Walddk

I know them for the Open and Women. They are ... Open: Italy v India Israel v Romania Brazil v China Netherlands v Estonia Norway v Turkey Germany v Belgium Poland v USA England v Bulgaria Women: Germany v Brazil England v Singapore Finland v Turkey USA v Spain Netherlands v Denmark Russia v Italy France v Sweden Poland v China

They may qualify for the QFs too, but they need to win their matches in the Round of 16 first :) Anyway, well done England! Roland

'Offensive' because I think Acol is over and out? Well, if you are that sensitive, there is probably no cure for it. It may be your preferred system, and I don't mind; you are obviously entitled to your opinion. Perhaps you will grant others the right to express their views too? I did not criticize any human being. In my view, Acol is hopelessly old-fashioned, and I will claim that it is 24/7, whether you think that it's offensive or not. Taking offence on behalf of a bridge system is hilarious. Roland

Round of 16 tomorrow (Saturday in Beijing). Four segments of 14 boards. We now have our matches for segments 1 and 2. The rest to be decided. Open series unless stated. Segment 1: Brazil v China Poland v USA Norway v Turkey Netherlands v Denmark (women) Segment 2: Poland v USA Italy v India England v Bulgaria France v Sweden (women) We also expect to have one match from the youth events in every round. As always, we don't know which until we see them. Please remember that starting time for segment 1 is 1 hour earlier than in the RR. Check your bookmarked vugraph schedule page for times in your area. Roland

I had a look at the convention cards for England's pairs (open, women, seniors, U28 and U21) in Beijing. The systems are ... Open: Two pairs play 4-card majors (15-17 and 14-16 NT) One pair plays two-way 1♣. Women: All three pairs play 5-card majors. Seniors: Two pairs play 4-card majors. One with a 13-15 NT (14-16 in 3rd vul), the other one 14-17 in all seats. One pair plays 5-card majors. U28: All three play 5-card majors. U21: All three play 5-card majors. Judged by these facts I think one can conclude that the younger top players have realised the advantage of a 5-card major system. Some of the "old" guys and gals never will. Roland

To be fair, Townsend-Gold and the Hackett twins do to some extent, but they play a 15-17 and 14-16 1NT respectively. Regarding international achievements, T-G won the bronze medal in the pairs in Tenerife 2005 (European Open Championships). Fred was there, so I think he remembers. Roland P.S. I am NOT an Acol loyalist as I am sure you can tell from leading my posts in this thread. To the contrary! They are both excellent pairs and I would think twice about playing against either of these pairs for money. But as you point out, they don't play 1+2 (ie they don't play Acol as it is traditionally taught). Fred Gitelman Bridge Base Inc. www.bridgebase.com Curiously, the original Acol concept (30's) was a variable NT. 12-14 NV and 15-17 vulnerable. I don't know how many subscribe to this today, but I doubt that you find many top pairs. One, however, is Peter Lund-Steen Møller, members of the Danish seniors team, both strong players. Roland

To be fair, Townsend-Gold and the Hackett twins do to some extent, but they play a 15-17 and 14-16 1NT respectively. Regarding international achievements, T-G won the bronze medal in the pairs in Tenerife 2005 (European Open Championships). Fred was there, so I think he remembers. Roland P.S. I am NOT an Acol loyalist as I am sure you can tell from leading my posts in this thread. To the contrary!

I reopen the thread by bidding 5♥. No guarantee of success, but I prefer the active risk rather than the passive one. Hope I have understanding team-mates if I come back with -1100. Roland

No and no. Pass is completely out of the question. If you do, you deserve to lose your legitimate partscore when partner is unable to reopen. Even a game could be on when partner won't bid again. To stay with your own terminology. No bridge player would pass. Roland

Pass first then bid will show this hand you mean? Then you are right when you write "WALD Acol is NOT dead when will those who cannot play Bridge realise that FACT" Do you offer lessons? Roland

The crux of the matter. Why do they still teach beginners Acol in the UK? You have to start somewhere, so let them start from scratch and let them learn a system of this century, not one of the 1930's, 40's and 50's. Acol is over and out, period. Surely some people in England, Wales and Scotland have realised that by now. Roland

True, Paul, but that goes for all raises. Different hand types. If 1MA-3MA is limit, you would raise 1♠ to 3 with ... ♠ Axxx ♥ Kxx ♦ Qxx ♣ Qxx as well as ... ♠ KJxx ♥ x ♦ Axxxx ♣ xxx You can't distinguish between the two hands (balanced/shapely), as is the case with a single raise in this thread. Roland

The problem with double is that we don't have four spades. You will get 2♠ whenever he has 4-5 in the majors and a minimum, and when he is 4-4 and outside his notrump range. With 3-3 in the majors you can never have more spades than hearts between you, but you could have eight or more hearts. So if you get 2♠, it's not safe at all to follow up with 3♥ in a 4-card major system. The price you must pay for playing 4-card majors is that you respond 2♥ with this hand although you don't know if you have a fit. It is true that 1♥ is often five cards if you bid 4-card suits up the line, but it is not when he has 4-4 in the majors or 3433. If he opens 1♠, however, it's a 5-card suit 95 times out of 100, because it can only be four with specifically 4333 (roughly 5%). Roland

What? In that case it has changed. Between 1999 and 2005 I played regularly in Scotland (club games, league games, congresses), and 5-card majors were the exception to the rule. To check if there has been changes to Acol in Scotland, I asked Jim Patrick, editor of the Scottish Bridge News. "No" was the short answer. To illustrate his point he showed me the conditions for the Bidding Contest in the SBU News. "The basic system is modern Acol with a weak no-trump (12-14), 4-card majors and weak twos in the majors." They would not use that system if it isn't what the average club player is familiar with. Roland

2♥, can't think of an alternative. Roland

Thursday is a day off for the players in Beijing (except those who are invited to play in the Individual). Friday is the last day of the Round-Robin with three rounds. We now have our schedule for the first two, the last to be decided after the organisers have had a look at the standings. Open series unless stated. Round 15: France v Italy Netherlands v Portugal Turkey v Germany China v Denmark (women) Round 16: Germany v England Brazil v South Africa New Zealand v Bulgaria France v Sweden (seniors) Round 17: To be decided. We now seem to have a regular schedule with one youth match per session. I expect that to continue Friday. Roland

Only two rounds in Beijing Wednesday, and Thursday is a day off before the last three rounds of the round-robin Friday. Wednesday's program (Open series unless stated): Round 13 Sweden v India USA v Australia Brazil v Denmark Spain v Russia (women) Round 14 Israel v Russia India v Netherlands Canada v Indonesia (seniors) Poland v England (women) Then add the usual match from one of the youth events in every round. As always, we don't know which. Roland

Our Tuesday program from Beijing is as follows (Open series unless stated): Round 10: Denmark v Pakistan New Zealand v Poland India v Russia USA v Egypt (women) Round 11: USA v Germany Sweden v Netherlands Norway v Spain South Africa v France (seniors) Round 12: Italy v South Africa Argentina v Russia France v Canada Chinese Taipei v Japan (seniors) Hopefully, we will be able to add one match from one of youth events in each round. As usual, we don't know which until we see it on our screens. Roland

Easy pass. I have too many spades, and I am already feeling sick by looking at my holding in diamonds. I know, if I don't double, partner will lead a club from 4, 5 or 6 cards. Can't be helped, the contract would likely make anyway. Roland

Our Monday program from Beijing is as follows (Open series unless stated): Round 7: China v Netherlands Austria v Germany Russia v Sweden Germany v Netherlands (women) Round 8: Italy v Romania New Zealand v Norway Bulgaria v Poland Denmark v France Round 9: Italy v Brazil Turkey v England Lebanon v Germany France v Pakistan Sunday we managed to show a match from the U28 event in the last two rounds. Hopefully we will be able to carry on with a youth match tomorrow. Which (if any) we can't tell in advance. Roland

Day 1 was pretty good in my opinion. There will always be a few minor problems in the beginning, such as inexperienced operators, wrong team names, misspelling of player names, etc. In those areas I am convinced that Hervé will make sure that we deliver a better presentation very soon. Unfortunately we had no matches from the youth events as promised, and the organizers did not manage to provide running scores and results. Also problems one can face when such a big event gets under way. I am sure it will be much better come Saturday/Sunday. When the weekend is complete we will have offered commentary in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Indonesian, Japanese and Chinese. Later we will most likely be able to add German, Polish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. Roland

Ourgames is a Chinese bridge site and everything is in Chinese. I am sorry to say that I don't know how to get there. I suggest that you send a private message to cnszsun (yellow) when you see him online. He should be able to give you a link. Roland

Just in. Our matches for rounds 4, 5 and 6 Sunday. Open series unless stated. Round 4 New Zealand v Spain Turkey v USA Argentina v China Hong Kong Bulgaria v Chinese Taipei Round 5: Germany v Indonesia South Africa v France Italy v Denmark Austria v Netherlands Round 6: Sweden v China Italy v Ireland New Zealand v France (seniors) Canada v Russia (women)

Sorry no. Our broadcast will not start until Saturday morning local time. Again it's a question of recruiting operators. We have them for the team events, but they need to practice first to ensure a quality presentation. Roland The Individual is in 2 parts with the second part on Oct 9th, so perhaps coverage of the second part is possible. Oct 9th is the only day off for the teams .... and most importantly: our operators. My guess is that we won't broadcast, but I'll check with Hervé (Zmud99). Perhaps it's not even our call. It could well be that the WBF won't let us broadcast from that event. Roland

I now have our matches for the first three rounds (Saturday local time). Open series unless stated. Round 1: Hungary v China Australia v England Norway v Egypt Israel v Netherlands Round 2: Canada v Italy France v Brazil Iceland v Poland Denmark v South Africa Round 3: Poland v Egypt China v Russia Romania v Japan England v USA (seniors) In each round we will add one youth match. We can't tell you which, and we may only broadcast from one room. The problem with the youth events as far as vugraph is concerned is that the youngsters play at another venue across the city, so our operators are left to their own devices. Therefore, please understand if we can't offer a comprehensive and flawless youth broadcast in the beginning. Roland