Chess tournaments traditionally use Swiss pairings or round robin, but single and double elimination brackets are common for knockout events, club championships, and casual match play. This bracket maker supports single elim, double elim, and round robin for 2–64 players.
round robin or knockout
Round robin is the classic chess format — every player plays every other player, typically over multiple days. Strongest measure of performance. Works for 4–12 players; beyond that the schedule gets unwieldy. This tool's round robin mode gives you a full results grid with automatic W/L standings.
Single elimination is fast and dramatic — one loss and you're out. Common for scholastic events and club knockouts. Well-suited to 16–64 player fields.
Double elimination gives every player a second chance through a losers bracket. Fairer than single elim but doubles the number of matches. Good compromise for club championships.
Swiss system (not supported here) is the dominant format for large weekend tournaments — players are paired each round against someone with a similar score. If you need Swiss, use a dedicated tool like SwissSys or Vega.
Round robin can end in ties. Common tiebreaker systems, roughly in order of frequency:
This bracket doesn't calculate these automatically, but the W-L table makes manual tiebreaker math straightforward.