How best to get someone's 'rank' from a scores table with php and mysql without looping

Question

My table will hold scores and initials.

But the table wont be ordered.

I can get the total row count easy enough and I know I can get all of them and Order B

Answer 1

SELECT s1.initials, (
  SELECT COUNT(*)
  FROM scores AS s2
  WHERE s2.score > s1.score
)+1 AS rank
FROM scores AS s1