

A Swiss system draw should result in a clear winner, without having to play all opponents as in round robin, and without a single bad result terminating participation.

Swiss systems intend to provide a clear winner with a limited number of rounds and a potentially unlimited number of opponents. Knockout, or elimination, pairings rapidly reduce the number of competitors, but may not necessarily result in the best possible competitor winning, as good competitors might have a bad day or eliminate and exhaust each other if they meet in early rounds. Round-robin pairings are suitable for a small number of competitors and rounds, as most or all players will play each other the underlying assumption is that the player who has played all possible opponents and ends with the highest score must be the winner. A Swiss system is used for competitions in which the number of entrants is considered too large for a full round-robin to be feasible, and eliminating any competitors before the end of the tournament is undesirable.
