From: "George I. Fernandez" <g.fernandez <at> MINDSPRING <dot> COM>
Date: 7 sep 1999
Subject: Re: Results Mind Sports Olympiad/Pan-Atlantic Shogi Championship

>On 99/09/07 at 19:05 +0200, James Harnett wrote:
>
>>>S = score; OS = sum of opponents' scores after round 9;
>>>SB = Sonneborn-Berger score after round 9.
>>>
>>Would you please explain the Sonneborn-Berger scoring method for those who
>>are not familiar with it?  What other scoring methods are used?

>On Tue, 7 Sep 1999 23:39:17 +0200, Pieter Stouten wrote:
>
>These are all tie-break criteria to be applied when players have
>equal numbers of points. Sonneborn-Berger (SB) is the sum of defeated
>opponents' scores. In Chess (where draws are possible) SB = 2 * sum
>of defeated opponents' scores plus 1 * sum of "drawn" opponents'
>scores. At the MSO/PASC I used SOS, SB and mutual game in that order.
>At the European Championship they use (I believe) SOS, median SOS
>(leave out the highest and lowest score), SB and mutual game.
>
>There is also a "progressive" system (don't know the exact name)
>where earlier losses (with supposedly a "lighter" program to follow)
>have more of a negative effect than later losses. I don't know if
>that system is used in Shogi.
>Hope this helps,
>Pieter
>

Just thought I'd mention that in the USA we do use the progressive system
as a means of tie-breaks. The order of tie-breaks currently used in major
tournaments is: 1. SOS; 2. Median SOS; 3. Head-to-head [aka mutual game];
4. Progressive, where each player's score is simply added round by round
(examples: 11234= 11, 12334= 13, 12344= 14, 00012= 3, 12222 = 9). As Pieter
mentions, this system does strongly favor players who do well early in a
tournament; And 5. Coin toss!
At some point the USSF Rules Committee will consider the merits of adding
the SB tie-break system to the ones above.

George
USSF Rules Committee Chairman

George I. Fernandez

President
United States Shogi Federation

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