DUBOV SYSTEM

Approved by the Council on 28/10/2025

Applied from 1st February, 2026

 

0.      Preface

The Dubov Swiss Pairing System is designed to maximise the fair treatment of the players. This means that a player having more points than another player during a tournament should have a higher performance rating as well. If the average rating of all players is nearly equal, like in a round robin tournament, the goal is reached. As a Swiss System is a statistical system, this goal can only be reached approximately. The approach is the attempt to equalise the average rating of the opponents (ARO, see Article 1.7) of all players of a scoregroup. Therefore, the pairing of a round will now pair players who have a low ARO against opponents who have high ratings.

 

1.      Introductory Remarks and Definitions

1.1     Rating

1.1.1      Each player must have a rating.

1.1.2      If a player does not have a rating, a provisional one must be assigned to the player by the Chief Arbiter.

1.2     Tournament Pairing Number ("TPN")

1.2.1      For the definition and management of TPNs, see Article 2 of the General Handling Rules for Swiss Tournaments (Initial Order and Late Entries).

1.2.2      Each time a player's rating is introduced or modified before the pairing of the fourth round, the Chief Arbiter must recalculate the TPNs.

1.3     Scoregroups and Pairing Brackets

1.3.1      A scoregroup is composed of all the players with the same score.

1.3.2      A (pairing) bracket is a group of players to be paired. It is composed of players coming from the same scoregroup (called resident players) and (possibly) of players coming from lower scoregroups (called upfloaters).

1.4     Pairing-Allocated Bye

See Article 3 of the Basic Rules for Swiss Systems (Should the number of participants to be paired be odd, one participant is not paired. This participant receives a pairing-allocated bye: no opponent, no colour and as many points as are rewarded for a win, unless the rules of the tournament state otherwise. This number of points shall be the same for all pairing-allocated byes).

1.5     Colour Difference

The colour difference of a player is the number of games played with White minus the number of games played with Black by this player.

1.6     Colour Preferences

The colour preference (also called: due colour) is the colour that a player should ideally receive for the next game.

1.6.1      An absolute colour preference occurs when a player's colour difference is greater than +1 or less than -1, or when a player had the same colour in the two latest rounds they played. The preference is for White when the colour difference is less than -1 or when the last two games were played with Black. The preference is for Black when the colour difference is greater than +1, or when the last two games were played with White.

1.6.2      A strong colour preference occurs when a player's colour difference is +1 (preference for Black) or -1 (preference for White).

1.6.3      A mild colour preference occurs when a player's colour difference is zero, the preference being to alternate the colour with respect to the previous game they played.

1.6.4      Players who did not play any games are considered to have a mild colour preference for Black.

1.7     Average Rating of Opponents (ARO)

1.7.1      ARO is defined for each player who has played at least one game. It is given by the sum of the ratings of the opponents the player met over-the-board (i.e. only played games are used to compute ARO), divided by the number of such opponents, and rounded to the nearest integer number (the higher, if the division ends for 0.5).

1.7.2      ARO is computed for each player after each round as a basis for the pairings of the next round.

1.7.3      If a player has yet to play a game, their ARO is zero.

1.8     Maximum Upfloater

1.8.1      A player is said to be a maximum upfloater when they have already been upfloated a maximum number of times (MaxT).

1.8.2      MaxT is a parameter whose value depends on the number of rounds in the tournament (Rnds), and is computed with the following formula:

MaxT = 2 + [Rnds/5]

where [Rnds/5] means Rnds divided by 5 and rounded downwards.

1.9     Round-Pairing Outlook

1.9.1      The pairing of a round (called round-pairing) is complete if all the players (except at most one, who receives the pairing-allocated bye) have been paired and the absolute criteria [C1] to [C3] (see Article 2.1) have been complied with.

1.9.2      The pairing process starts with the assignment of the pairing-allocated-bye (see Article 3.1) and continues with the pairing of all the scoregroups (see Article 3.2), in descending order of score, until the round-pairing is complete.

1.9.3      If it is impossible to complete a round-pairing, the Chief Arbiter shall decide what to do.

Note:     Article 2 defines all the criteria that the pairing of a bracket has to satisfy (in order of priority).

             Article 3 defines the pairing procedures and Article 4 the sorting criteria used in them.

Article 5 defines the colour allocation rules that determine which players will play with White.

 

2.      Pairing Criteria

2.1     Absolute Criteria

No pairing shall violate the following absolute criteria:

2.1.1      [C1] See the Basic Rules for Swiss, Article 2 (Two participants shall not play against each other more than once).

2.1.2      [C2] See the Basic Rules for Swiss, Article 4 (A participant who has already received a pairing-allocated bye, or has already scored in one single round, without playing, as many points as rewarded for a win, shall not receive the pairing-allocated bye).

2.1.3      [C3] Two players with the same absolute colour preference (see Article 1.6.1) shall not meet (see the Basic Rules for Swiss, Articles 6 and 7).

2.2     Completion Criterion

2.2.1      [C4] A pairing complying with all the absolute criteria (see Article 2.1) shall always exist for all players not yet paired.

2.3     Quality Criteria

To obtain the best possible pairing for a bracket, comply as much as possible with the following criteria, given in descending priority:

2.3.1      [C5] Minimise the number of upfloaters.

2.3.2      [C6] Minimise the score differences (taken in descending order) in the pairs involving upfloaters, i.e. maximise the scores (taken in ascending order) of the upfloaters.

2.3.3      [C7] Minimise the number of players who do not get their colour preference.

2.3.4      [C8] Unless it is the last round, minimise the number of upfloaters who are maximum upfloaters (see Article 1.8).

2.3.5      [C9] Unless it is the last round, minimise the number of times a maximum upfloater is upfloated.

2.3.6      [C10] Unless it is the last round, minimise the number of upfloaters who upfloated in the previous round.

 

3.      Pairing Procedures

3.1     Pairing-Allocated-Bye Assignment

The pairing-allocated-bye is assigned to the player who:

3.1.1      has neither received a pairing-allocated-bye, nor scored a (forfeit) win in the previous rounds (see [C2], Article 2.1.2)

3.1.2      allows a complete pairing of all the remaining players (see [C4], Article 2.2.1)

3.1.3      has the lowest score

3.1.4      has played the highest number of games

3.1.5      has the largest TPN (see Article 1.2)

3.2     Pairing Process for a Bracket

3.2.1      Determine the minimum number of upfloaters needed to obtain a legal pairing of all the (remaining) resident players of the scoregroup.

Note:   A pairing is legal when the criteria [C1], [C3] and [C4] (see Articles 2.1.1, 2.1.3 and 2.2.1 respectively) are complied with.

3.2.2      Choose the first set of upfloaters (first in the order given by Article 4.2) that, together with the (remaining) resident players of this scoregroup, produces a pairing that complies at best with all the pairing criteria ([C1] to [C10], see Articles 2.1 to 2.3).

Note:   To choose the best set of upfloaters, consider that the ensuing bracket (residents + upfloaters) is paired better than another one if it better satisfies a quality criterion ([C5] to [C10], see Article 2.3) of higher priority.

3.2.3      The players of the bracket are divided in two subgroups:

1. G1

This subgroup initially contains the players who have a colour preference for White, unless all the players in the bracket have yet to play a game (like, for instance, in the first round). In the latter case, this subgroup contains the first half of the players of the bracket (according to their TPN).

1. G2

This subgroup initially contains the remaining players of the bracket.

3.2.4      G1/G2 re-composition

1. If players from the smaller subgroup (or from G1, if their sizes are equal) must unavoidably be paired together, a number of players equal to the number of such pairs must be shifted from that subgroup into the other one. Find the best set of such players and proceed with the shift.
2. Now, if the number of players in (the possibly new) G1 is different from the number of players in (the possibly new) G2, in order to equalise the size of the two subgroups, extract the best set of players from the larger subgroup, and shift those players into the smaller subgroup.

Note:   Best, in both instances, means the first set of players (first in the order given by Article 4.3) that can yield a legal pairing that complies at best with [C7] (see Article 2.3.3).

3.2.5      Sort the players in (the possibly new) G1 in order of ascending ARO or, when AROs are equal, according to their ascending TPN. S1 is the subgroup resulting from such sorting.

Note:   The sorting of G2 players is described in Article 4.3.

3.2.6      Choose T2, which is the first such transposition of G2 players (transpositions are sorted by Article 4.4) that can yield a legal pairing, according to the following generation rule: the first player of S1 is paired with the first player of T2, the second player of S1 with the second player of T2, and so on.

 

4.      Sorting Criteria

4.1     Generalities

In the articles of this section, the schema below is followed:

4.1.1      A pool of P players is selected.

4.1.2      Each player in the pool is assigned a sequence number (from #1 to #P) according to a primary sorting criterion.

4.1.3      In order to select a set of K such players, the sets are sorted according to the smallest differing sequence number of their members. For instance, with K=2, the set {#1,#2} will precede {#1,#3}, the set {#1,#P} will precede {#2,#3}, and so on.

4.2     Sorting the Upfloaters

4.2.1      All those players that have a lower score than the resident players of the scoregroup to be paired, are possible upfloaters and constitute the selected pool (see Article 4.1.1).

4.2.2      Each possible upfloater receives a sequence number, according to their descending score and, when scores are equal, to their ascending TPN.

4.2.3      Compliance with criteria [C5] and [C6] (see Articles 2.3.1 and 2.3.2) determines the number of upfloaters and their scores in valid sets.

4.3     Sorting the Shifters

Any player in the bracket having a colour preference for White (Black) is a possible White (resp. Black) shifter. The need for shifters arises when, in order to make or complete a pairing, some players seeking a colour are shifted to the subgroup of players initially seeking the other colour.

4.3.1      The possible White (resp. Black) shifters constitute the selected pool (see Article 4.1.1).

4.3.2      White seekers are sorted in order of ascending ARO or, when AROs are equal, ascending TPN. Black seekers are sorted according to their ascending TPN.

4.3.3      With the list sorted as in 4.3.2, assign the sequence numbers, starting with the player in the (remaining) middle of the list or, when two players are in the (remaining) middle, to the one with a higher position in the list.

Example:   If the sorted list contains seven players (in order: A, B, C, D, E, F, G), #1 goes to D (middle of the seven players), #2 to C (higher between C and E, both in the middle of the remaining six players), #3 to E (middle of the remaining five players), #4 to B, #5 to F, #6 to A, #7 to G.

Rationale: Since the system tries to equalise the ARO of the White seekers (while the Black seekers are "tools" for reaching this goal), it is statistically better to shift White seekers with AROs in the middle (their ARO is probably already equalised), and Black seekers with ratings in the middle (because ARO equalisation is usually performed better by Black seekers with extreme ratings).

4.4     Sorting G2 Players (Transpositions)

4.4.1      The players involved are the ones that end up in the G2 subgroup after the manoeuvres described in Article 2.2.4. Such players constitute the selected pool (see Article 4.1.1).

4.4.2      The players in the G2 pool are assigned sequence numbers according to their ascending TPN. The sorted sets of G2 players are also called Transpositions.

Note:   If, for instance, players A, B, C (listed according to their ascending TPN) are in G2, the different Transpositions are {A, B, C} {A, C, B} {B, A, C} {B, C, A} {C, A, B} and {C, B, A}, in that exact order.

 

5.      Colour Allocation Rules

5.1     The initial-colour is the colour determined by drawing of lots before the pairing of the first round.

5.2     For each pair apply (with descending priority):

5.2.1      When both players have yet to play a game, if the higher ranked player (i.e. the player who has more points or, when points are equal, has a smaller TPN) has an odd TPN, give them the initial-colour; otherwise, give them the opposite colour.

5.2.2      Grant both colour preferences.

5.2.3      Grant the stronger colour preference.

5.2.4      Alternate the colours to the most recent time in which one player had White and the other Black.

Note:   Always consider Article 3.4 of the General Handling Rules for Swiss Tournaments.

5.2.5      Grant the colour preference of the higher ranked player (see Article 5.2.1).