International Match Point scoring was first introduced at the 1938 European Championships in Oslo. Its purpose is to moderate the disproportionate effect that a very large score differential (or "swing') on just one or two boards could have on the outcome of a contest involving dozens of boards. The difference in total points scored by each team is converted to International Match Points (IMPs) using a standard table which has sublinear dependencies on differences to reduce the effect of such large swings.