For a Swiss tournament with 100 players:
| What | How many | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tables and boards | 50 + 2-3 spare | one board per pair; spares for breakages and latecomers |
| Playing area | about 200 m² | a guide of 2 m² per player, plus registration and spectator areas |
| Swiss rounds | 8-9 | for 65-128 players |
| Arbiters without an app | chief, deputy, secretary, 4-5 on the floor | FIDE guide: 1 arbiter per 20-30 players |
| Arbiters with the app | chief and 2 helpers on the floor | pairing and score collection are done by the app |
| Sockets | extension leads along the rows | phones with the clock run all day |
More on each estimate: a chess tournament venue, how many rounds in a Swiss system, how many arbiters a tournament needs.
A round lasts roughly twice the time control plus the increment and 5-10 minutes of break. At a big tournament the break matters more than at a small one: the last game of a round holds up all the others.
| Format | Round | Whole tournament | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blitz 5+3, 9 rounds | about 25 minutes | about 4 hours | one long evening or half a day |
| Rapid 10+5, 8 rounds | about 40 minutes | about 5.5 hours plus lunch | a full day, 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Rapid 15+10, 7 rounds | about 55 minutes | about 6.5 hours plus lunch | a full day or two days |
The classic way is to print the pairings and pin them to the wall. With a hundred players there is a crowd at the wall, and the next round starts only when the last person has found their table. What works better:
If pairings, clocks and scores live on phones, internet becomes part of the equipment. The Wi-Fi of a café or school often cannot cope with a hundred connections at once. It is more reliable when everyone uses their own mobile data, with the venue Wi-Fi as a backup. Check the signal at the far row before the tournament. In detail - internet at a chess tournament.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| 2-3 weeks ahead | open sign-up with a cap on places, announce the schedule and rules |
| A week ahead | check the venue: tables, sockets, internet at the far rows, toilets, cloakroom |
| The day before | confirmation of attendance, set out and number the tables, check the screen |
| 90 minutes before | open registration, attendance check-in |
| 15 minutes before | close registration, read out the rules |
| Start | pair round one from those present, pairings on the screen and on phones |
The full list - the tournament organiser's checklist, what an arbiter should bring - the arbiter's kit.
50 tables with boards and two or three spares.
In the Swiss system - 8-9 rounds: that is what it takes to find a winner among 65-128 players.
Without an app - a chief arbiter, a deputy, a secretary and 4-5 floor arbiters. If an app does the pairing and score collection, by our estimate a chief arbiter and two helpers are enough.
Blitz 5+3 over 9 rounds - about 4 hours, rapid 10+5 over 8 rounds - about 5.5 hours plus lunch.
Sign people up online in advance and on the day only check attendance at two or three desks. Close registration 15 minutes before the start.
The venue Wi-Fi may not. Mobile data on each phone is more reliable, with Wi-Fi as a backup. Check the signal at the far rows in advance.
Pairings are computed by bbpPairings, an open-source engine implementing the Dutch system by FIDE rules: score groups, floats on an odd field, colour alternation. Free to use.
The bot is constantly improved based on real tournaments. If you need a feature that isn't there yet, message the developers right inside the bot with the /support command. Many features appeared exactly because organizers asked for them, and useful ideas get added quickly.
More about big tournaments: a multi-day chess tournament, a chess festival, accelerated pairings and the largest chess tournament.
At the board since childhood: hazy about his rating, precise about every rook he has blundered. Counts an evening as a good one if the opponent stayed to talk afterwards instead of rushing off to check with an engine. Message →
