In short: a Swiss tournament keeps teams in the competition for a fixed number of rounds. Pairings bring teams with similar records together and avoid repeat opponents where possible, and with an odd field one team gets a bye each round. Agree on the ranking and bye rules before the draw. A common ranking is wins first, with ties broken by point difference and Buchholz, the combined wins of the opponents each team faced. Petanque: Score & Tournament ranks by wins, then point difference, then Buchholz.
The Swiss system is the usual format when you have more teams than time for everyone to play everyone. Nobody is knocked out, so every team gets the same number of games, and the strongest teams still find each other by the final rounds.
How it works
- Round one: the first draw. Many clubs draw round one at random. If you seed (for example, to keep two teams from the same club apart), do it here.
- After each round, rank the field. All the 1–0 teams sit above the 0–1 teams; later there will be 2–0, 1–1 and 0–2 groups, and so on. Within a group, your tiebreaks decide the order.
- Pair teams with similar records. Teams on the same record play each other where they can. If a group has an odd number of teams, one team plays someone from the next group down.
- Avoid rematches where possible. If the natural pairing would be a rematch, swap with the nearest team that hasn’t been played yet. In a small field late in the day, a rematch is sometimes unavoidable.
- Repeat until the last round. Then rank by wins, and break ties.
How many rounds?
A good rule of thumb: enough rounds that only one team can finish unbeaten. That is the number of times you can halve the field.
| Teams | Rounds for one unbeaten winner |
|---|---|
| up to 8 | 3 |
| 9–16 | 4 |
| 17–32 | 5 |
| 33–64 | 6 |
Many club days settle on four or five rounds whatever the entry, because that is what fits in the daylight. Plan for roughly an hour per round once you count the walk to the pistes, the scoring and the break between rounds; a time limit per game keeps the last match of a round from holding everyone up.
Byes: when the number of teams is odd
With an odd number of teams, one team sits out each round. Agree on the rules before the first round, and announce them:
- Who gets the bye: usually the lowest-ranked team that hasn’t had one yet, so no team gets a second bye until everyone has had one.
- What it scores: usually a win, with a fixed score so points for and against stay fair to everyone. The French federation (FFPJP) scores a bye 13–6; other federations and leagues may set their own.
Breaking ties with Buchholz
After a few rounds several teams will share the same number of wins. Buchholz separates them by asking: how strong was the opposition you faced to get there?
A team’s Buchholz is the total number of wins of all the opponents it has played, whether it beat them or lost to them. Facing strong teams gives a higher Buchholz than facing weak ones.
An example. Team A finished on 3 wins out of 4, level with Team F on wins and on point difference. Team A’s four opponents finished like this:
| Opponent | Their wins |
|---|---|
| Team B | 3 |
| Team C | 2 |
| Team D | 2 |
| Team E | 1 |
Team A’s Buchholz is 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 8. If Team F’s opponents won only 6 games between them, Team F ranks below Team A.
Other common tiebreaks are:
- Point difference: points scored minus points conceded across all games. Many competitions, and the Petanque app, apply it before Buchholz.
- Fine Buchholz: the total Buchholz of all your opponents, one step deeper.
- Head-to-head: the result of the game between the tied teams, if they played.
Competitions order these differently, so fix the order before round one and print it with the draw. Arguments about tiebreaks are much easier to settle when they were announced in advance.
On the day: a checklist
- Registration closes at a set time, so the round-one draw isn’t held up.
- Number the pistes and post them, so a pairing can be sent straight to a piste.
- Collect results the same way every time: both teams confirm the score.
- Publish the standings after every round, with wins, points and Buchholz, so players can see where they stand and who they’re likely to meet.
- Keep the final standings: the tiebreak order and the results behind them.
Running it with the Petanque app
Petanque: Score & Tournament is a free iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch app that runs the whole competition from one device:
- Swiss System is one of four formats for new tournaments, alongside Round Robin, Single Elimination and Mêlée-Casse. Create the tournament in Compete, add the entries and start it.
- The number of rounds follows the entry: three rounds for up to 8 teams, four for up to 16, five for up to 32 and six for up to 64, enough for one unbeaten winner. Complete Tournament ends it early if you run out of daylight.
- Pairings are generated for you each round. Round one isn’t a random draw. After that, the app walks down the standings and pairs each team with the highest-ranked team it hasn’t played yet; if no fresh opponent is left at that point, a rematch can happen.
- Byes are handled for you. With an odd number of teams, the bye goes to the lowest-ranked team that hasn’t had one yet, and counts as a win by the target score to 6: 13–6 in a game to 13, the French federation’s score. Tournaments started with an older version keep the bye score they began with.
- Ranking: wins first, then point difference, then Buchholz, the same order for the standings and for the next round’s pairings. Byes don’t count towards Buchholz. Enter results as games finish and the standings update as you go.
- Standings: on iPad, a table of wins, losses, points for and against, point difference and Buchholz, sortable by column; on iPhone, a compact list of wins, losses and point difference. Exports include every column.
- Piste assignment: matches are spread across your pistes when each round is created; reassign them by hand or with Auto-assign. If two matches land on the same piste, the app flags it.
- For the noticeboard: export PDF scoresheets and standings, an image card for sharing, or CSV and JSON for your own records.
It works without an account or an internet connection, and your tournaments stay on your device.
Common questions
How many rounds should a Swiss tournament with 12 teams have?
Four rounds is enough for only one team to finish unbeaten with 12 teams, and it’s what the Petanque app schedules. If you run the draw yourself and have time, a fifth round makes the order behind the winner more reliable.
Can two teams play each other twice in a Swiss tournament?
Organisers avoid it where they can: when the natural pairing would be a rematch, the team is paired with the nearest team on a similar record that it hasn’t played yet. In a small field late in a tournament, a rematch is sometimes the only option left, and the Petanque app allows one then.
What is Buchholz in pétanque?
Buchholz is a tiebreak: the total number of wins of all the opponents a team has played, whether it won or lost against them. Between two teams level on the earlier criteria, the one that faced stronger opposition ranks higher.
What happens with an odd number of teams?
One team gets a bye each round, usually the lowest-ranked team that hasn’t had one. A bye counts as a win with a fixed score agreed in advance; the French federation uses 13–6. The Petanque app gives the bye to the lowest-ranked team without one and scores it as a win by the target score to 6, so 13–6 in a game to 13.
Is the Swiss system better than a knockout?
For a club day, usually yes: every team keeps playing, apart from a bye with an odd field, instead of half the field going home after the first game, and the final standings rank everyone, not just the winner.