geller

That's because the ACBL was both the zonal and national organization for the USA. There was no problem with this, but when the WBF affiliated with the Olympic movement it became necessary to have a separate national committee for each country or region, just like other sports. That's why the USBF was created. The only tourneys they run are the trials for the US international teams. Hence the only paid up members are people who compete in the trials (or a few others with a real interest in international bridge).

I don't understand the reasons for the disqualification. Why was making up a random handle name (or using a relative's) a violation of the conditions of contest. I tried to find the conditions of contest, but couldn't. Could someone please explain this or give me the right URL? Thanks. -Bob

Why were people willing to risk their hard-earned money at such a dodgy site? I'm not a poker player (since college) but it boggles the imagination. -Bob

If I read Chip's comment right, before the tourney they had access to the opponents convention cards, but not the hand records. It sounds like they only saw the hand records after the tourney (Bermuda Bowl) ended , or at least only after it was underway ("Later, when we looked at the hands they opened ... "). The lack of accessible hand records (including all bidding and play) for F2F events is a major drawback to any attempt to do tendency analysis.

If bridge ever became a fully professional sport, like professional football in the US, this kind of tendency analysis of opponents would become completely routine. I don't see anything wrong with it. At the Bermuda Bowl and other world championship events in Shanghai all the bidding and play at all the tables was keyed in by monitors, so there's a great data base for anyone who wants to start developing software for tendency analysis. The company ProZone does tendency analysis for football (soccer) for most of the English Premier League teams and many national teams. It would be fun if bridge became similarly professional. Imagine, for example, if Meckwell spent Monday to Friday training for their televised (on cable or satellite TV) matches on the weekend, instead of having to play with students in random tourneys. Probably won't happen any time soon though.... -Bob

and oil.

OIL!

You can edit it at any time if you want to Just click on "edit."

The problem is the protester is not representing herself, she is representing the USBF (in this case) in a WBF championship being held in China, hosted by the CCBA. So if her holding up the sign is inappropriate (let's say this is the case for the sake of argument) then not only the individual protester but also the USBF can be held accountable. Therefore it behooves the USBF (and all other federations) to exert control over the actions of players who represent them.

We call them "concern trolls."

I agree the victory banquet was an inappropriate place for a political statement but I also think as much as we all like bridge we are human beings first of all and if we see evil being done we should speak out against it in an appropriate forum. -Bob

I'm sorry, I must be missing something. I'm an American citizen myself, but I don't see why the % of ordinary Americans who know what Fifa or IOC or WBF mean has to do with this. In the first place BBO is a completely international site, and in the second place I'm sure the American users of BBO (especially BBO Forum) are much more sophisticated than the average American. -Bob

Nothing. But I believe the number of countries recognized by FIFA is much greater than the WBF, and even somewhat greater than the IOC (too lazy to check this) so it's a way to include small countries that would otherwise have to be omitted.

Maybe Fred should change his policy to include not only flags from the IOC and WBF, but also flags recognized by FIFA (the intl soccer assn). This would include the flags from the four "home countries" of the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland).

Theanks for the info, David. The following is a link to the home page of the NORTHERN IRELAND BRIDGE UNION. Incidentally, here is a link to the flags of all the FIFA member countries. What I find slightly interesting is that notwithstanding the fact the the Ireland team in bridge represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the WBF home page shows only the flag for the Republic of Ireland and no one seems to be unhappy with this. The complexity of the issues involved suggests the wisdom of BBO's following the lead of the WBF and not getting involved in controversies regarding flags. -Bob

I don't see what the special problem with Northen Ireland is. In football (soccer) rather than a single UK team there are four teams from England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland has a separate team. (Almost) everybody seems to be living with this. In bridge, Wales, Scotland, and England are all members of the European zone, but not Northern Ireland. Presumably this is only because no Northern Ireland bridge federation exists. (At least a web search failed to fnd one. My apologies if there is one.) In the British isles in football (soccer) as well as bridge they have a quaint tradition of home internationals. In the case of football these involve only Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland but in bridge the Republic of Ireland also sometimes participated. Of course I recognize that serious questions persist about Ireland, but if Fifa can recognize the existence of Northern Ireland, why can't BBO? I really think there are better places than BBO Forum to discuss these issues. -Bob

Stephen Tu Posted on Oct 11 2007, 01:37 PM First, this is obviously a personal opinion. I don't speak for Fred or BBO or any other organization. It's certainly true that BBO is a private corporation and can do whatever it wants as long as it doesn't violate laws in the USA. But for BBO to make any other decision than to follow the WBF policies in regard to this matter could displease the WBF, Zone 6, and member NBOs thereof. This wouldn't be good for BBO's business. Fnally, look at the WBF web page for the NBO for Taiwan, the Chinese Taipei Contract Bridge Association. If this is used as the official name of the NBO in Taiwan, I don't think Fred and/or BBO should be criticized for using this name. I realize this is a complex issue with strong feelings on all sides, but I don't think BBO Forum is the appropriate place to argue about it. -Bob

As a practical matter BBO has no choice but to follow the official designations (2007 world chamionship participants). I'm sure that none of the entities involved are fully happy with this compromise, but everyone is living with it and China and Chinese Tapei are able to compete in the same events and play each other. So let's not hassle Fred about this. -Bob

It's great that someone made a video like this about bridge. As the first of it's kind that I've seen I have to say it wass great. But I think it could've been better edited down to 2 min or less and with a different song in the background.... Sorry to be a bit of a party pooper. -Bob

In golf the seniors get to ride in carts while the mainstream pros have to walk. In bridge stamina is a big factor. Shortly before he died from cancer Oswald Jacoby won the Reisinger (America's nationa board-a-match event) at the age of about 80. But he only played one session a day for three days. In view of his health problems I doubt he could have kept up that level for the 2 weeks or so of the Bermuda Bowl. So it seems reasonable to have separate senior events. The question of women's events is more complicated. I'll try not to step on any landmines..... I don't believe there are significant inherent biological differences between women's and men's brainpower for playing bridge, but the sociological factors are clearly different. Here in Japan (as in the US) there are many women who have won major national open team and pair events, but over the years probably about 90% of the winners have been men, despite the fact that well over half the members of the Japan Contract Bridge League (JCBL) are women. Women's team and pair events (national, regional and sectional) are very popular with the JCBL membership. So the women players themselves are eager to play in women's events. Maybe the reason for the relative lack of success of women in open (non-sex-restricted) national events has to do with a carryover of children's socialization being different for boys (encouraged to be more competitive) than girls. I don't know. But anyway, I'm sure the situation regarding women's bridge is similar to Japan's in many other countries. That being the case, I don't think the WBF should be criticized for holding a women's championship, although this can be criticized from a strictly ("Spock-like") "logical" point of view. -Bob

Chill out and get some rest, Roland. You've been working too hard. This seems like a solvable problem. Major sporting events, like the finals of the world cup of football (soccer) are broadcast simultaneously in multiple languages. Hopefully in the near future BBO will also support text stream commentary in multiple langueages, and the viewer could click on the language of his/her choice. I don't fully understand the technical issues, but each text message could be preceded by a language identifier and the client (or on line platform) could be set to display only the language chosen by the user (which could be changed at any time.) Until this can be done I agree completely with Roland that languages shouldn't be mixed. -Bob

I'm glad Japan will be on BBO but unfortunately the open room commentary will be in English and the closed room commentary in Polish, so we won't be able to do any commentary in Japanese. I hope Fred will be able to add the capability for multiple language commentary channels to BBO-TV, so that the same room could (say) have three commeent streams (English, Polish, and japanese in this case), from which readers could choose). Also, maybe someday the commentary can be made voice rather than text. -Bob

We don't get no respect! The Japanese open team has a reasonable shot at qualifying (9th place as I type this), but hasn't been on VuGraph once. Whereas the Japanese ladies team, starring in "voyage to the bottom of the league tables" HAS been on Vugraph. Go figure

One point. Many BBO viewers may not know that by clicking on MOVIE they can see the bidding and play for all of the boards that have already been played. I suggest that commentators inform the specs of this at least once each match. (In a recent broadcast in Japan I found out even some of our commentators didn't know this.) -Bob

The USA basketball team recently won the FIBA western hemisphere championship, thereby qualifying for the Olympics. Let's examine how this was done. USA Basketball selected the head coach, "Coach K" (Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University). Coach K and the staff of USA Basketball selected a panel of about 40 players (the top NBA pros) and then held a training camp to narrow the squad down to 12 players. They then trained together for two years now (before intl events) and this finally paid off. No one seriously suggests that the USA national team should be any single team (LA LAkers or Miami Heat). The solution is to pick the best players from all teams. This is also how national soccer teams (e.g. for the World Cup) are picked. Of course bridge is a partnership game so the coach might be tasked with selecting 3 pairs, not 6 players. But the present system, in which teams of six, almost all containing a weak player as a sponsor, compete as teams in the trials, is obviously not the best way to pick the strongest national team. As long as bridge is an amateur sport, and there is no professional coach or general manager tasked with picking the best team (and subject to firing if they lose) the best team will never get selected by the USA. As I said upthread, that's good news for all the other countries.