Pairing-allocated bye

In a Swiss tournament, where opponents are paired round by round, an odd number of available participants means that one person cannot be paired. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) calls this a pairing-allocated bye (PAB). The participant has no opponent, receives no color, and scores as many points as a win unless the tournament rules specify another value. All PABs in the same tournament must have the same value.

It is neither a played win nor a forfeit win. It arises from the pairing process itself. FIDE rules also prevent a participant who has already received a PAB, or who has already received the value of a win in an unplayed round, from receiving another PAB.

It differs from a full-point bye, which is a full score assigned without a game and whose assignment FIDE deprecates, and from a zero-point bye, which awards zero. The PAB exists to solve the mathematical problem of an odd pairing field.