From: "'Ben Bednarz'" <BenFB <at> AOL <dot> COM>
Date: 21 may 1999
Subject: Re: Still Problems with the US Shogi Championship

Just to comment on another remark, I think Larry has greatly understate this
issue.
Larry kaufman wrote:
<<      I find myself in partial agreement here.  Elimination tournaments work
 okay to determine a winner, but are very poor at deciding who is second,
 third, and fourth best etc., and are totally unsuited to picking class
 winners, in this case the class being those players with five year residency
  >>
Frankly, the Swiss system is much superior to elimination tournaments, almost
no matter what your purpose: to generate a champion, to produce class
winners, to make sure all players get their money's worth.

So why would you use elimination tournaments?  Three reasons: tradition,
simplicity, and shortage of tables.  This last reason is exemplified by
tennis tournaments, where there are usually not enough courts.  In that case,
it is more efficient to use elimination.  For shogi, however, there is no
shortage of sets, so this reason does not applied.

I am amazed that elimination would be used in any fashion at the US
Championships, especially with experienced chess players like Larry around.
Were I one of the invitees, I probably would decline on the grounds that
elimination tournaments are a waste of time.

Incidentally, I suspect (but have no mathematical proof) that elimination
tournaments distort ratings.  The winners will go higher, while the losers
will go lower (lose your first two games in a double elimination, and you get
rated with an 0-2 record).  I think you have to have at least a swiss system
(better would be round robin) to have accurate ratings.