AbstractThe problem of ranking players in a tournament has been studied by a number of authors. The methods developed for ranking players fall under two general headings—direct methods and rating methods. The present paper extends the tournament ranking problem in two directions. First, the usual definition of a tournament is broadened to include ties or draws. Thus, our model determines the best weak ranking of the players. Second, the ranking method presented takes account of player strength in that wins over strong players are valued higher than wins over weak players. To account for player strength, we evaluate both direct or first-order wins of players over opponents (idefeatsj) and indirect or higher-order wins (idefeatsk, who defeatsj). A model which derives a composite score for each player, combining both direct and indirect wins, is used to obtain an overall ranking of the competitors.