Online Xiangqi Tournaments: How Swiss and Knockout Work

Swiss: everyone plays every round

The Swiss system is the usual choice for open events with players of mixed strength. Nobody is eliminated. After each round, players are grouped by score and paired inside their group, so winners meet winners and those who lost early meet each other. Two players do not meet twice. Five to seven rounds can sort a large field without everyone having to play everyone.

Points are usually one for a win and a half for a draw. Xiangqi.com's help page says its events count a win as 2, a draw as 1 and a loss as 0, which orders the table in the same way. With an odd number of players, one person sits out each round and normally receives a bye worth a win. Colours are balanced across the event where possible, which matters in xiangqi because Red moves first.

Knockout: win or go home

A knockout, or single-elimination bracket, halves the field each round until one player is left. Seeding by rating keeps the strongest apart early: in a standard bracket the first and second seeds can only meet in the final. When the number of entrants is not a power of two, the top seeds receive first-round byes. Knockouts are short and dramatic, but one bad game ends your event, and every knockout needs a rule for what a draw means.

Arena: as many games as the clock allows

An arena runs for a fixed length of time rather than a fixed number of rounds. When your game ends you are paired again straight away, and your score is the total from every game you finish before the event closes. It rewards speed and stamina as much as accuracy. PyChess, for example, lists weekly and monthly rated xiangqi arenas at five minutes plus three seconds on its tournaments page.

Time controls: what 5+3 means

Time controls are written as minutes plus an increment in seconds. 5+3 means five minutes each, with three seconds added after every move. Bullet is the fastest, usually a minute or two per side; blitz runs to a few minutes; rapid gives ten minutes or more. Faster controls fit more rounds into an evening but punish slow calculation, and the long tactical sequences of xiangqi, with Cannons and Horses working together, are hard to find under a one-minute clock.

For a first event, rapid or blitz with an increment is the forgiving choice. The increment means a won endgame is not lost purely because the clock ran down.

Tiebreaks: separating equal scores

Swiss events often finish with several players on the same score, so tiebreaks decide the places. Buchholz adds up the final scores of everyone you played, which rewards the player who faced the tougher field. Sonneborn-Berger counts the full score of each opponent you beat and half the score of each opponent you drew. Xiangqi.com's help page says its Swiss events use Sonneborn-Berger as the tiebreak.

How XiangqiPlay's tournaments work

XiangqiPlay runs two formats, Swiss and knockout; arenas are not offered. Any signed-in player can schedule an event from the Tournaments page by choosing a name, a format, a time control and a start time at least five minutes ahead and no more than 90 days away. The time controls match online play: untimed, bullet at 1+0, blitz at 5+3 and rapid at 10+5. A Swiss runs from 1 to 11 rounds, five by default, and never more rounds than there are opponents to meet. A field holds from 2 to 128 players, a knockout sets its own number of rounds from the size of the field, and each player can have up to three events running or scheduled at once.

Entries stay open until the first round is paired. After that the field is fixed, so nobody joins on zero against players who have already earned their scores. Your seed is your current Elo rating, frozen when you enter. Rounds are paired automatically when the previous round finishes, and there are no entry fees or prizes: what you get is a pairing, a rated game and a place on the table.

In a Swiss, the pairing rules are written down and tested. Nobody plays the same opponent twice unless no rematch-free round can be found. Players on the same score are kept together, the top half of each score group is paired against the bottom half, and an odd player out floats down to the next group. Whoever has had Red less often gets Red; if that is level, the higher-ranked player takes it. An odd field gives one bye, worth a full point, to the lowest-ranked player with the fewest byes so far.

In a knockout, round one is seeded by rating into a standard bracket, padded up to a power of two so that the empty slots become byes for the top seeds. A win takes you through and a loss knocks you out; a draw knocks nobody out.

Standings are ordered by score, then Buchholz, then Sonneborn-Berger, then seed rating, and players level on all of those share a place. A bye counts toward your score but not toward your win, draw and loss record or the tiebreaks, because there was no opponent. A game aborted before anyone moves goes on the table as a draw. Withdrawing before the start simply removes you; withdrawing mid-event hands any game in progress to your opponent, and the games you already played stay on the table.

When you are paired, a short pre-match screen counts down eight seconds before Red's clock starts, so no clock runs while players reach the board. Tournament games are ordinary rated online games, and they are public, so anyone can follow them from the Watch page.

Before your first event

Check the format and time control before you enter, and choose one you have actually played. Be online a few minutes before the start, because the first round begins as soon as it is paired. In a Swiss, a loss in round one is not the end, since next round you meet someone on your own score. And if you have to leave, withdraw properly rather than letting your clock run out, so the person across the board is not left waiting.