Byes in a Swiss tournament: who sits out and what they score

A round in which a player has no opponent and receives points without playing. It happens whenever the number of players available for pairing is odd.

• Usually a full point. The standard for the pairing-allocated bye in a Swiss.
• It is not a game. No opponent, no colour, and it does not count as a game played for rating purposes.
• One per player, normally. Pairing software avoids giving the same person a second bye while anybody eligible has not had one.
• It is announced, not concealed. The player should be told before the round rather than discovering it at an empty table.

Where the odd number comes from and how to avoid it in the first place - an odd field.

Not at random. The pairing rules define the order, and knowing it removes the suspicion that the organizer chose.

• The lowest-placed player who has not had one. The bye goes to the bottom of the standings, among those still eligible.
• Nobody gets two while somebody has none. Eligibility is exhausted before anyone repeats.
• Withdrawn players are not paired at all - they are removed from the field rather than given byes.
• Software decides it, not the arbiter. Which is exactly why using a real pairing engine matters: the answer is defensible - where pairings come from.

The requested bye is the one worth offering at amateur events: it lets somebody play five rounds of seven instead of not entering at all. State in the regulations how many are allowed and by when they must be requested - what belongs in the regulations.

A forfeit is not a bye, though both mean a game was not played. The distinction matters for the standings and for the report.

• A win by forfeit is recorded as a win but flagged as unplayed - the point counts, the game does not.
• A loss by forfeit likewise: zero points, no game played.
• Neither counts for rating. Unplayed games are excluded from rating calculations entirely.
• Both sides absent means a double forfeit: nobody scores.

In tournament files these appear with specific codes rather than as ordinary results, which is how software knows to exclude them from ratings and to treat them differently in tie-breaks - when a forfeit is declared.

This is where byes become genuinely important, and where organizers get caught out.

The solution used in the current rules is a virtual opponent: the unplayed round is treated as a game against a notional player whose score is derived from your own result and position. The details are set out in the tie-break regulations and were revised recently.

• Do not compute it by hand. The arithmetic is fiddly and the rules change; use software that implements the current edition.
• Announce which tie-breaks you use. Different coefficients treat byes differently, and the order decides places - tie-breaks explained, the Buchholz score.
• Expect questions. A player who received a bye and finished fourth on tie-break will ask, and «the software did it» is not an answer they accept - be able to point at the rule.

• Keep a spare player. A club regular willing to play if the field is odd solves it entirely - and many are happy to.
• The organizer plays. Works if somebody else can run the pairings; do not do both.
• Round-robin below twelve players. With a small odd field a round robin gives everybody a rest round anyway, and the schedule is fixed - round-robin events.
• Close entries slightly late. Ten minutes at the desk often produces the person who evens the field.
• Do not turn anybody away to keep it even. A bye is a minor inconvenience; being sent home is not.

And whatever you do, announce the rule at the opening: «if the field is odd, somebody sits out a round and receives a point, chosen by the pairing rules». Thirty seconds, and no suspicion afterwards - the opening announcement.