Some KGS Tournaments use a swiss pairing system. In a swiss system, you either play or get a bye in every round; when you lose, you are not dropped from the tournament. You get a point for every win and a half point for every bye. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie for the most points, the tie is broken by your SOS, which is the sum of the scores of all your opponents. If there is still a tie, it is broken by your SODOS, which is the sum of the scores of all opponents you defeated.
Every round the tournament system will pair the players. As in all KGS tournaments, these pairings are fully automated. The pairing system will try to achieve these goals:
These goals are not absolute, instead they are balanced against each other. If the two players with the best scores have already played each other and/or would need high handicaps to play anybody else, the pairing system may decide to pair them a second time. In addition, if there are an odd number of players, the system will be forced to give somebody a bye; it tries to select a player with a low score, but it also tries to avoid giving the same person multiple byes.
