David Kane wrote:
I am not talking about the Elo ratings, but about the Swiss pairing system
first used in Zurich in 1895.

I have never seen the topic of 1st introduction of a system in which
each player played others in their score group. The NY State Chess
Association tournament of 1890 might have used a slighlty similar
system. A newspaper report is given in the Brooklyn Eagle of Feb 23,
1890 (available online). 32 players entered. After the 1st round,
winners were paired, and also losers. Losers of 2 games were eliminated
(in case of draw, the player who had black had the right to claim the
game, but could give the game to their opponent if they wanted to);
thus 24 competitors were left after round 2. Unfortunately, they only
give results of the 1st 2 rounds in the report, so the complete
mechanism is not clear. The report in the NY Times on the same day
makes it seem more like a standard knockout system, at least for 1st
and 2d, though they mention that losers in the first two rounds were
paired and played for minor prizes. Incidentally, an odd arrangement
was made in the championship showdown between Delmar and Hanham; Hanham
agreed to cede the championship to Delmar along with splitting the 1st
and 2d prizes of $40 and $20.

It might be an interesting project to see if there was any "Swiss"
system before Zurich 95, but it isn't completely clear what qualifies
as Swiss. Would a double elimination tournament with players with
perfect scores always matched against each other count?

Jerry Spinrad