Fencing

Overview

Two fencers score hits on each other with a blade, at one of three weapons: foil, épée or sabre. Each weapon has its own target, its own conventions for who scored, and some shared bout rules.

Checked against the International Fencing Federation's Technical Rules, dated August 2026. Rule numbers ("t.") below refer to it.

1. The piste and the bout

Fencing takes place on a piste 14 metres long and 1.5 metres wide (t.17–18). A hit is registered electrically, and the referee decides on validity and priority.

Pools: a bout ends at 5 hits or after 3 minutes. If the score is level when time is up, there is a deciding hit with a maximum of one further minute, and lots are drawn beforehand to decide the winner if that's still a tie (t.38).

Direct elimination: bouts go to 15 hits, or end after three 3-minute periods with a minute's rest between (9 minutes of fencing in all). At sabre, the first period also ends when one fencer reaches 8 hits (t.39–40).

2. Foil

• A thrusting weapon: hits are made only with the point (t.76).
• Target: the trunk only, from the collar down to a line joining the tops of the hip bones, but not the limbs or head (t.77).
• A hit off target isn't counted but stops the phrase and cancels any hit that follows (t.78).
• Right of way decides who scores when both hit (t.82–88). An attack must be parried or completely avoided. It's correctly executed if the arm straightens, the point threatening the target, before the lunge or flèche begins (t.83). A parry gives the right to riposte.

3. Épée

• A thrusting weapon, hits with the point only (t.90).
• The whole body is the target, including clothing and equipment (t.91).
• No right of way. If both fencers hit and the machine registers both as valid, it's a double hit: a hit is scored against each (t.92).
• In pools, if it reaches 4–4, the next hit decides it, and a double hit doesn't count (t.38).

4. Sabre

• A weapon for cutting and thrusting with the edge, flat or back of the blade (t.96).
• Target: everything above the hips, above a line across the top of the hip bones, arms and head included (t.97).
• The flèche and any forward move in which the rear foot passes the front foot is forbidden at sabre (t.101).
• A hit off target doesn't stop the phrase at sabre, unlike foil (t.98).
• Right of way applies. An attack with a lunge is correct if the arm begins to straighten before the lunge starts and the hit lands at the latest when the front foot hits the piste (t.101).

Commonly argued

• Épée has no right of way. Double hits both score.
• Foil's target is the trunk only, and a hit off target stops the phrase.
• Sabre's target is everything above the hips, including the arms and head.
• You can't use the flèche at sabre.
• In direct elimination it's first to 15, or the higher score after 9 minutes of fencing.