Swiss pairings question

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I should know the answer to this, but does the need to avoid some silly sequence like 4 Blacks and 1 White in a 5-round tournament, over-ride the need to have the top-scoring players meet in the final round?

The example is here from round 4 of the Shrophshre Open (due to be played tomorrow):

https://chess-results.com/tnr875710.asp ... =4&flag=30

1 4 Surtees, Mike 2187 2½ 3 Martin, Lewis 2228 1
2 19 Vaidyanathan, Adithya 1959 2½ 2½ Fleming, Nigel 2092 9

Everyone else has less than 2.5/3. The two players above with Black have both been paired this way (colour sequence BWBB) because their two opponents are both on double Black so had to have White (WBBW).

If Black wins on both boards 1 and 2 tomorrow (possible, but maybe not that likely), or if board 1 is a draw and Black wins on board 2, then you have the final round seeing a need for a pairing between the two top-scoring players, both with a colour sequence: BWBB.

Is this one of those cases where someone (the lower-rated player?) has to have a fourth Black (and a third Black in a row)? Otherwise you deprive them of the chance to win the event. I think this is correct, but would appreciate a pointer to how the different pairing systems handle this.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Assuming they're using the FIDE pairing system, then yes, Martin and Fleming would be paired against each other in round 5, but only because it's the final round.