Answers.Body: <p>In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament" rel="nofollow">round-robin tournaments</a>, the schedule is known in advance. A very common schedule for 10 players starts with the following games in the first rounds:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Round 1: 1-10 2-9 3-8 4-7 5-6
  Round 2: 10-6 7-5 8-4 9-3 1-2
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament#Scheduling_algorithm" rel="nofollow">this Wikipedia article</a> for more details)</p>
  
  <p>Which player corresponds with which <em>pairing number</em> is determined before the tournament. Traditionally, this is just some kind of lottery, where each player is assigned a random number. It seems this was also the case for <a href="http://grandchesstour.com/content/rules-regulations" rel="nofollow">Sinquefield 2015</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Pairing numbers will be drawn randomly at the Sinquefield Cup</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>For another Grand Chess Tour tournament, Norway Chess 2015, they had a blitz tournament the day before. The winner of that tournament could pick a number first. Because with an even number of players, you play an odd number of games,  the winner could pick a number, say 1, that would give him white in 5 games and black in only 4. The runner-up of the blitz tournament could pick next, and so on.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-10-13T16:37:02.147Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-10-13T16:42:17.110Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2015-10-13T16:42:17.110Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
Body: <p>Do they flip a coin to determine white player? Does the person in that round who has higher points choose? Do they rotate (and if so, how is the first round white player determined)?</p>
  
Tags: <tournament>
Title: in Sinquefield Cup how is white player determined?
ThreadText: # in Sinquefield Cup how is white player determined?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2015-10-13)
  
  Do they flip a coin to determine white player? Does the person in that round who has higher points choose? Do they rotate (and if so, how is the first round white player determined)?
  
  **Tags:** tournament
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2015-10-13. Score: 4 | Accepted answer
  
  In [round-robin tournaments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament), the schedule is known in advance. A very common schedule for 10 players starts with the following games in the first rounds:
  
  ```
  Round 1: 1-10 2-9 3-8 4-7 5-6
  Round 2: 10-6 7-5 8-4 9-3 1-2
  
  ```
  
  (see [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament#Scheduling_algorithm) for more details)
  
  Which player corresponds with which *pairing number* is determined before the tournament. Traditionally, this is just some kind of lottery, where each player is assigned a random number. It seems this was also the case for [Sinquefield 2015](http://grandchesstour.com/content/rules-regulations):
  
  > Pairing numbers will be drawn randomly at the Sinquefield Cup
  
  For another Grand Chess Tour tournament, Norway Chess 2015, they had a blitz tournament the day before. The winner of that tournament could pick a number first. Because with an even number of players, you play an odd number of games, the winner could pick a number, say 1, that would give him white in 5 games and black in only 4. The runner-up of the blitz tournament could pick next, and so on.
  
  
  ---
  
  