

 

This is the same except that we've switched colors for #6 and #7. Now the Dutch system pairings are the natural ones, with the bad color on #4 vs #9.

 

Now we'll take the same set, but add that #1 and #6 can't play each other. In that case, #1 plays #7—#7 is the highest ranked opponent for #1 that permits a feasible pairing (one with only one bad color). Note that #1 does not play #8 (the highest ranked bottom half opponent with the correct color). The other pairings are #2 v #9, #3 vs #6, #4 vs #8, #5 vs #10.

 

 

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