From: J Andrew Lipscomb CHATTANOOGA NET> Date: 31 mar 2002 Subject: Re: please teach about 'Tie Breaks Method' Le Dimanche 31 mars 2002, à 01:27 , NAITO Naoya a écrit : > Hello > > I am a high school mathematics teacher of Japan. > I have used 'Swiss Perfect 98' at high school students games > at Kyoto of shogi. > And I am very interested in Swiss System, mathematically, > especially 'Tie Breaks Method'. > What I want to know is 'Priority of Tie Breaks Method', > for example, Buchholz, Median-Buchholz, Progress, Berger, etc. > Mathematically, what order of the method of 'Tie Breaks' is better ? > > Please teach me about 'Web Materials', etc, of them. I can't tell you what's best, but I can explain each one. Buchholz is simply the total score of all your opponents. I believe it is customary as the first tiebreak in shogi. It's also called Solkoff. Median-Buchholz (or Median, or Harkness) throws out the best and worst opponents. It's arguably fairer than straight Buchholz, especially if you have at least 6 rounds. Progress (or Progressive, or Cumulative) is the sum of the player's scores after each round. The theory is that with good results early, you meet a tougher field. It's not a bad method if you have to do it by hand, but the Buchholz styles are better if you are using a computer. Berger (or Sonnenborn-Berger) is the sum of only those opponents' scores the player beat. A very poor tiebreak for Swiss, but not a bad choice if you have a round-robin. The best book I've found on the subject is "The Chess Organiser's Handbook." Sometimes, amazon.co.uk will have it, but the most reliable source is the Chess Federation of Canada (www.chess.ca).