Optimize query syntax

Databases
1

I have a pair of users, and I want to find is the relationship between users allready exists, so I wrote this query, that I dont like.IT checks if
(partner1=user1 AND partner2=user2) OR (partner2=user1 AND partner1=user2)

SELECT n.nid FROM node n INNER JOINcompetition_pair p ON p.nid = n.nid INNER JOIN content_type_competition_pair c ON c.nid = n.nid WHERE n.type=‘competition_pair’ AND ((c.competition_partner1_uid=%d AND c.competition_partner2_uid=%d) OR (c.competition_partner1_uid=%d AND c.competition_partner2_uid=%d)) AND p.active=1

How can I make this more simple?
Thanx!

2

could you please do a SHOW CREATE TABLE for your three tables, and explain each one, what it’s for

3 

select n.nid 
  from node n 
  join competition_pair p 
    on p.nid = n.nid 
  join content_type_competition_pair c 
    on c.nid = n.nid 
 where n.type = 'competition_pair' 
   and (%d,%d) in ((c.competition_partner1_uid,c.competition_partner2_uid),
                   (c.competition_partner2_uid,c.competition_partner1_uid))
   and p.active = 1
4

Thank you, It looks better than my code.