Unusual Swiss Pairings

[Roger de Coverly]

The final round of this year's WECU Open features a top board pairing where both players had Black in the previous two rounds.

The evidence is at
http://www.results.tournamentdirector.c ... 67981137d1

I had thought the FIDE handbook on the conduct of a Swiss outlaws three in row of the same colour, but not so.

http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html? ... ew=article

No player will receive the same colour three times in a row.
Each system may have exceptions to this rule in the last round of a tournament.

[Sean Hewitt]

Do you know what rules they are pairing to? I never use the British CAA pairing rules but I believe they allow the same colour the times in a row (just one reason why I believed them to be inferior).

[IM Jack Rudd]

FIDE's rules on floats, but with the CAA's "if there's an obvious colour-transfer, do that first" rule.

(That top board pairing in the last round could have been avoided, but only by giving the sole leader a 1½ point downfloat.)

[IM Jack Rudd]

I never use the British CAA pairing rules but I believe they allow the same colour the times in a row.

You're right, they do. On the flip side, they're slightly less likely than FIDE pairing rules to create situations where that possibility would otherwise arise.