Scheduling algorithm for a round-robin tournament?

Solution 1:

The classic algorithm works like this:

Number the teams 1..n. (Here I'll take n=8.)

Write all the teams in two rows.

1 2 3 4
8 7 6 5

The columns show which teams will play in that round (1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, ...).

Now, keep 1 fixed, but rotate all the other teams. In week 2, you get

1 8 2 3
7 6 5 4

and in week 3, you get

1 7 8 2
6 5 4 3

This continues through week n-1, in this case,

1 3 4 5
2 8 7 6

If n is odd, do the same thing but add a dummy team. Whoever is matched against the dummy team gets a bye that week.

Solution 2:

Here is the code for it in JavaScript.

function makeRoundRobinPairings(players) {
  if (players.length % 2 == 1) {
    players.push(null);
  }

  const playerCount = players.length;
  const rounds = playerCount - 1;
  const half = playerCount / 2;

  const tournamentPairings = [];

  const playerIndexes = players.map((_, i) => i).slice(1);

  for (let round = 0; round < rounds; round++) {
    const roundPairings = [];

    const newPlayerIndexes = [0].concat(playerIndexes);

    const firstHalf = newPlayerIndexes.slice(0, half);
    const secondHalf = newPlayerIndexes.slice(half, playerCount).reverse();

    for (let i = 0; i < firstHalf.length; i++) {
      roundPairings.push({
        white: players[firstHalf[i]],
        black: players[secondHalf[i]],
      });
    }

    // rotating the array
    playerIndexes.push(playerIndexes.shift());
    tournamentPairings.push(roundPairings);
  }

  return tournamentPairings;
}

UPDATED: Fixed a bug reported in the comments