Pairing systems
FIDE Dutch and Burstein, Baku acceleration, Dubov, Lim and Monrad, and single or double round robins with Berger tables.
Free and open source · macOS and Windows
From registration
to rating report.
Chess Organiser runs Swiss, round-robin and team tournaments on your own computer. It pairs every round, takes results from the keyboard, prints every list and publishes live standings. There are no limits on players, rounds or teams.
5,009/5,009
random Dutch-system tournaments paired exactly like FIDE's endorsed engine
No limits
on players, rounds or teams, and no paid edition
6
languages for the program and every printed list
1 file
per tournament, saved after every change
How it works
One program for the whole event
Everything an arbiter does, from the first entry to the report for the rating officer, in one window.
-
1
Create
Name the event and choose the system, the number of rounds, points for every kind of bye, and the tie-breaks.
-
2
Register
Type two letters of a name to add a player from the FIDE or a national list. Late entries, byes and withdrawals are built in.
-
3
Pair
Pair a round in one click, or by hand with checks for repeat games, club-mates, absent players and second byes.
-
4
Enter results
Type 1, 0 or 5 on each board. Standings and tie-breaks update at once, and earlier rounds can be corrected at any time.
-
5
Print
Pairings, standings, crosstables, scorecards and board cards, printed or saved as PDF, Excel, CSV or HTML.
-
6
Publish and report
Put live results on players' phones after each round, then export the TRF-2026 file for the rating officer.
Screenshots
See it at work
A fictional 25-player rapid open, four rounds in. The same sample ships with the program, so you can try anything and undo anything.
Standings with the tie-breaks you choose, in your order: here Buchholz cut 1, Buchholz, Sonneborn-Berger and direct encounter. Every list can be printed in any of the six languages.
Titles, federations, ratings and FIDE IDs come from the rating list. Requested byes and withdrawals show in the status column, and starting ranks follow the FIDE order.
Event details, the pairing system, rating type, acceleration, points for every kind of bye, tie-breaks and forbidden pairings, all on one page. The details print on every list.
Prize categories by rating band, sex, year of birth or federation. Categories are awarded in the order you list them, and each player receives at most one prize.
Upload pairings and standings to your own results server after each round. Players follow the event on their phones, and the program works the same with or without a connection.
Features
Everything an arbiter needs
The full workflow of commercial tournament managers, written from scratch and free for everyone.
Tie-breaks and standings
Every FIDE C.07 tie-break, including Buchholz, Sonneborn-Berger and direct encounter, with cut, median and forfeit modifiers.
Ratings and title norms
Rating changes for every rated player under FIDE B.02, first-rating estimates, and GM, IM, WGM and WIM norm checks.
Team events and prizes
Team Swiss and team round robin with line-ups per round and team tie-breaks. Prize lists for women, juniors and rating bands.
Player database
Download the FIDE rating list in one click and import national lists from CSV. Two letters of a name fill in the rest.
Lists and printing
Starting rank, pairings, standings, crosstable, scorecards, board cards, prize list and rating report. Export PDF, Excel, CSV or HTML.
One file, unlimited undo
Each tournament is a single file, saved after every change and safe if the power fails. Undo any change, however old.
Live results
A small results server shows pairings, standings and the crosstable on players' phones, in any of the supported languages.
TRF-2026 and imports
Write the TRF-2026 rating report. Read TRF-2026, TRF-16 and bbpPairings files, and player lists exported by other programs.
Pairing tests
Pairings you can check
The Dutch and Burstein engines are tested against bbpPairings, the open-source engine FIDE has endorsed. A generator plays thousands of random tournaments and every round must come out the same.
| System | Tournaments | Rounds |
|---|---|---|
| FIDE Dutch | 5,009 / 5,009 | 50,094 / 50,094 |
| Dutch with Baku acceleration | 500 / 500 | 4,981 / 4,981 |
| FIDE Burstein | 989 / 1,000* | — |
* The other 11 tournaments crashed the reference engine. Every pairing it did produce matched. Dubov, Lim and Monrad have no endorsed reference program; they are covered by tests of the absolute criteria, and the program asks arbiters to review their pairings.
Languages
Speaks your players' language
The program and every printed list come in six languages, including right-to-left Arabic. Print a list in a different language from the one you work in.
- EnglishEnglish
- FrançaisFrench
- العربيةArabic
- KiswahiliSwahili
- PortuguêsPortuguese
- EspañolSpanish
Open source
Yours to keep, study and improve
- GPL-3.0 licence. Use it for any event, read every line of code, change it and share your changes.
- Built in Rust. Pairings, tie-breaks, ratings and file formats live in tested Rust libraries behind a Tauri desktop app.
-
A command line too.
The
coprogram converts files, renders any list and pairs rounds from scripts.
Download
Get Chess Organiser
Free for macOS and Windows. Open the sample tournament from the start screen to try it without risk.
Your system
macOS
Universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
Download for macOS.dmg
Your system
Windows
Installer for 64-bit Windows.
Download for Windows.msi or .exe
Pre-release builds are not code-signed yet. On macOS, open the app once, then choose System Settings › Privacy & Security › Open Anyway. On Windows, choose More info › Run anyway when SmartScreen appears.
Build from source
You need Rust 1.90 or later, Node 22 and pnpm, plus the Xcode command-line tools on macOS or the MSVC build tools on Windows.
git clone https://github.com/Inad-Tech-World/chess_organizer.git
cd chess_organizer/app
pnpm install
pnpm tauri buildFAQ
Questions arbiters ask
Is it really free?
Yes. Chess Organiser is free software under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no paid edition, no account to create, and no limit on players, rounds or teams.
Do I need an internet connection?
No. Everything runs on your computer. You only need a connection to download the FIDE rating list or to upload results to a results server.
Can I use it for FIDE-rated events?
Not yet. Chess Organiser has not been endorsed by FIDE, so for now it is meant for non-rated and national events. It already writes the TRF-2026 rating report, and its Dutch pairings match FIDE's endorsed engine on every test tournament.
Can I bring in an event from another program?
Yes. It reads TRF-2026, TRF-16 and bbpPairings files, and player lists saved as CSV or tab-separated text.
Where is my tournament saved?
In a single .cot file that you choose. It is saved after every change, survives a power cut, and can be copied or e-mailed like any document. Several tournaments can be open at once, each in its own window.
How do I report a problem or suggest a feature?
Open an issue on GitHub. Contributions are welcome; see the contributing guide.