DenisO

I think BBO have reached new heights of excellence with these Championships. Rock steady Internet connections, 8- table coverage, excellent commentaries, a great results service on the Polish web site and superb coordination from Roland. I do hope this is a sign of things to come from major championships, although I recognise what a huge amount of effort has gone into the planning and organisation by the host nation Poland. Well done BBO and the Poles! Denis

Hi Erkson When I click on that link with IE6, a small Download window opens with the option buttons for Open, Save and Cancel. There is also a tick box (which I have ticked) which says "always ask before opening this type of file". If I use the Open option the link opens as a bridge movie - as expected because I have that association set up in Windows Explorer. However with Firefox, when I click on the link, I don't get a download window with any options. the link immediately opens as a text file. I have found this happening on Nikos's site and also on Yvan Calame's site (http://www.bridgefederation.ch/2006/etc/index.php) yet when I click on links in the BBO archive (http://bridgebase04.bridgebase.com:81/vug/?C=M;O=D) they open immediately as bridge movies. It doesn't matter whether I left click to open immediately or right click to get a small menu with an Open option - the link still opens as a text file. Very odd :lol:

I've got the correct association for the .LIN extension set up in Windows Explorer As you suggested, I've done a complete reinstall of BBO (after removing via Control Panel) and that's made no difference. So I'd like to try the other route. I'm using Firefox (v1.5.0.6) - but not as my default browser and when I get to Downloads the window tells me"Firefox can automatically download or open files of certain types". I then click on the button for "view and edit actions" and I've got a list of file extensions, with their file types and the appropriate action. But the .LIN extension isn't there and I can't find a way to add it. Note that I only have the problem with Nikos's site - I can open the links to .lin files as bridge movies in the BBO Vugraph archive. Help greatly appreciated <_<

Thanks Roland and Fred. The news on capturing the Vugraphs so far is good :) We have managed to get all eight matches from the first two round and they are available (without commentary) on Nikos's site - see : http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2006/2006-etc.html I understand, from a thread on rgb, that people with Mozilla may have difficulty opening the links correctly- they open as text files whereas with IE they open, as expected, as bridge movies.. We would be grateful for anyone with Mozilla expertise for help on how to open the links correctly.

Thanks Roland - I understand now. Were all the Federations or NBOs made aware of these new circumstances or invited to make use of them in sufficient time so that they could have made provision for their team to be on Vugraph each round?

I can understand Poland appearing in every round (host and providing all the operators) but why are France and Italy being so highly favoured? Denis

I think one way to make North open every hand would be to edit the .lin file with a text editor (eg Wordpad) so that the dealer represented by the number 1,2,3 or 4 after md| is always 3 =North Eg qx|o|md|3ST5H985DT65CAK843,SK62HAQ764DAJ98C2,SA987HKJDK73CQT97|sv|0|pg|| The dealer for this hand is Noth. Also if you want to edit the vulnerability - just change the character after |sv| 0= none e = EW n = NS b= All

Yes - Well done USA1 on a great victory. A privilege to watch such a great tournament. What a fantastic final segment! - some commentators were suggesting that Italy might concede - behind by 96 IMPs with only 16 boards left. But no - out they came really fighting and the result was in some doubt right to the last few boards. My only quibble is with the WBF - I know we have been over all this in another thread - but please, please why can't the WBF give enough resources to show both tables at such a major Final?

Richard's converter is a very rigorous programme and does a full error check. I use it regularly for performing the final checks of my files for the historic Bermuda Bowl matches. Small downside is that it operates inside a DOS window - so a little DOS knowledge is useful.

I've tried this in V4.8.3 but can't find a topic for Full Discosure - has it been missed out?

No need to answer - got it now - they failed to qualify :), coming 7th only at the 2005 European Youth Championship in Riccione, Italy; another notable casualty was the Netherlands.

Nice to see it actually happening :) I'm surprised there are no English Juniors - did they fail to qualify or were the EBU short on funds?

Not only will Bridgebase display them (open with NetbridgeVu.exe), it converts to lin format and leaves you a new .lin file on your hard drive. This is the technique I use mainly for preparing the lin files of the great Bermuda Bowl matches from the past - all available at Nikos Sarantakos's excellent site: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph.html Denis

The Html presentation is good but I'd much prefer a directory structure for the content.

My sentiments too - great coverage and a huge improvement over previous years. I couldn't watch everything over here in UK because of time differences and catching up with the Open from Hoylake but the matches were always there next morning in the BBO archive. Like this morning, I could even feel the atmosphere (via the commentary) of Versace fingering that ♥K on bd28 of the final quarter. I cant really express how greatful I am to BBO and all its helpers especially Roland for bringing these Vugraphs to us. If you don't need the detailed commentary, you can view (or download) all the matches at Nikos's site: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2006/2006-spin.html Denis

This is very disappointing news. Anyone know what might be the best way forward to try to influence the WBF in taking a more pro-active role in organising internet Vugraph coverage - and not just of youth; we had fairly meagre coverage at Verona which is the World Championship. I emailed Panos Gerontopolous, who seems to be the lead WBF man for youth tournaments, about the lack of coverage in Slovakia and expressed the hope that there would be an improvement for Bangkok. No reply but maybe not surprising as when I did get a reply last year to a similar request his attitude seemed to be that the provision of Internet coverage was the responsibility of BBO or Swan or E-bridge which still existed then and not the WBF's. Wonder if we should be approaching this through our NBOs or is that just wishful thinking ? Denis

Try this in the .lin file ; nt|the text you want|pg|| You may have to use a bit of trial and error. If you need more help pm me with your email and I'll send you the commented file of Swat the Moscito that I made a few years back. That should give a good idea of how to do it. Denis

In Marc Smith's book "World Class" there is a chapter on Jeff Meckstroth. He criticises the organisers of the Macallan (now defunct) for bringing in system restrictions. Meckwell had won the event previously two years in a row. Meckstroth then says that Rodwell and he won't play together in a system-restricted tournament again. The book was published in 1999 - I don't know if that is still their view.

I did them an injustice - the hand records for Teams and Pairs are now available in pdf format (with makeable contracts, presumably from DealmasterPro) - well done :(

Looks like they decided not to show it this year - a pity :) Jack has regained the title (now a 5 times winner) easily defeating MicroBridge by 217 -54 over 64 boards. The Jack team obviously took last year's defeat to heart and came back with a much stronger program, judging by the results throughout the tournament - see http://www.ny-bridge.com/allevy/computerbr...2006scores.html

The Computer Bridge Championships are being held in Verona. Wbridge5, the reigning champion has been beaten by the Japanese program MicroBridge in the SF and many times champion Jack annihilated QPlus in the other SF. The organiser's site (http://www.ny-bridge.com/allevy/computerbridge/index.htm) says the second half of the final will be shown, as last year, on BBO - I think tomorrow (22nd) - but I don't see anything on BBO schedule. Any further info?

I'm a believer in the "the buck stops here" so I reckon the WBF and FIGB are the culprits. There seems to be a surprising lack of awareness/planning of the requirements for a successful broadcast of these major events to the worldwide internet audience. But perhaps not surprising from an organisation that doesn't even give the hand records for the two major events i.e. Rosenblum and McConnell cup on the official website.

Front page of the worldbridge coverage says of the round of 32 "and the strong Ekeblad team (USA) was ousted by the Nadar team from India." Y et the detailed score gives Ekeblad 128 - Nadar 120; that's what the BBo Vugraph broadcast gave also. Anyone know who won?

Very consistent performance from McCallum- Granovetter; 3rd after 1st session, 2nd after 2nd session and top after final session. Tremendous show in a pairs event of this quality!

Does anyone have difficulty opening these .lin files on Nikos's site as bridge movies. Reason I ask is that someone asked for help on rec.games.bridge and the first response was from someone who gets a text file on the screen when he clicks one of the files. He then goes through a convoluted process of copying to the clipbord and into a text editor before saving as a .lin file in Explorer I had assumed that by installing the BBO software, there was an automatic association of the .lin extension with NetBridgeVu.exe which would always open a .lin file as a bridge movie, rather than a text file or something else.