Round robin schedule generator

In short: A round robin schedule has every participant play every other participant once. With n participants that is n x (n - 1) / 2 matches, played over n - 1 rounds when n is even, or n rounds with one bye a round when n is odd: 6 teams play 15 matches in 5 rounds.

Last updated 13 October 2026

How to use the round robin generator

1. List the teams or players, one per line, or paste a column from a spreadsheet. If you only need numbers, type how many, such as 8. The order matters: the first name is the fixed point of the schedule, and changing the order changes who meets whom in which round.
2. Choose once or twice. Once is a single round robin. Twice, home and away, is a double round robin, where every pair meets a second time with the sides swapped.
3. Add courts if they are limited. Enter how many courts, tables or fields you can use at once. Leave it empty and every match of a round is played at the same time.
4. Copy or share the schedule. Copy it as text for a message, as CSV for Excel or Google Sheets, or copy a link that opens the same schedule on someone else's phone.

This round robin schedule maker updates as you type. Under the rounds, a who-plays-whom grid shows the round in which each pair meets, so anyone can find their own match without reading the whole list.

How many rounds and matches a round robin takes

The numbers follow from two rules: everyone meets everyone once, and nobody plays twice in a round. With an even number of participants, every round has n / 2 matches and nobody waits. With an odd number, one participant sits out each round, so there is one more round than with the even number below it. The table is computed by the generator:

The match count grows much faster than the field: double the teams from 8 to 16 and the matches go from 28 to 120. For a single evening or one day of play, that is the number to check before you invite more teams; a large field is often better split into groups, each playing its own round robin tournament, with the group winners meeting at the end.

The circle method and Berger tables

The generator uses the circle method: the first participant stays put while the others rotate one place each round, which guarantees that every pair meets exactly once. It follows the exact order of the Berger tables in FIDE's Handbook, the pairing tables chess uses for round robin events, so a field of up to 16 gets the same pairings, in the same order, as the published tables. Here is the example the tool opens with, 6 teams over 5 rounds:

Home and away are balanced too. In a single round robin with an even number, each team plays an odd number of games, so one side always has one more, and the generator keeps that difference to one game for every team. In a double round robin every team plays exactly as many games at home as away.

Odd numbers and the bye

With an odd number of teams, the schedule adds an empty place. Whoever is paired with it has a bye: no match that round. The FIDE tables put it plainly: where there is an odd number of players, the highest number counts as a bye. Each participant sits out exactly one round. With 5 players that is 5 rounds of 2 matches, and the schedule's Sits out column shows who rests when: Ana in round 1, Dee in round 2, Ben in round 3, Eli in round 4, Cy in round 5. Decide before you start what a bye is worth in the standings, because event rules differ.

Courts, tables and a pickleball round robin

A league night rarely has a court for every match. Enter the number you have and the generator numbers each match's court and splits the round into waves: with 10 teams and 2 courts, each round's 5 matches are played in 3 waves of up to 2. The same works for a pickleball round robin, a tennis or table tennis ladder, a chess club evening on a set number of boards, or five-a-side on two pitches. For doubles events, enter each pair as one name, such as Ana and Ben. When people must be split into sides first, make them with the random team generator, then paste the team names here.

The share link keeps the names, the format and the court count in the part of the address after the #, which browsers never send to a server, so nothing you type reaches us. For a staff event where the matches take turns with work, the shift rota generator spreads the shifts, and the meeting timer keeps time boxes for each round on a shared screen.

Este generador también está en español: rol de juegos todos contra todos.