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Copyright 1997, Jim Loy
You may print this and show it to others. But, this article will eventually be
part of a book that I am writing. So, please do not distribute it widely.
Checkers players sometimes seem to be on a quest for the perfect draw. There have been many very exciting and logical draws, which we could label as perfect. After all, a win is the result of a mistake (by the opponent). No matter how well you played, the win is marred by your opponent's mistake. But, as a result of this perfect draw mystique, some players seem to be proud to replay an error-free draw, right out of the book.
Of course, you do have to replay old draws, just to survive a difficult opening. But, this is a smart trick to win the match. I personally am much more proud of setting a trap and having my opponent foolishly fall into it.
This glorifying of draws shows up in the tournament rules. The first tie-break is least matches lost, which does not support draws. But, the second tie-break is least games lost. This heavily encourages draws.
Let's say that Mr. A and Mr. B are tied. Their match results are both 4-0-3 (4 wins, 0 losses, 3 draws). Their score is 22 each, they are tied. By the way, the score formula is 4W+2D, a strange formula (it could have been 2W+D, and still result in whole numbers). Well, they are also tied after the first tie-break, least matches lost (zero). To further break the tie, we go to least games lost. Let's say that these are their records:
A: 6-2-20
B: 12-3-13
We see that Mr. B dominated his matches, more than Mr. A did. But, B lost one more game, and loses on tie-break. He doesn't complain, either. He has played in plenty of tournaments. And he knows that he must try to lose fewer games. In his pursuit of victories at any cost, he plays a risky game and loses too many games.
The rules favor the conservative player who does not take risks. But, it's not so interesting for us fans. I think we would attract more players, if we rewarded wins instead of draws.
The same thing happens in chess, to a smaller degree. The S-B form of tie-break rewards draws while the other forms of tie-break reward wins. I say that if you use S-B to break any ties, you might as well flip a coin. The Median method is the most popular method of tie-break. And it doesn't reward you for playing someone really tough, or penalize you for playing someone really easy. I think that this is bad, I don't like Median. Everybody else loves it.
The ideal method of tie-break (besides having judges hold up cards to score the brilliance of play) is performance rating. This is an ELO rating of the players' games for this one tournament. It is used when a computer is available to the Tournament Director.