Bouts and formats: from a five-hit pool bout to a 45-hit team match.

The words the rules use

The FIE's glossary calls a friendly combat between two fencers an assault, and calls it a bout when the score is kept to decide a result in an individual competition. The three sections of a direct elimination bout are periods (Organisation Rules, August 2026, o.5). In a team match each of the nine bouts is a relay, and the relays between two teams together make a match (o.6 and o.7). Bout time means effective fencing time: the total of the intervals between the referee's "Play!" and "Halt!" (Technical Rules, December 2024, t.37.1).

The three bout formats

Weapon differences inside the formats

• Sabre: in senior direct elimination the first period ends at 3 minutes or when one fencer reaches 8 hits (t.39.1). In veterans' direct elimination, the sabre first period ends at 3 minutes or 5 hits (t.42).
• Epee: in a pool bout that reaches 4-4, the fencers fence for one deciding hit up to the time limit, and a double hit is not counted (t.38.1.b).

During the one-minute rests in direct elimination, one person named before the bout may have access to the fencer (t.39.2).

How a team match runs

Team matches are relays fenced in 5-hit steps (5, 10, 15 and so on up to 45), each relay lasting at most 3 minutes. If the target score for a relay is not reached in time, the next pair of fencers takes up the score where it stopped (t.41.1 to t.41.4). At the Senior and Junior World Championships a team is three fencers, with or without a reserve, and may begin a match only if complete (Organisation Rules, o.97).

The clock

When regulation time runs out, the clock must sound a signal and cut off the scoring apparatus automatically, without cancelling hits already registered. With wireless apparatus, no hit registered after time expires is awarded (t.44.1 and t.44.4).

Unwillingness to fight

The non-combativity rule (t.124) covers bouts where nobody is trying to score. The December 2024 text defines it as one minute of fencing without a hit or an off-target hit, after which the referee calls "Halt!". In individual direct elimination the sanctions escalate: a P-yellow card to both fencers the first time, a P-red card to both the second time, and a P-black card the third time to the fencer with the lower score, or, if the scores are level, to the fencer with the lower initial seeding based on the FIE ranking; the other fencer wins. Team events follow the same pattern by team (t.124.1 and t.124.2). No P-card may be given at 14-14 in individual events or 44-44 in team matches, and P-cards count only in the bout or match where they are given (t.124.3.a).

Penalties

The rules group offences into four groups with escalating penalties, summarised in a table at t.170 (t.164 to t.170). The cards mean:

• Yellow: a warning.
• Red: a penalty hit added to the opponent's score.
• Black: exclusion from the competition and suspension for the rest of the tournament and the following 60 days of the active season (t.158 to t.162). The 2025 Congress amendments (read from the decisions document; a clean 2026 edition of the Technical Rules could not be opened) defined the active season, with immediate effect, as running from 1 September to the World Championships.

Some actions are forbidden at every weapon and any hit by the fencer at fault is annulled: a fleche ending in a jostling collision, disorderly fencing, hits made with violence, blows with the guard, and an intentional fall to avoid a hit (t.122). A hit made during or after a fall is annulled (t.56). Under the 2025 Congress amendments (read from the decisions document; a clean 2026 edition of the Technical Rules could not be opened), intentionally dropping the weapon during a phrase is a 2nd-group offence, though the opponent's hit still counts if the action started before "Halt!" (t.56.11), and the referee checks that no fencer carries electronic equipment that lets someone off the piste communicate during the bout (t.64.6).

Medical breaks

For an injury or other medical reason attested by the FIE Medical Commission delegate or the doctor on duty, the referee allows a break of no more than 5 minutes. A further break the same day needs a different injury or medical reason (t.45.1 and t.45.2). FIE Medical Commission minutes of 30 June 2017 record its approval of a rule change cutting the injury break from 10 to 5 minutes, after trials at the 2016 and 2017 Cadet and Junior World Championships. Injuries need medical care; the medical rules at competitions page has more.

How a competition is put together

The Organisation Rules (August 2026) give three ways to run an individual competition: pools, then a preliminary direct elimination table, then a main table of 64; pools then one direct elimination table; or direct elimination throughout, which is the form used at the Olympic Games (o.66). Pools are of 7 and 6 fencers (o.67). After the pools, fencers are ranked by victories divided by bouts, then hits scored minus hits received, then hits scored, then by lot (o.73).

Programmes must be arranged so no fencer competes for more than 12 hours in 24, and no pool, bout or match may begin after midnight (o.33.1). Organisers must allow at least one day per weapon for checking fencers' equipment (o.34).