nikos59

Suggestions as to how it should be in the future are excellent but not really relevant. This is not going to happen any time soon according to Fred. It would be more interesting to hear what can/should be done as it is now. Tim did contribute, but most people did not. They are virtually all English speaking and perhaps can't see the problem. I realise that we won't get the views of the Poles, Turks, Chinese and Italians, but one could still voice one's opinion as to whether one should show consideration towards those groups or not. Or should they just learn English and make it a non-issue? Or to turn it around: should people from English speaking countries learn other languages? Just the basic stuff in order to get the gist of the commentary in a foreign language. Provocative perhaps, but isn't it a fact the we speak too few languages? Roland There is another angle. Not only there are many Italians-Frenchmen-Poles-etc. who can't grasp much of the English commentary, but the majority of non-English-speaking commentators are obviously expressing themselves much more richly in their maternal language. I, for one, find quite refreshing to watch the French or Italian commentary; moreover, the fact that commentators are more or less known to spectators and that they are rooting for their team adds spice. Even when Italy played England in the final, the English commentary in closed room was more or less impartial, while the Italian commentary in open room wasn't so -and I liked it, because it made for a more thrilling spectacle -mind you, I was a disinterested spectator, not rooting for any team.

Hi all Several visitors of my Vugraph Project site have in the past expressed the wish to be able to download all the Vugraph files of one specific year at one go. So far, I was rather reluctant, fearing that the traffic generated could exceed the limits set by my webhosting provider. It dawned to me, however, that the use of a service like Rapidshare may help to avoid this problem, hence I am posting here rapidshare links to big zipped files containing all the Vugraph files of one year (or of several years). 1955-1992 Vugraph data: http://rapidshare.com/files/121266821/1955-92.zip 1995-2003 Vugraphs: http://rapidshare.com/files/121266822/1995-2003.zip year 2004: http://rapidshare.com/files/121266824/2004.zip year 2005: http://rapidshare.com/files/121266826/2005.zip year 2006: http://rapidshare.com/files/121266827/2006.zip year 2007: http://rapidshare.com/files/121266828/2007.zip All the best Nikos Sarantakos

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=st73h9875da642c83&w=s6hkqj632dj97ckq4&e=sq4hat4dt853ct762&s=sakj9852hdkqcaj95]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South 1♥ Pass 1NT 2♠ 3♥ 3♠ Pass 4♠ Pass Pass Pass The auction comes from Japan v Germany for the Venice Cup (Round 11). At the other table, East raised to 2H and Auken-vonArnim went all the way to 5S, but stopped there. So the board was flat at 480. Actually, this was the _flattest_ board in the whole round robin: out of 66 tables, the score was 480 in 63 of them! Only two pairs bid the slam: the SouthAfrican women and the open pair of Trinidad (the other non-flat score was a 450). Still, the slam is laydown. Is it as unbiddable as it seems?

Thank you Jon for your suggestion; then, South thought 4H was pass/correct and North took it to mean "to play"? Anyway, yet another Multi disaster, this time against the perpetrators.

The biggest penalty registered in Shangai (so far at least) was 2300, in the Round 11 match between Canada and Poland. [hv=d=n&v=n&n=sqj7652hq97dqjt6c&w=sakt8h82dk98cqt52&e=shajt43da542cakj4&s=s943hk65d73c98763]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South Gierulski Klimowicz Skrzypczak Frukacz This is an interesting slam hand for EW. But Poland collected 2300 when South played 4H doubled and made one trick after the H8 lead. Incidentally, the Canadians managed to overcome this huge blow and they went on to win rather comfortably, 40 to 25 although they lost 18 imps here. Does anyone know (or can ask the players) how the auction went? TIA Nikos Sarantakos

I seem to remember in the past some concessions at high level events. For instance, US conceded to Poland before the last segment of 2000 Olympiad (they were down by 62). On the other hand, Brazil played until the bitter end the 2000 BB final although they were losing by triple digits. I am too unable to watch live the SAf-Italy match, SAf in front by 3.7 with four boards to go.....

The problem is that three out of four BB matches were effectively over after segment three, so interest would be minimal.

Ok Gerardo, many thanks, I made the correction!

Not having a blog, I will possibly post some hands from Shangai here: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/shangai.html For the moment there are two of them.

I will try (but no promises) to post the lin files at my page within the day: It is more difficult than usual because of the time difference and also because files tend to get corrupted with funny characters and they need an extra vetting which is done manually and is very time-consuming. For the moment (as round 2 is coming to close) Round 1 is up: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2007/2007-wtc.html

Hi all I wanted to update my Vugraph Project site with the latest BBO transmissions and it seems that the URL where the unedited logs used to be stored, i.e. http://bridgebase09.bridgebase.com:81/vug/?C=M;O=D is unreachable. Any ideas? n.s.

The Vugraph Project team is proudly announcing yet another major offering from the past, the 1974 Bermuda Bowl final. You can find all 96 deals of the final between USA and Italy, at: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1974/1974-bb.html The 1974 BB final was held in Venice between Italy (the holders) and North America. Both teams had qualified via a double round robin of 32-board matches and a semi final of 64 boards. The round robin was topped by Italy with North America coming second followed by Brazil, Indonesia, France and New Zealand. The semifinals were easy wins for Italy against Indonesia and North America against Brazil. In the Final, Italy used only their big four of Garozzo/Belladonna and Forquet/Bianchi; these four had routed the Aces in the 1973 final. North America were strengthed from the previous year's Aces team by the addition of the strong Canadian pair EricMurray/ SammyKehela. In the final Murray/Kehela played five out of six segments as did Hamman/Wolff. The third pair Goldman/Blumenthal just played two segments. The first 64 boards were dominated by Italy who built up a lead of 48 IMPs with just 32 boards to go. However in the 5th segment North America fought back strongly and with 22 boards left had reduced the deficit to only 5 Imps. Italy then recovered a little and by the end of the 5th segment had increased their lead to 17 IMPs. The killer for North America came early in the last Segment - at board 83 Hamman/Wolff bid to a game in 4 spades making 11 tricks; in the other room Forquet/Bianchi found the double fit and bid the small slam in clubs to gain a further 12 IMPS. After a hard fought final segment Italy were the winners by 29 IMPs (195 - 166). Kudos for this offering goes (again!) to Denis O'Kane who did all the work and also offers several alternative formats (pbn, dup files, pf files). What are pf files, you may ask. It is a very interesting new twist. Using the so-called pf command, these lin files allow the user to depart at any time from the line of play followed at the table, to play out the hand all by himself and explore alternative lines of play. However, once you have departed from the original line, you cannot reliably revert to it unless you go back at Trick 1. Nikos Sarantakos www.sarantakos.com/bridge.html

I just uploaded the Vugraph of Cavendish pairs at the Vugraph Project pages: http://sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2007/2007-cav.html Many thanks to all involved, first and foremost to Denis! Nikos Sarantakos

Hi all The Vugraph Project proudly announces another important addition, the 1996 Olympiad final between France and Indonesia in both pbn and lin formats. This was one of the first major event to be transmitted (in Bridgeplaza) but the resultant pbn files had many gaps and flaws, so Denis O' Kane had to use the official book to complete the data. The address is: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1996/1996-oly.html Nikos Sarantakos

Many thanks Gerardo -just a question: is Adolfo Andres younger or older than Agustin? nikos

This is most probable -or perhaps a 6H bid was interjected.

Hi all During the Argentinian Open Trials that were played on April 22 and were transmitted by BBO, Agustin Madala had a freak hand: S --- H --- D Q J 8 x x x C A K J x x x x Yes, a 7-6-0-0! At love all his partner passed, RHO opened 1H. What would you overcall over 1H? He chose 6C but LHO bid 6H and Madala passed. Unfortunately for him, partner had A 10 xx in diamonds and a singleton club, the king of diamonds was on, hence 7D was on! Still worse, in the other room they bid and made 7Dx dbled. Even still worse, LHO was singleton in clubs as well, so 6H was also on. It is one of the very rare hands where one team bids and makes slam at both tables, even rarer when both slams are unbeatable. Unfortunately, the match was transmitted at one table only.... Hence we do not know what was the bidding at the other table (I just guess it went slower). Question: Does anyone know how was the bidding at the other table? No need to ask about the play. TIA Nikos Sarantakos

The Vugraph Project team is proudly announcing yet another major offering from the past, the 1967 Bermuda Bowl final. You can find all 128 deals of the final between Italy and North America at: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1967/1967-bb.html This was the first Bermuda Bowl to feature a round robin and a final encounter. In the final the usual suspects met again, Italy v North America (with Murray and Kehela, so the name was not a formality). The Blue Team won. Kudos for this offering goes (again!) to Denis O'Kane who did all the work and also offers several alternative formats (pbn, dup files, pf files). Nikos Sarantakos

Now that the virtually live Vugraph transmission is over, all the data together are posted at my Vugraph site: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1995/1995-bb.html along with pbn format. I would like to thank all those who participated in it! I guess everyone will agree that this was an excellent collaborative experiment and I am sure that the spectators loved it. It remains to be seen whether the experiment can be repeated and if yes what would be a suitable candidate event. Nikos Sarantakos

About Roger's query re Segment 5. I checked the Bridge World issues; that segment is reported in 4/1996 issue (a report jointly written by Edgar Kaplan and Jeff Rubens, presumably because EK was the npc of the US team). It turns out that the report of the Bridge World corroborates the spectators, i.e. it seems that the official report, on which our data are based, is wrong: Hamman was South and Wolff was North in that segment, so we must change the data when they'll be posted at my Vugraph site. While we are at it, we'll also change Wolff's spelling (not Woolf). Note that this inversion concerns only that pair and that segment, at least as far as I checked. Nikos

I wonder, why hasn't someone written an add-on to allow FF to properly open lin files.

The Vugraph Project team is proudly announcing yet another major offering from the past, the 1981 Bermuda Bowl final. You can find all 96 deals of the final between USA and Pakistan at: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1981/1981-bb.html Just to whet your appetite this was the international debut of three mega-stars: Meckstroth, Rodwell and Zia. USA beat Pakistan after some memorable hands, including the deal where Masood had to find a lead against Meckwell's 3NT redoubled -his choice led to +1 while another lead could beat the contract by several tricks. Kudos for this offering goes (again!) to Denis O'Kane who did all the work and also offers several alternative formats (pbn, dup files, pf files). What are pf files, you may ask. It is a very interesting new twist. Using the so-called pf command, these lin files allow the user to depart at any time from the line of play followed at the table, to play out the hand all by himself and explore alternative lines of play. However, once you have departed from the original line, you cannot reliably revert to it unless you go back at Trick 1.

The Vugraph Project team is proudly announcing yet another major offering from the past, the 1977 Bermuda Bowl final. You can find all 128 deals of the final between USA I and USA II, at: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1977/1977-bb.html Just to whet your appetite this was the first and last time when two teams from the same country met in the final. This was deemed awkward, hence a rule has been promulgated whereby if two teams of the same country are present in the semifinals they have to play each other. The two US teams had qualified 1st and 2nd respectively from a six team round robin - the other teams being Sweden, Argentina, Australia and Taiwan. The Defenders had a 31 IMP carry over (actually 30.5 IMP) from the RR and looked as if they would retain the title after 64 boards as they led by 44 IMPs. But the Challengers really came alive after that and outscored the holders by 73 IMPs over the final 32 boards to take the glory and the Bermuda Bowl. Kudos for this offering goes (again!) to Denis O'Kane who did all the work and also offers several alternative formats (pbn, dup files, pf files). What are pf files, you may ask. It is a very interesting new twist. Using the so-called pf command, these lin files allow the user to depart at any time from the line of play followed at the table, to play out the hand all by himself and explore alternative lines of play. However, once you have departed from the original line, you cannot reliably revert to it unless you go back at Trick 1. Nikos Sarantakos www.sarantakos.com/bridge.html

The Vugraph Project team is proudly announcing yet another major offering from the past, the 1973 Bermuda Bowl final. You can find all 128 deals of the final between USA and Italy, at: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1973/1973-bb.html Just to whet your appetite: the legendary Blue Team had retired after their1969 BB win, leaving the field open to Ira Korn's Aces, who won the 1970 and 1971 events. The Italians came back in action to beat the Americans in the 1972 Olympiad, so the 1973 match had a special significance, as it pitted the reigning world champions against the Olympic champions. The Aces had pipped the Blue Team in the Round Robin and were quietly confident. But the Blue Team came out and played almost flawless bridge in the first two segments to lead 124 - 6, an unprecedented trouncing at that level! The match was effectively over after 32 boards but Italy kept increasing their lead and after segment 7 they led by 205 IMPs. The Aces reduced the deficit somewhat by winning the final set 80-3. Italy fielded Garozzo/Belladonna and Forquet/Bianchi for the first six segments and only in the last two segments did new boys Pittala and Garabello see action. Kudos for this offering goes (again!) to Denis O'Kane who did all the work and also offers several alternative formats (pbn, dup files, pf files). What are pf files, you may ask. It is a very interesting new twist. Using the so-called pf command, these lin files allow the user to depart at any time from the line of play followed at the table, to play out the hand all by himself and explore alternative lines of play. However, once you have departed from the original line, you cannot reliably revert to it unless you go back at Trick 1. Nikos Sarantakos www.sarantakos.com/bridge.html

The Vugraph Project team is proudly announcing yet another major offering from the past, the 1987 Bermuda Bowl final. You can find the deals of the final between USA and Great Britain at: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/1987/1987-bb.html It was a hard-fought match with the result in doubt up to the last segment (seg 11) which USA won by 58-8, so the final score of 354-290 doesn't really reflect how close a contest it was. Two British pairs used HUM systems which added spice (and confusion) to the auction. Kudos for this offering goes (again!) to Denis O'Kane who did all the work and also offers several alternative formats (pbn, dup files and our interactive pf files). Nikos Sarantakos