16-player Swiss pairing sheet
4 rounds for 16 players. Nobody is knocked out; pair by score every round.
Prints on one Letter or A4 page. Type your own names on the home page or after you click Run this live.
Round 1 for 16 players
Split the ranked field in half and pair across: 1 v 9, 2 v 10, 3 v 11, 4 v 12, 5 v 13, 6 v 14, 7 v 15, 8 v 16. That is 8 games in round 1 and in every round after it.
Why that many rounds
If every game had a winner, about 8, 4, 2, 1 players would still be unbeaten after rounds 1 to 4. With 16 players, 4 rounds leave one player with a perfect score, which is the reason for the number. You could add a round to be sure, at a cost of 8 games.
Games and time
4 rounds of 8 games make 32 games. At 30 minutes a game that is 16 h of table time, or 2 h if you have 8 tables and every round finishes together; with half as many tables, 4 h.
How the field splits, round by round
Suppose every game has a winner and the results fall evenly. This is roughly how 16 players spread out, shown as players on each number of wins. The pairing engine always pairs inside a group first, so the groups below are the pairings you will make.
| When | Players on each score | Groups to pair |
|---|---|---|
| After round 1 | 8 on 1, 8 on 0 | 2 score groups |
| After round 2 | 4 on 2, 8 on 1, 4 on 0 | 3 score groups |
| After round 3 | 2 on 3, 6 on 2, 6 on 1, 2 on 0 | 4 score groups |
| After round 4 | 1 on 4, 4 on 3, 6 on 2, 4 on 1, 1 on 0 | 5 score groups |
What round 2 looks like
If the higher seeds win round 1, the winners meet each other in round 2: 1 v 5, 2 v 6, 3 v 7, 4 v 8. The losers meet inside their own group: 9 v 13, 10 v 14, 11 v 15, 12 v 16. If results go differently the pairings change, so make round 2 only when round 1 is finished.
A top-4 cut from 16 players
With 4 rounds, about one player finishes unbeaten. To fill a top 4 you would usually reach down to 3 wins, which about 5 players reach. That is 1 more than the 4 places, so a tiebreak (Buchholz first, then a playoff game) decides who gets the last seats.
Time by number of tables
Every round has 8 games. The columns show how long a round takes and how long the whole event takes at 30 minutes a game, plus 10 minutes between rounds to pair and seat players.
| Tables | One round | Whole event |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 h | 16 h 30 min |
| 4 | 1 h | 4 h 30 min |
| 8 | 30 min | 2 h 30 min |
If your field changes
Dropping to 12 players gives 8 fewer games, in the same number of rounds. Going up to 20 players gives 18 more games, and a round longer. Page sizes differ by the formats the numbers allow, so check the nearest size before you commit.
Questions
How many rounds for 16 players?
4. Add one round if you want a single undefeated winner to be very likely.
What if two of the 16 players tie on points?
Buchholz, the sum of your opponents' scores, decides it. Then a playoff game if the prize needs one.
Is 16 players too many for Swiss?
No. Swiss suits fields too big for a round robin (which would need 120 games) and too long for elimination.
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