Bye

A bye means that a participant does not play an opponent in that round. The word alone does not tell you how many points are awarded: you first need to know why the round is unplayed and which event rules apply.

In an individual Swiss tournament, a format where pairings are updated round by round and not everyone plays everyone else, an odd number of participants may need to be paired. The system then allocates a pairing bye. Under the basic Swiss rules of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), that participant has no opponent and no colour and, unless the tournament regulations state otherwise, receives the number of points awarded for a win. A player-requested bye can carry a different score, such as a half-point bye, or zero points under the published conditions.

Unplayed rounds may also receive special treatment in tiebreak calculations so that the absence of a real opponent does not distort particular criteria. It is therefore important to distinguish the type of bye, its score, and its regulatory effect.