A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO MATCHPOINTING

When I got 53% - 53% of What??

The simplest way of putting this is to say that you score two points for every pair you beat on a given board. The Top Match point or T.M.P. goes to the pair who have the highest score, the second best to the second highest, and so on.

The TMP is the number of tables, less one, multiplied by two. The reason the the TMP is based on the number of tables minus one, is that you score zero for a bottom board - in other words you beat no-one. If there is a phantom there is in effect an unplayed table, so it will be the number of tables minus two. If two or more pairs share equal scores, the matchpoints for those two positions are shared equally.

Using The Example On The Left
This example assumes we are playing just one board a table over 15 tables. The TMP here is thefore 28, or 14 x 2. It means that the maximum points you can score for the session (i.e. a top on every single board!) will be the TMP of 28 points for each of the 15 boards i.e. 28 x 15 = 420 matchpoints. If N/S score 28 points MP's, then E/W must have scored zero, since the two scores will always add up to 28. If N/S score 16, then E/W must score 12, and so on.

IMPORTANT- Contrary to popular belief a passed in board does NOT mean you get an average. It means there is a zero for each side on the scoresheet. If, when you then look at the sheet, all the scores are on your side, you have just got a bottom. If they are on the other side you have a top. In our example it just happens to be an average, since there are seven scores for N/S and for E/W.

You calculate the scores as follows

N/S 13 has the highest score, so they get 28 MP's for each of the 14 pairs they have beaten
N/S 5 are second, so they get 26 MP's
N/S 2,4, and 10 all have the same scores, so they share the MP's for those three positions i.e. 24,22 & 20 = 66 divided by three = 22 each.
N/S 15 now gets 18 points and N/S 8 gets 16.
The passed in board isscored as zero, so N/S 7 gets 14.
There are now no more positive scores for N/S, so you take the next lowest score against them i.e.the 50 aginst N/S 3 & 11. The MP's for those two positions (12 and 10) are divided equally between them i.e. 11 each.
N/S 1 & 9 are next and get 7 each.
N/S 6 now gets 4, and N/S 12 & 14 share the bottom with 1 point each.

When you get a 60% or 40 % score depending if you are innocent or guilty of some misdemeanour or other making the boardimpossible to play, it means that you get 60% or 40% of the matchpoints available on that hand - in this case 17 or 11.

So What Does All This Mean In Terms Of My Final Score?
It means that when the results say that you scored 53.57%, you got 225 matchpoints out the possible total of 420 on this example. The results sheet gives you those details.