Each contestant is compared with everyone who played the same board; Two scoring units for each score inferior to yours, one for each equal score, and zero for each superior score; This is the standard method for pairs events — beating the field on a board matters more than the size of the margin
Why people argue about this
People often assume that in Matchpoint Scoring, simply beating an opponent on a board is enough for full credit, forgetting that they also need to outscore everyone else who played that particular board, which can lead to complex score calculations and disagreements over marginal points.
