# Aren't Accelerated Pairings To Be Done For The 1st 2 Rounds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Running Chess Tournaments\ **Created:** [October 8, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827 "2026-10-08T16:38:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/1 "2026-10-08T16:38:00Z")
When using accelerated pairings in a tournament, aren’t they supposed to be used for the first 2 rounds of a tournament and not for the first round only? ---
**Author:** ![ulmont](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/ulmont/32/151_2.png) [@ulmont](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ulmont)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 5:10pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/2 "2026-10-08T17:10:33Z")
Ken, The rules are fairly self-explanatory on this point, and even the title of the rule suggests the answer: > 28R. Accelerated pairings in the first two rounds. > … > For the third and subsequent rounds, the temporary rating adjustments are ignored and the pairings are made according to the basic system. ---
**Author:** ![nolan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/nolan/32/174_2.png) [@nolan](https://forum.uschess.org/u/nolan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/3 "2026-10-08T17:20:23Z")
Accelerated pairings are supposed to give the equivalent of one additional round, but that benefit really only accrues to players at the top of the standings. My one experience with an accelerated pairings event as a player was not an enjoyable one, I won my first two rounds (as a 1400 player well below the break) and then got stuck with the defending state champion in round 3 on one of the top boards. I got crushed. It seems like lower rated players don’t get much benefit from accelerated pairings. One round acceleration seems even worse. ---
**Author:** ![jwiewel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/jwiewel/32/104_2.png) [@jwiewel](https://forum.uschess.org/u/jwiewel)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/4 "2026-10-08T17:20:39Z")
One case immediately comes to mind as a justification for only doing accelerated parings in round one. If there are enough players entering during the first round then it may be preferable to split the section into two with prizes for each one. In that case the accelerated round one pairings are valid normal Swiss pairings for each of the two sections. For larger non-US-Chess-rated fixed board team tournaments with weighted boards that make ties unlikely I have done a partial acceleration in round three of a four-round event if there are six 2-0 teams with exactly two from the lower rating bands. Those two are paired against the top two 1-1 teams and the remaining four winnow down to a single 4-0 team. I’ve only done it when there are 40+ teams and four rounds. ---
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/5 "2026-10-08T17:52:16Z")
What do you do if your software allows accelerated pairings for Round 1 only? ---
**Author:** ![ulmont](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/ulmont/32/151_2.png) [@ulmont](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ulmont)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/6 "2026-10-08T17:52:57Z")
> [@nolan](#): > > Accelerated pairings are supposed to give the equivalent of one additional round, but that benefit really only accrues to players at the top of the standings. > > My one experience with an accelerated pairings event as a player was not an enjoyable one, I won my first two rounds (as a 1400 player well below the break) and then got stuck with the defending state champion in round 3 on one of the top boards. > > I got crushed. > > It seems like lower rated players don’t get much benefit from accelerated pairings. One round acceleration seems even worse. The benefit really can only accrue to players at the top of the standings, since the goal is only to try and avoid multiple perfect scores and have the top contenders have a better chance of facing each other. I note that absent accelerated pairings you might have faced that defending state champion in round 1, which isn’t an improvement. Fundamentally, a section spanning around 1000 rating points is never going to be great. ---
**Author:** ![ulmont](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/ulmont/32/151_2.png) [@ulmont](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ulmont)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/7 "2026-10-08T17:53:24Z")
I find software that works. What software are you dealing with? ---
**Author:** ![ngl5000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4af34b/32.png) [@ngl5000](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ngl5000)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/8 "2026-10-08T18:05:01Z")
I’m guessing Ken is using Chess Nut. If so, he caught us in the middle of an update to that feature where we are moving it to the section settings from the pairing button. If that is right Ken, can you give it an hour while this gets finished? Sorry for the inconvenience ---
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/9 "2026-10-08T18:19:08Z")
ngl5000. . .Thanks for the information. ---
**Author:** ![TomDoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TomDoan](https://forum.uschess.org/u/TomDoan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/10 "2026-10-08T18:51:57Z")
Actually, it has the same effect at the bottom as at the top (theoretically). If all results are W-L, then standard accelerated pairings will give you 1/8 at 2-0, 3/4 at 1-1 and 1/8 at 0-2 while standard pairings will be 1/4 at 2-0, 1/2 at 1-1 and 1/4 at 0-2, so it should produce fewer oh-for-the-tournament. (As Mike Zacate would explain, you earned the right to get crushed by starting 2-0 rather than getting crushed right off the bat). "One round’ of accelerated pairings basically just switches rounds 1 and 2 with no real benefit to anyone. The point of accelerated pairings under US Chess rules is to (in theory) reduce the number of perfect scores. It can fail miserably if the bottom half R1 winners win more than half their games vs the top half R1 losers (you could then end up with more perfect scores, not fewer). You’re not really supposed to use it unless there is a rather substantial spread in the ratings. The standard FIDE acceleration jimmies the pairings through the first half of the tournament (5 rounds in a 9 round), but throttles back the adjustment from 1 point to 0.5 points after half of the acceleration period. I assume someone did some simulations which showed that that improved the rank correlation of ratings with results, though probably with a section roster which more closely resembles big international opens rather than small one-section Swisses. In a 9 round international open, they don’t have to worry about perfect scores since the winner’s score is likely no higher than 8.0. ---
**Author:** ![chessgary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@chessgary](https://forum.uschess.org/u/chessgary)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/11 "2026-10-08T20:08:56Z")
We modified a 1v2 section of 8 players to accelerate the 1st round 1-3 4-2 5-7 8-6 then switching to a regular 1v2 for round 2. I could not figure out how to do the switch as the accelerate was locked in for round two (swiss sys) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![nolan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/nolan/32/174_2.png) [@nolan](https://forum.uschess.org/u/nolan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 9:07pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/12 "2026-10-08T21:07:16Z")
That’s probably a better way of handling it than 1 vs 2 and 3 vs 4 in round one. A one-round acceleration mostly just pushes the likely first round matchups to round 2 (first round upset wins and draws notwithstanding). ---
**Author:** ![TomDoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TomDoan](https://forum.uschess.org/u/TomDoan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/13 "2026-10-08T21:09:30Z")
I’m a bit confused about what you were trying to do. That sounds like it would give you 1-2, 3-4 pairings but with rounds 1 and 2 reversed. ---
**Author:** ![chessgary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@chessgary](https://forum.uschess.org/u/chessgary)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 2:16am UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/14 "2026-10-09T02:16:34Z")
Some folks said they would prefer the 1-2 matchup in the 2nd round rather than 1st. The thought is this might do that. If we want to accelerate then it is only two manual swaps from the normal 1v2. ---
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/15 "2026-10-09T20:08:50Z")
**In October 2005, Jeff typed data for Accelerated Pairings at the Link below:** “[accelerated pairings - #2 by jwiewel](https://forum.uschess.org/t/accelerated-pairings/652/2)” **The data included the 1st and 2nd rounds of accelerated pairings:** With acceleration, if there are no upsets then there is only one perfect 3-0 score at the end. Round 1 (the top half - for this tournament the 1400+ players - are paired as if they had an extra point in the first two rounds) 1750 beats 1550 1700 beats 1500 1650 beats 1450 1600 beats 1400 1350 beats 1150 1300 beats 1100 1250 beats 1050 1200 beats 1000 Round 2 (1400+ players are paired as if they had an extra point, 2 games between 1-0 players, four games between a higher-rated 0-1 and a lower rated 1-0, 2 games between 0-1 players) 1750 beats 1650 1700 beats 1600 1550 beats 1350 1500 beats 1300 1450 beats 1250 1400 beats 1200 1150 beats 1050 1100 beats 1000 * * * **My question is the following:** Is it possible to have somewhat different pairings for Round 2? The first column text is different than what Jeff typed below: 1750 beats 1600 : Jeff typed - 1750 beats 1650 1700 beats 1650 : Jeff typed - 1700 beats 1600 1550 beats 1350 1500 beats 1300 1450 beats 1250 1400 beats 1200 1150 beats 1000 : Jeff typed - 1150 beats 1050 1100 beats 1050 : Jeff typed - 1100 beats 1000 ---
**Author:** ![ulmont](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/ulmont/32/151_2.png) [@ulmont](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ulmont)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/16 "2026-10-09T20:14:27Z")
> [@KenFarrar](#): > > In October 2005, Jeff typed data for Accelerated Pairings at the Link below: Ken, that was literally 21 years ago… ---
**Author:** ![dejava1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/dejava1/32/2911_2.png) [@dejava1](https://forum.uschess.org/u/dejava1)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:16pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/17 "2026-10-09T20:16:41Z")
Accelerated pairings is just having (additional) virtual scores for certain top groups of players and keep that scores on certain rounds. The purpose is to eliminate lower rated players quicker than normal pairings. So depending on the total players, total rounds and the goals. The virtual numbers also can be 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 or even 2 or more. ---
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/18 "2026-10-09T20:22:28Z")
Yes. Are accelerated pairings done any different now? ---
**Author:** ![ulmont](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/ulmont/32/151_2.png) [@ulmont](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ulmont)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/arent-accelerated-pairings-to-be-done-for-the-1st-2-rounds/61827/19 "2026-10-09T20:41:57Z")
I have not looked up this point in the rulebook effective 21 years ago, so couldn’t tell you.