IBPA Broadcast Media Sub-Committee
Following an approach from Jade Barrett of the USA in Lille and after consulting IBPA Officers, the chairman and president support the following ideas:
1. That IBPA’s current emphasis on service to bridge columnists in newspapers and magazines needs widening to give a greater service to those in the broadcast media, namely TV, radio, and internet-based media which include moving pictures and blogs involving the public.
2. That we initiate this change by asking Jan van Cleeff, our Executive Vice-President, to launch a subcommittee consisting of himself, Jade Barrett, and at least one other with this remit:
“ To prepare advice for the IBPA Executive on how to expand its services to members of the broadcast media, namely TV, radio, and the internet with moving pictures or blogs involving the public.”
A Third Vulnerability
Norberto Bocchi of Italy has suggested a change in scoring with the introduction of a third vulnerability, “Super Vulnerable” or “Azure”, where penalties and bonuses would be increased, to wit, plus 700 for a super-vulnerable game and 200 per undertrick. Less provocatively and more reasonably, he also suggests the introduction of timer clocks similar to those in use in chess.
Flux in Italian Bridge?
Rumours about the makeup of future Italian teams were rife in Lille. We heard from three sources (none of them the principals!) that Duboin and Sementa are finished as a partnership and that Madala/Bocchi will play for Argentina in the future. These decisions, if true, may be reconsidered upon mature reflection – the Italian team was very disappointed at its early exit in the quarterfinals by 1 IMP at the hands of Poland. It is difficult to imagine that having Lorenzo Lauria in the team would not have made the difference. Maria Teresa Lavazza, please come back!
Lavazza Coffee
One glaring ommission in the World Mind Sports Games in Lille was the lack of the free Lavazza coffee offered at previous venues/events (not to mention the lovely barristas!). With the retirement of Madame Lavazza, we may have seen the last of this much-appreciated feature.
Change in the WBF Victory Point Scales
A Scoring Committee was set up by the WBF President in January of this year. The committee was
chaired by Ernesto d’Orsi of Brazil and co-chaired by Max Bavin (UK). Other Committee members are Henry Bethe (USA), Bart Bramley (USA), Peter Buchen (Aus), and Maurizio de Sacco (IT). After deep and long analysis, the committee proposed – and the WBF Executive Committee accepted – the following:
1. The adoption of a 20-point victory point scale with the following features:
• The scales are continuous and given to two decimal places
• Subject to a cap, each IMP margin translates to a specific VP award
• Each additional IMP in the winner’s margin is worth no more than the previous one
• Relative to the current WBF scales, the “blitz” margins in the new scale will be approximately equivalent to the 25-2 in the old scales. There is no reduction of VPs for
the loser when the margin exceeds the blitz margin.
2. It is recommended that the new scales be used in the next World Bridge Championship including Youth tournaments) and be available to all NBOs by the end of 2012.
3. Also, the Committee will prepare new “discrete” scales (whole numbers) to be used by NBOs if they wish to during the transition from the old to the new VP scales.
4. On the World Bridge Federation website (www.worldbridge.org), the Committee will publish the
“continuous” and “discrete” scales for the most-used number of boards per match and will publish them together with instructions on how to determine VP scales for other sizes of matches. Also on the website, using the actual algorithm, users will be able to enter the number of boards and the preferred scale type to read, print or download the result.
5. Future work by the Committee will include consideration of aggregate score, the IMP scale and matchpoint scoring, although not necessarily with a view to suggest changes.