Baku acceleration method

The Baku acceleration method is a technique for the opening rounds of a Swiss tournament, a format in which opponents are determined again each round and not everyone plays everyone else. When participants have a wide range of playing strengths, early rounds can produce many predictably uneven pairings. Acceleration temporarily changes how scoregroups are formed so players of similar strength are more likely to meet sooner.

Before round one, the ordered pairing list is split into two groups: Group A, labelled GA, and Group B, labelled GB. GA contains roughly the upper half, adjusted by the official rule. During the early rounds, GA participants receive virtual points for pairing calculations. They first receive an amount equal to a win; for the remaining accelerated rounds that amount is halved. The virtual points then disappear.

Virtual points do not count in the real standings. They only modify the pairing score used to build scoregroups. In a standard nine-round individual event, for example, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) assigns GA one virtual point for the first three rounds and half a virtual point for the next two.

Unless specified otherwise, the method can be combined with any Swiss pairing system, and it uses the Tournament Pairing Number to identify the initial GA boundary. Its purpose is to reshape early pairings without awarding real tournament points.