A tournament table template

This is a round-robin table(also called a crosstable): every player plays every other. On the left are the player's number and surname, and beyond them the columns with the opponents' numbers. The result of a game is written in the cell where they cross. The grey diagonal is the «against yourself» cells, and they stay empty.

On the right are three final columns: TB (the tie-break that separates equal scores), Points and Place. The «Rank» column is for official tournaments - in a friendly event you can leave it empty.

Here is the same 10-player form, but filled in to the end - the tournament has been played and the placings decided. Let us use it to go through what goes where.

1. 1The header. We wrote in the name of the tournament («Vibe Chess Club Cup») and the date. At the bottom of the sheet the chief arbiter and the secretary signed - for an official record that is compulsory.
2. 2The players.The surnames go into the «Surname, initials» column, with the rank beside them (candidate master, first category, second category, unranked). The order in the list sets the players' numbers for the whole tournament: Ivanov is No. 1, Petrov No. 2 and so on. The same numbers appear in the column headers.
3. 3The result is written twice. Every game produces two entries, mirroring each other. Ivanov (row 1) drew with Kuznetsova (No. 4): row 1 column 4 holds ½, and row 4 column 1 holds ½ as well. For a win it is 1 to the winner and 0 to the loser. This is the key rule: if one cell holds 1, the mirror cell must hold 0.
4. 4The points. Simply the sum along the row. Ivanov has nine games: eight wins and one draw - 8½ points. Novikov (No. 10) has a single draw in the whole tournament - ½ a point.
5. 5The tie-break. It is only worked out when players are level on points (how to calculate it is in the next section). Petrov and Kuznetsova are level, on 6½ each.
6. 6The place.First by points, and where those are equal, by the tie-break. Kuznetsova has a tie-break of 24.75 against Petrov's 23.25, so second place is hers and Petrov is third - even though they have the same number of points.

A common beginner's mistake is to fill in only «your» half of the table. The row totals then fail to add up and the standings have to be worked out all over again. Enter both cells straight after the game, while the result is still fresh.

A few more rules that save the arbiter's nerves:

• Fill it in with a pen rather than a pencil, and do not white anything out: cross out a disputed cell and write the correct value beside it - that way the history of corrections is visible.
• Do not move players around after the tournament has started: the numbers in the column headers are tied to the rows, and rearranging them makes the whole grid shift.
• A no-show counts as a loss: 1 to the opponent, 0 to the absentee. If neither turns up, both get 0.
• Fill in the points and the placings only once every game has been played, otherwise you will be rewriting them after every round.

In round-robin tournaments ties on points are broken by the Sonneborn-Berger score It is worked out like this: the sum of the points of all the opponents the player beat, plus half the sum of the points of those they drew with. Games lost do not count towards it.

The logic is simple: beating a strong player who scored a lot weighs more than beating an also-ran. Whoever has the higher score stands higher in the table. In the example above that is exactly how second and third place were separated.

• 10 players - 45 games, 9 rounds. The cells are large, and it can realistically be played over two or three evenings.
• 15 players - 105 games, 15 rounds. A club format spread over several weeks.
• 20 players - 190 games, 19 rounds. A long tournament: it only makes sense if the players meet regularly.

The main thing about the round robin: the number of games grows as the square. Double the players and the number of games goes up fourfold. So if you have a lot of people, or the tournament has to be finished in one evening, a round robin will not do - take the Swiss system: there a 16-player tournament fits into 5 rounds instead of 15.

• A4, landscape - the whole grid fits, right up to 20 players.
• Black and grey only: it prints on any printer and needs no colour cartridge.
• No logos and no advertising - you can pin it on the club wall or file it with the records.
• If there are fewer players than rows on the form, the extra rows and columns simply stay empty.
• The form for 20 is easier to print on A3 - choose scaling when printing and the cells get larger.

These are two different ways of deciding who plays whom. The round-robin table above is for the first. The difference is fundamental, and it decides whether the tournament fits into one evening or stretches over a month.

• The round robin: the pairs are known in advance - everyone plays everyone. The number of rounds is rigidly tied to the number of players, so the tournament is long, but the outcome is as objective as it gets: everyone played everyone on equal terms.
• The Swiss: the pairs are set afresh before each round - your opponent is picked from the players on the same score. Those who lost play those who lost, and the leaders play the leaders. There are no repeat meetings and the colours alternate. You set the number of rounds yourself, and it does not depend on the number of players.

Hence a simple rule: up to 8-10 people with time to spare - a round robin, it is fairer. More people, or a single evening - a Swiss. There is more on the number of rounds in how many rounds in a Swiss system.

The main practical difference for the organiser: a round-robin grid can be ruled up in advance and kept on paper, and a Swiss one cannot. Before every round you have to sort everyone by points again, keep apart those who have already played and keep track of the colours. At 20 players that is already beyond doing by hand - which is why Swiss tournaments are run in software.

A printed form is a perfectly good solution for a small round robin: nothing breaks, runs out of battery or loses signal. But paper has a limit, and it arrives sooner than you would think:

• The table exists in a single copy: players cannot see where they stand until they come over to the arbiter.
• The points and tie-breaks are worked out by a person - which means that sooner or later they will slip, and the whole sheet has to be redone.
• For the Swiss system paper barely works at all: the pairing for every round has to be done by hand.
• After the tournament the sheet gets lost, and no history of results builds up.

All of this was automated long ago, free of charge and in two ways to choose from - through a Telegram bot or right through the site. Below is how to start a tournament in each.

It suits the case where the players are on their phones anyway: everyone registers themselves, gets their own pairs and records their own result. The organiser needs neither a computer nor paper.

1. 1Open the bot. Go to Vibe Chess Bot and press «Start». No separate registration or passwords are needed - you sign in with your Telegram account.
2. 2Create a tournament. The bot walks you through a wizard: the name («Friday blitz»), the date and start time in the format 25.05.2026 18:00, the number of rounds, and at the end the maximum number of players, the entry fee (0 if it is free) and a description with the rules. The optional fields can be skipped.
3. 3Choose the number of rounds. There is a guide right in the bot: 8-16 players - 5 rounds, 17-32 - 6, 33-64 - 7. This is the main saving over a round robin.
4. 4Open registration. Players find the tournament in the list for their city and sign up themselves. Those without Telegram are added by the organiser by hand, as a guest by name - they play in the general pairing on equal terms with everyone else.
5. 5Close entries and start the first round. The field is fixed and the bot does the pairing itself: it does not pair those who have already met, it alternates colours, and with an odd number of players it hands out a bye by itself. Every player gets a message with their table number and their opponent.
6. 6Collect the results. After the game the players press a button with the outcome. If both give the same answer the result is accepted; if they differ, the bot flags a dispute and calls the organiser. A player checks their own details with the commands /my_pairing and /standings.
7. 7The next round is one button. The table with points and the Buchholz score is recalculated automatically after every round, and every player can see it. At the end the bot announces the final standings.

The full version with a walkthrough of every screen is in the organiser's guide. What a player does is in how to play without Telegram.

It happens that Telegram will not open for most of the players and people have already turned up to play. For that case the site has an online tournament section - a web version that works in an ordinary browser, with nothing to install and no messenger needed.

1. 1Open the section. Go to the page online tournament on a computer, a tablet or a phone - the app starts right on the page.
2. 2Enter the players. The organiser types the list in on the spot - the players need download nothing and register for nothing.
3. 3Start the rounds. The Swiss pairing is calculated by itself, and the pairs are listed by table - you can show them on a screen or print them out.
4. 4Enter the results and watch the table. The organiser enters the results, and the points and the tie-break are recalculated automatically.

Both ways are free and score the tournament by the same rules. And one does not get in the way of the other: many organisers run the tournament in the bot and hang a printed form on the wall so that everyone can see. There is more on the features in tournament software.

It is convenient to play the games with an online chess clock- the timer works right in your phone's browser, and there is nothing to download there either.