Accelerated Pairings - Rules for Pairing Dialog

Accelerated pairing systems can be used to narrow the field more quickly and cut down on the number of blow-out games in the early rounds.

They do so by adding “imaginary” or “fictitious” points to the top players and pairing them as if they had a higher score than they really do.

FIDE Baku System

For FIDE, the Baku system is used, which gives the top half of the field an extra point for the first three rounds, then half a point for rounds four and five.

These points are only used for pairing purposes (hence the term “fictitious points”.) The Baku system applies only to events of 9 or more rounds.

USCF Mode

Accelerated pairings in USCF mode work similarly, except that they can be used at any time, and there is the further option of double acceleration, which breaks the field up into four subgroups and awards fictitious points based on which of the four groups a player is in.

Board Assignment

When using accelerated pairings, players can be assigned boards based on either their true score or their adjusted (fictitious) score. This is an option on the pair chart tab of the Format Options dialog.