Αγαπητοί φίλοι καλησπέρα

Με τις αρνητικές εξελίξεις και συνέπειες της εξάπλωσης του κορωνοϊού, και την υποχρεωτική

αποχή από συναθροίσεις, βρισκόμαστε στην ανάγκη να συνεχίσουμε να παίζουμε το

αγαπημένο μας παιγνίδι από το διαδίκτυο. Η Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Μπριτζ (ΚΟΜπ), θέλοντας

να εκπληρώσει τον ρόλο της σαν συνδετικός κρίκος μεταξύ όλων των παικτών του μπριτζ στην

Κύπρο, αποφάσισε να διοργανώσει διαγωνισμούς στην πλατφόρμα του ΒΒΟ (Bridge Base

Online), και να βοηθήσει ομίλους να οργανώσουν δικούς τους αγώνες. Τα οφέλη είναι

πολλαπλά, αφού τα μέλη μας διατηρούν την μεταξύ τους επαφή καθώς και την αγωνιστική

τους κατάσταση.

Εδώ και μερικά χρόνια, η ΚΟΜπ διαθέτει δύο εγγεγραμμένους διαιτητές/διοργανωτές αγώνων

στο ΒΒΟ, τον Ερρίκο Λεωνίδου και τον υποφαινόμενο. Ήδη, οι όμιλοι της Λεμεσού και Ζήνωνος

στην Λάρνακα έχουν διοργανώσει αγώνες και θα διοργανώσουν και την ερχόμενη εβδομάδα.

Οι συμμετοχές είναι περιορισμένες σε εγκεκριμένα (δικά μας) μέλη, για να μπορούμε να

ελέγξουμε την σωστή διεξαγωγή των αγώνων. Για να μπορέσετε να λάβετε μέρος, επομένως,

παρακαλούμε όπως αποστείλετε με ηλεκτρονικό ή τηλεφωνικό μήνυμα (e-mail or SMS) το ΒΒΟ

όνομα σας (BBO username), στον Ερρίκο ή στον υποφαινόμενο. Οι πρόεδροι των ομίλων

καλούνται όπως ενημερώσουν τα μέλη τους σχετικά. Οι όμιλοι καλούνται όπως ανακοινώσουν

την διεξαγωγή αγώνων στις ιστοσελίδες τους στο bridgewebs.

Σε μια περίοδο που ακόμη και η διεξαγωγή των Ολυμπιακών αγώνων του Τόκυο τον ερχόμενο

Αύγουστο είναι αμφίβολη, και μετά την ακύρωση του διεθνούς μας φεστιβάλ, η ΚΟΜπ θα

πρέπει να αντιμετωπίσει το γεγονός ότι οι περισσότεροι φετινοί διαγωνισμοί πιθανόν να

ακυρωθούν. Με αυτό υπόψιν, καλούνται οι πρόεδροι όλων των ομίλων όπως δηλώσουν μέχρι

και την ερχόμενη Παρασκευή 27/03/2020 έως και δύο ομάδες ανά όμιλο για να διεξαχθεί

διαγωνισμός ομάδων στον διαδίκτυο, σε χρόνο που θα ανακοινωθεί αφού υποβληθούν οι

συμμετοχές. Η Φρόσω Τυλληρή, γραμματέας της ΚΟΜπ, είναι υπεύθυνη για παραλαβή των

συμμετοχών από τους ομίλους.

Τέλος, επειδή κάποια μέλη μας μπορεί να μην γνωρίζουν τις διαδικασίες του παιγνιδιού στο

διαδίκτυο, συνημμένα δύο έγγραφα που βοηθούν. Ακόμη και έμπειροι παίκτες,

παρακαλούνται όπως διαβάσουν προσεκτικά τις οδηγίες των βημάτων 5 και 6 στο

συνημμένο Instructions to join BBO tournaments.

Παραμείνετε υγιείς!

Φίλιππος Φράγκος

Πρόεδρος ΚΟΜπ

Good evening dear friends

In view of the negative impact and consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and the need to

avoid social gatherings, we find ourselves obliged to continue playing our favourite game on the

internet.

The Cyprus Bridge Federation (CBF), wishing to fulfil its role as a link between all players in

Cyprus, has decided to organise competitions on the BBO (Bridge Base Online) platform, and to

help individual clubs organise their own competitions. The benefits are multiple, since our

members will be able to keep in touch with each other as well as improve their competitive

skills.

For a few years now, the CBF has two registered directors with BBO, Errikos Leonidou and

myself. With our help, the Limassol and Zenon clubs have already organised competitions and

are planning to organise more next week. Participation in these competitions is limited to (our)

approved members, in order to ensure the smooth running of the competitions. Therefore, in

order for you to participate, you need to contact either Errikos or myself via an e-mail or an

SMS, informing us of your BBO username. Players in Paphos will receive detailed instructions

from Ian Hines, who will organise tournaments for Paphos players. The presidents of the various

clubs are requested to inform all their members and let Errikos/Ian/myself know if there is any

interest to participate. Clubs should advertise any competitions they are running on their

bridgewebs sites.

At a time when even the forthcoming summer Olympics are facing postponement or

cancellation, and after we were forced to cancel our international festival, the CBF has to face

the possibility that most of this year’s competitions may be cancelled. With this in mind, and in

order to provide alternative competitions, the presidents of all clubs are asked to submit to CBF

secretary Mrs Frosso Tillyris up to two teams per club in order to organise an interclub teams

competition on BBO. Your team members names, with BBO usernames, should be submitted by

next Friday 27th

March 2020. The competition will take place at a time to be announced after

the participations have been sorted out.

In order to help less experienced members participate in BBO tournaments, please find attached

two documents which describe the procedure in simple steps.

Even experienced players are kindly asked to read carefully the instructions of steps 5 and 6 of

the attached Instructions to join BBO tournaments.

Stay healthy!

Philippos Frangos

President

Cyprus Bridge Federation

INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN BBO TOURNAMENTS

Before you can play on BBO (Bridge Base Online) you must be registered and have a user name. Once you have done that, the steps to join a tournament are:

Step 1 Login to BBO (https://www.bridgebase.com) When you access the site, the screen below is shown

You click on ‘Play bridge now’ and the login page opens, as shown below

Input your username as shown above (e.g. Frangos007) Input your password in the appropriate place – note: never reveal your password to anyone else! Tick the box titled ‘Remember me’ so that your credentials (Username and password) will be remembered next time you want to login. Do not tick the box ‘Invisible’ if you are participating in a tournament. Click on ‘Log in’, and you will be taken to BBO’s home screen.

INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN BBO TOURNAMENTS Step 2 From BBO’s home screen, select ‘PLAY OR WATCH BRIDGE – Competitive’ by clicking on the ‘Competitive’ tab:

Step 3 After you have clicked on ‘Competitive’ the ‘TOURNAMENTS’ tab will open:

INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN BBO TOURNAMENTS Step 4 Click on ‘Free Tournaments’ – all tournaments we organise will be free. After you have clicked on ‘Free Tournaments’, all are listed, including the host, the name and type of the tournament

Step 5 When you locate the tournament you are participating in, click on it, in order to register yourself. Go to ‘Partnership Desk’ and click on ‘Add your name’.

INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN BBO TOURNAMENTS If for some reason you wish to withdraw after you have registered, go to the ‘Partnership Desk’ again and click on ‘Remove your name’:

Step 6 To form a pair with your partner, if he/she is already registered, you click ‘Invite’ next to his/her username when you register yourself.

INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN BBO TOURNAMENTS

If someone who is not on the allowed list or doesn’t fulfil the restrictions on participation tries to register, he/she will get the message that they’re blocked – see picture 5 bottom right hand corner.

Additional points: ➢ If you confirmed you wish to play, please ensure that you do. Other players will be

relying on you. If people don’t join or drop out, the tournament becomes a mess

➢ We cannot add players to a tournament at the last minute. The cut-off time is 30 minutes before the tournament is due to start, subject to availability – we will endeavour to have full tables so that there are no sit-outs.

➢ BBO is inundated with tournament requests at the moment. They are so stretched they have elected not to appoint any new Directors.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BID ON BBO

Bidding when playing on BBO is very simple. The various steps are explained here below, with reference to BBO screenshots that illustrate the process. Step 1 After all four players have sat down at their table, the initial bidding screen appears:

On the top left of this screen, we see the board number and the vulnerability for both directions. If vulnerable, the direction is shown as red. The dealer is also shown for each board by a capital ‘D’ letter. In board 1 shown in the example, dealer is obviously North and no-one is vulnerable. The player whose turn it is to bid is designated with a yellow colouring of the name of the player. The bids made by all four players are shown in the middle of the table, while the bidding process is going on.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BID ON BBO

Step 2 When it is one’s turn to call, if one is passing he simply clicks on ‘Pass’. If he intends to bid something, he clicks on the number of the level and then all denomination cards

( /♦/♥/ /NT) open up:

So, for example, to make a bid of 1 one first clicks on ‘1’ and then on the ‘ ’ symbol.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BID ON BBO Step 3 After one has made his bid, it is the turn of the next player, who makes his call in exactly the same way, until three people pass, when bidding finishes. As soon as an opponent has made a bid, next player also has the option to double, indicated by the availability of the red ‘Dbl’ card:

If someone doubles, the blue ‘Rdbl’ card becomes available to the opponents:

INSTRUCTIONS TO BID ON BBO

Step 4 Sometimes we need to make a conventional bid, which needs to be alerted. The player making the bid alerts it and provides an explanation of the meaning. He does this by clicking next to the ‘Alert’ card and writing an explanation:

After writing the explanation, the player makes his bid as explained above, i.e. clicks on the

number (e.g. 2) and then on the denomination (e.g. ♥). It is important to know that each player alerts his own bids, and that his partner cannot see the alerts or the explanations (just as is the case when playing at a table with screens).

Players must appreciate that this is the ONLY allowed way to provide explanations to their opponents. Players MUST NOT write an explanation on the table comment tab, as their partner can also see this, and this is unauthorised information.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BID ON BBO An alerted bid is highlighted, as shown:

If an explanation has been provided with the alert, this is shown in the top right hand of the

screen. The difference between a highlighted (alerted) and normal bid is shown here (2♥ was

highlighted, 4♥ was not):

INSTRUCTIONS TO BID ON BBO When the bidding is over, the opening lead is made by the player whose name is highlighted in yellow – East in the example here:

Have Fun!