Side Game Sections

Side games are rated games played outside the main tournament schedule — a player whose opponent didn’t show, a parent who wants a rated game while waiting, a house player filling in. They never fit neatly into a section’s round structure, because any two available players might sit down at any time.

A side game section solves this. Mark a section as a side game section and SwissSys stops trying to pair it like a regular Swiss. Instead, you create each game yourself by dragging one player onto another, and SwissSys quietly takes care of the round bookkeeping — creating rounds when needed and giving everyone who isn’t playing a zero-point bye, so the section always stays ready for a rating report.

Setting Up a Side Game Section

Create the section

Create a section for your side games as usual (for example, name it “Side Games”).

Enable the option

In the section’s setup dialog (Setup → Tournament setup and tools, or Section → Current section settings), check Side game section.

Confirm

Click OK.

Checking the box also checks Exclude from batch operations for you, so batch printing and reports skip the section by default (you can uncheck that one independently if you want the section included). Batch pairing always skips a side game section, regardless of that checkbox.

The section’s tab at the top of the main window turns amber/gold, so you can always tell your side game section apart from the regular sections at a glance. The currently selected section still highlights green, whichever section it is.

The side game option is available for regular Swiss sections only — not team, round robin, ladder, or double-blitz sections.

Adding Players to the Section

Get players into the side game section the same ways you always have:

Drag from the main grid: drag a player’s orange handle (the small three-line icon in the leftmost column) onto the side game section’s tab, then choose Duplicate. Duplicating keeps the player active in their main section.
Register directly: house players or walk-ins can be registered straight into the section with Players → Register.

Players added after the section already has rounds are automatically caught up with zero-point byes for the earlier rounds.

Pairing a Side Game

With the side game section selected:

Find the first player

Find the first player in the main window (wall chart or standings view).

Drag the orange handle

Drag their orange handle onto the other player’s row. The status bar shows who is about to be paired.

Confirm colors and drop

Drop. A confirmation window appears showing the two players with colors already assigned at random. Click Swap colors if you want them the other way around, then OK.

That’s it — the game appears on the pairing chart with its own board number, and you enter its result exactly like any other game.

What SwissSys Does Behind the Scenes

Situation when you drop	What happens
No round is open (all results entered)	A new round is created. The two players are paired; everyone else gets a zero-point bye.
A round is open (some games still unfinished)	The new game is added to the open round on the next free board.

The zero-point byes are worth no points and are not rated games — they simply keep every player’s round history complete, which is what the rating report needs. They don’t clutter the pairing chart: the chart shows only actual games.

One Game per Player per Round

A player can have only one game in a round. SwissSys will tell you (and block the drop) if:

either player still has an unfinished game in the open round — enter that result first;
either player already played in the open round — enter the rest of the round’s results, and the next side game starts a fresh round;
either player holds a full- or half-point bye in the open round — remove the bye on the pairing chart first if they should play instead;
either player has withdrawn — re-activate them first.

So a house player can play any number of side games — each one simply lands in a later round. If they need a second game right away while their first round-game is still open, enter the outstanding results so a new round can begin.

Results, Reports, and Rating

Enter results through the pairing chart or results editor, exactly as in any other section.
The wall chart and standings show the section like any other; players who didn’t play in a round show a zero-point bye (U).
The section is included in USCF rating reports as usual (unless you exclude it), and only the actual games are reported as rated games.

If your side game section runs more rounds than the number you declared at setup, SwissSys grows the section’s round count automatically — pair side games whenever you need them.

Things to Know

Undo: a side game pairing can be undone right after you make it with Edit → Undo side game pairing.
Reserved byes are honored: if a player has a half-point bye on file for the round being created, they receive that half-point bye, not a zero-point bye.
Converting an existing section: you can mark a section that already has rounds as a side game section (SwissSys asks you to confirm). Existing rounds and results are kept.
Fixing a mistake: you can also delete a wrongly created game from the pairing chart (delete pairing), exactly like any manually edited pairing.
Batch operations: “Pair all sections” never touches a side game section. Trying Pairings → Pair next round inside one shows a reminder that side game sections are paired by drag and drop.

Tournament Setup and Tools – The section setup dialog where the option lives
Pairings Setup Dialog – Manual pairing controls for regular sections
PAB (Pairing-Allocated Bye) – How byes work in regular sections
Results Editor – Entering and correcting results