If the rules I suggested seem too much for the players to handle, they could come a long way with just this one:

- The player who is furthest from a 50/50 colour balance so far gets to improve his/her own colour balance

... and then contact the TD if that doesn't solve it or they don't understand it.

Maybe use something countable (or on a scale) that's equally likely to come out an odd or an even number? For instance today's temperature in whole degrees °C or °F at a predetermined time of day.

A thought to reduce your own involvment a bit: Give the players some simple pairing rules they can apply themselves before asking you for help. For instance:

- If possible, bring both players' balance of White vs Black games in the tournament so far back towards 50/50

- The player who is furthest from a 50/50 balance so far "gets to" improve their own colour balance

- If possible, nobody gets three Whites or three Blacks in a row

- If possible, alternate colours from the players' previous game

- Players who did not play any games have no colour preference (the preference of their opponents is granted). [I borrowed this from the FIDE handbook. "Preference" here of course means which colour you're due to play, not which you would personally prefer.]

etc.

For inspiration, the colour rules for FIDE Swiss system pairings are here (in A.6):

https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=170&view=article

Hello Chesspub.

After some not so active months for me I've come back, put down my bindle for a while and now I'm gonna ask a very strange question.

You see I've set up and am currently directing a chess training tournament. Nothing serious just something so that those in my area who wish to play in summertime can have the opportunity.

Now pairings are not actually set from the start in this tournament and there is no obligation to play anyone or even a minimum number of rounds needed to participate. If you find someone you wanna play and that guy thinks the same then you play. By the end of the summer the one with the most points (irregardless of level of opposition) wins. So essentially it's like a league that rewards activity (and ruthlessness in finding beatable opponents ).

Here is my thing. I offered in the invitation for the whole thing to do the colour pairings for every game. Unless the players sorted it on their own. Most don't. So I am stuck doing black/white draws throughout the summer and well...  not that it's a big deal. I mean flip a coin. Whatever.

Being a utter perfectionist and also a creator of this whole tournament concept it somehow bugs me that there are so many pairings that are made with me having to get involved and to some extent also that they are non-verifiable by the players (We don't meet to do a coin flip...). So I wonder about the following.

In theory if there was some kind of 50/50 ocurrence that happened regularly (like say once a day) and the result could be checked via the internet. Wouldn't that allow for verifiable player made pairings in advance of the game? For example one player says: if this 50% outcome happens I am white if not I am black. The 50/50 occurence happens. Players verify and there you go.

Is there such a consistently repeated 50/50 ocurrence in nature though? Has someone come up with something like this artificially?

Have a nice day.