Wich system should i use?

Hi, my name is Carlos and i'm in charge of organizing a chess tournament for my school, the problem is I don't know wich system would be more eficient.

-there are 18 players;

-it would be preferable if one would not be eliminated just for having a bad game... so multiple matchups is in need.

I heard about the swiss system but I don't quite understand the order of the matchups.

Any help would be great :D

This might get you started:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/79/12/how-are-online-tournaments-organized

Or this:

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/80/12/how-does-a-round-robin-knock-out-tournament-work

And now you're ready for this:

http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=swiss

In a Swiss System, the top half plays the bottom half. Start with ratings, then in subsequent rounds pair each score group separately starting at the top. No player plays the same opponent twice (highest priority). Colors alternate (lower priority than within score group). If there is an odd number in a score group, bring up the top player from the next group down.

A player may have two blacks (or white in a row) if necessary, but every player shall have each color an equal number of times (+/- 1 in with an odd number of rounds).

Round one (white - black)

1 - 10

11 - 2

3 - 12

13 - 4

5 - 14

15 - 6

7 - 16

17 - 8

9 - 18

To do this well, you need more detailed explanations than I've provided here, but this should give you the basic idea. 

Assuming no draws and no upsets (rare), round two pairings:

6 - 1

2 - 7

8 - 3

4 - 9

10 - 5

16 - 11

12 - 15

18 - 13

14 - 17

Notice how the order of pairing in the zero point score group was altered to alternate colors for the players.

I have used 2 systems with that number of players. The Swiss system of pairings is best if you're not sure about the ratings (relative strengths) of the players. If ratings are unknown, pair the players randomly in the first round. In each of the following rounds, pair players that have the same total points, making sure no one plays the same opponent twice. Also try to assign each players an equal number of blacks and whites. This can be done with software (SwissSys or WinTD) or with hand-written index cards. You would need to have 4 or 5 rounds with 18 players to determine a clear overall winner.

If you have a good idea of the players' strengths, you could instead do 6-player round-robbins -- each player plays every other player in his/her group, which would take 5 rounds in this case. Put players of similar strength together into the same group. You would need separate prizes for the winners of each group. Round-robbins can be a headache though if any players drop out before the last round.

In both of these formats, no player is eliminated -- everyone plays all rounds. I think it is very important NOT to eliminate players due to losses, especially in the case of children and beginners. We want to encourage them to persevere despite setbacks, and we want to keep a light spirit and not put too much pressure on them.

There's a number of programs available that can take care of the pairings for you. I've heard good things about Swiss Manager (http://swiss-manager.at/), but they charge €75 even for the basic version. Swiss Perfect (http://www.swissperfect.com/) offers a free trial for up to 30 days, but I don't know anyone who uses it, so I can't tell you whether it's any good. Googling 'Swiss Tournament Software' or something like that should give you plenty of products to choose from.

I used Swiss Perfect the first time I ran a youth tournament (12 years ago), and have always used SwissSys since. My event had more than 100 players in three sections. The only problem that I had with Swiss Perfect was that the rating statistician for our Northwest Scholastic Rating System needed the export files converted to Excel because he couldn't read the files generated by Swiss Perfect.

For a newb, as I was then, the software itself was easy.

For small club events, such as the one you describe, I usually pair by hand.

Thank you so much, as I am still a begginner i will use the Swiss perfect not to mess up but now I get the idea behind it. Thanks again :D

If there are152 player then how to make the pairing? Please help I am new to swiss manager

Swiss works with 152 players, but you will have co-champions if you go less than seven rounds.