9.26 In a tournament, 16 chess players are participating. Determine the number of different first-round schedules (schedules are considered different if they differ in the participants of at least one game; the color of the pieces and the board number are not taken into account).
9.26 The participants of the first party can be chosen in $C_{16}^{2}$ ways, and the participants of the second party in $C_{14}^{2}$ ways. Since the order of selecting pairs does not matter, the participants of two parties can be chosen in $\frac{C_{16}^{2} C_{14}^{2}}{2!}$ ways, the participants of three parties in $\frac{C_{16}^{2} C_{14}^{2} C_{12}^{2}}{3!}$ ways, ..., and finally, the participants of eight parties

$$
\begin{aligned}
& \frac{C_{16}^{2} C_{14}^{2} C_{12}^{2} \ldots C_{2}^{2}}{8!}=\frac{16 \cdot 15 \cdot 14 \cdot 13 \cdot 12 \cdot 11 \ldots 2 \cdot 1}{2^{8} \cdot 8 \cdot 7 \cdot 6 \ldots 2 \cdot 1}= \\
& =15 \cdot 13 \cdot 11 \cdot 9 \cdot 7 \cdot 5 \cdot 3 \cdot 1=2027025 \text { ways }
\end{aligned}
$$

Answer: 2027025 options.