Diplomacy Zine -- Chapter Seven EP #238 From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1991 02:42:34 +0000 Issue #238 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: ************************************************************************* During the Cuban missile crisis and our naval blockade of the Russian ships -- the one and only time America has faced the immediate prospect of nuclear war -- I feared for myself, my family, and my country. Yet the stock market fell less than 3 percent that day. Seven months later, when President Kennedy berated U.S. Steel and forced the industry to roll back prices, I feared for nothing, yet the market had one of its largest declines in history -- 7 percent. I was mystified that the potential of nuclear holocaust was less terrifying to Wall Street than the presient's meddling in business. ************************************************************************* Chapter One contains: BAGHDAD, AUSTERLITZ, BLITZKRIEG II, KING'S GAMBIT, PASSCHENDAELE, DRAGONS, BLACK OCTOBER, OPERATION DESERT STORM, THE SOMME And is published by uunet!cti1!rlister or rlister@cti.com/Russ Lister Chapter Two contains: REPUBLIC, BORODINO, KHAN, SUTHERLAND And is published by sinhaa@mcmaster.ca/Anand Sinha Chapter Three contains: SQUALANE, BRUSILOV OFFENSIVE, CULLODEN, GANDALF'S REVENGE, GOODBYE BLUE SKY, MASTERS OF DECEIT, PANDORA, NOW AND ZEN And is published by mad-2@kub.nl/Constantijn Wekx Chapter Four contains: DEADLY DAGGERS, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER, FIRE WHEN READY, THUNDERDOME, BEREZINA, FONTENOY And is published by daguru@ucscb.ucsc.edu/Nicholas Jodar Chapter Five contains: YALTA, AJAX And is published by ddetlef@csd4.csd.uwm.edu/David Aaron Detlef Chapter Six contains: BERLIN WALL, HIROSHIMA, GENGHIS KHAN, SEA LION, VIOLENT PEACE, GIBRALTAR And needs a publisher. Chapter Seven contains: HELM'S DEEP, GROUND ZERO, TIBERIUS, BETELGEUSE, IRON CROSS GUERNICA, TEUNISGEK, WOLF BLITZER ------------- Chapter Seven ------------- Table of Contents: Nobody Loves Me How to make love in Western Europe: the triple alliance. BRIDGE(*) ISSUE TWO (4.4.91) ---- Taken from Ode #55 (Published in England) Originally published in EP #42 NOBODY LOVES ME By Mike Close Q. What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can't move, and with no hope of rescue? A. Consider how lucky you are that Life has been good to you so far... (Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979) Diplomacy being the game it is, there will be times when despite your finest efforts, you become the victim of an absolutely murderous stab, or you are carved up between two or more countries thirsting for your blood, and noone else lifts a finger to help you. What do you do? Some postal players who enjoy playing when the going is good will often drop out after one look at the mess they are left in -- there is no point in continuing -- the attack is successful and elimination will result. But don't give up! It is true that in many cases the resistance will be futile, resulting in, at most, one or two season's dealy for the aggressor. So why bother? Well, there are cases when even that length of delay will affect the outcome of the game. It could be enough to stop a Turkish fleet reaching the Mid Atlantic, or stop an English army reaching Munich, before opposition hardens to prevent the taking of the vital 18th centre. Similarly an Austria struggling to subdue an active Turkish defense will be slower to deploy its armies for northern and western expansion. When being squashed between two powers, don't just order your supports against attacks from both countries -- consider what effect you would have on the game if your forces were all directed against only one of the allies, defending or even counter-attacking. It will certainly unbalance the alliance in terms of supply centres. It may even force one party to break off the attack to deal with the rapidly expanding power alongside him. You may also be able to become someone's puppet, and thus survive until you are able to bite back. If you are the hapless target of an attack by three countries, then this policy doesn't usually work, for the one country you pick on to resist will become the next target for the other two -- after they've finished with you. Realizing this, the next potential victim may switch sides to help you, but it will probably be too late. Another strategy to consider is to run away! This, of course, causes great annoyance to the neighbour(s) who have not been bothering you, but it serves them right for not coming to your aid in the first place, doesn't it! Popular hiding places are Tunis, Portugal, Munich, and to a lesser extant StP. Munich is an interesting anomaly in this list -- although it is in the centre of the board, there will often be one or more players who will fight tooth and nail to defend your Munich garrison, if only to stop someone else from getting it! One word of warning though -- never take more centres then you need to support your remaining units. A neighbour may just tolerate your presence in his supply centres if you form a block between an aggressor and his other centres -- but he will never forgive you if you are greedy. So don't make it easy for the bums -- fight to the last man!! Taken from Yorkshire Gallant Issue #34 (Published in England) Originally published in EP #46 HOW TO MAKE LOVE IN WESTERN EUROPE: THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE by Andrew England History paints a delightful picture of relations between the three great powers of western Europe: England, France, and Germany. To say that love has been in the air would be no more than a hideous lie. In 1066, the Normans from France invaded and conquered England. The Third Crusade was ruined by petty squabbling between Richard the Lionheart and Phillipe of France. During the Seven Years War, France was at war with England and Germany and in 1815 the two again combined to destroy the hopes of France's greatest leader. In 1871, the Germans burned Paris and in the Great War England and Fracne fought the "Hun" in a struggle which was repeated just twenty years later. In a game of Diplomacy one could be forgiven for expecting finger-nails to be left uncut and fangs to be sharpened for a tooth and nail struggle between some combination of these great powers. For what you are about to receive may you be truly grateful. Rejoice! England, France and Germany need not fight amongst themselves. They may instead conquer Europe. In 1901 each of the three powers can move in concert to limit the expansion of potential enemies while at the same time gaining two neutral supply centers each. Obviously Russia and Italy must be the primary targets. In Spring 1901 the following moves should optimize the options for later turns: ENGLAND: F EDI-H, F LON-NTS, A LVP-EDI FRANCE: F BRE-MAO, A PAR-BUR, A MAR-SPA GERMANY: F KIE-DEN, A MUN-RUH, A BER-SIL In Autum the following moves would set up the powers for a strong push in 1902: ENGLAND: A EDI-NWY, F NWS CA EDI-NWY, F NTS-BEL FRANCE: A SPA-POR, F MAO-SPA(sc), F BUR-H (or to MAR) GERMANY: F DEN-SWE, A RUH-HOL, A SIL-WAR(?) The English moves are quite obvious. The Germans must move to Sweden to block any Russian move there while army Silesia can be used in any fashion to interdict or disrupt Russian operations. The French fleet move to Spain (sc) is essential for a quick assault on Italy. Army Burgundy is an insurance policy against an Italian move to Piedmont in Spring. But if at all possible, Marseilles should be left open in Autumn for a fleet to be built there. In order to faciliate this, every effort should be made to lull the Italians into a false sense of security in the pre-Spring mediations. Following these 1901 moves the Winter builds should be along these lines: ENGLAND: F EDI, A LON FRANCE: F MAR, F BRE GERMANY: A BER, A MUN The French fleet build in Brest may be a sore point with the English but obviously in the context of this alliance it is to be used against Italy. This is where negotiation and trust will come into play, after all that's what it's all about. Given the average situation, Russia will have gained only one build and it is likely that it will be an army thus leaving the northern seas free for English fleets. Of course, the location will depend on how Russia is fairing elsewhere. In any case England and Germany can combine in 1902 to take Sweden and threaten both St Petersburg and Warsaw. An important move for the English to consider in 1902 is A Nwy-Fin followed up by A Lon-Nwy. This will give the English a strong attack on St Petersburg in 1903 particularly if the Barents Sea has been taken. In the Mediterranean, France should move her fleets with all possible haste towards a strong set up. Position should be gained in 1902 to be followed in 1903 by strong threats to Tunis and the Italian home centres. Once the primary objectives, the destruction of Russia and Italy, have been achieved (generally by 1905), the problem will arise of "what next?" It is at this point that one partner will inevitably fall by the wayside. The problem arises from England whose prospects for futher expansion within the triple alliance will die with Russia. From her point of view, England must decide where she will want to go. With her major power based around fleets, it would seem that an attack on France would provide an easier road. But this will depend on England's position in Russia and Scandinavia and ultimately on the personalities and relationships between the players involved. The player(s) who communicates the most and inspires trust in his partners will be the one to survive. Both the French and the German will be in a sound position to continue on their way through Europe. This, however, must be upset by the inevitable break-up of the triple alliance. If both decide to combine to attack England they will be forced to back-track somewhat and will likely be badly placed with the necessary fleet power to destroy England. If either sides with England the road will probably be easier in the short term depending on the position of the respective units. But once again the main consideration will be the state of play between the allies as people. So there we have it. This is not intended to be a blueprint for success; how could it be? Diplomacy is too complex a game for any preset plan to be assured of success. Fleximbility and careful negotiation are essential requirements for any player. What this triple alliance will provide is a strong start for all three powers and the two bastards that emerge from the middle game stab should go on to dominate the game in the later stages. "When on of the factions is extinguished, the remaining subdivideth..." (Sir Francis Bacon, 1612). Editor's comments: A problem with three-way alliances in the west is that they favour England (no problem if you're England!). With English units behind the French and German lines it is always very tempting for England to stab France or Germany. It is also hard to see how England can win from such an opening. Of course, in a tournament setting any alliance which brings centres must be considered since games rarely go above 1908-10 and so you aren't playing for a win. Other possible three way alliances include E-F-R where Germany is regarded as the filling. Of course three-way alliances occur more often at the end of a game, when players either decide to play for the three-way draw or three players play to prevent a fourth winning, the result is a four-way draw. Remarkable few articles have been written on a three-way alliance at the end of a game, most writers stick to the alliance at the start of a game when such alliances are (I'd say) less likely to work for more than a year or so. Looking at the 3-way draws in the UK in the 1980's brings the following line-ups which occur more than once: A-F-R 2 times. Resulting from a strong A-R alliance in the east being met by a dominant France in the west. It being easy for France to take England out and vice versa. E-F-R 2 times. F-G-I 2 times. F-G-T 2 times. F-I-R 4 times. G-R-T 2 times. It is interesting to see that the French-German combination occuring four times. This reflects the solid nature of such an alliance. Whilst it may be hard to win from such an alliance it is hard to be defeated. With both powers sitting on the major stalemate lines it is always easy to build the units required to prevent a breakthrough. This is why in postal play I am uneasy about setting up the three way E-F-G alliance, feeling the F&G would be better off eliminating England and then moving east. Frances flexibility in being able to build fleets so near to both sides of the stalemate accounts for France's excellent ability to draw games. BRIDGE(*) ISSUE TWO (4.4.91) ROUND ROBIN BRIDGE (by AMT5MAN AT cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk) BRIDGE is an email fanzine produced by Mark Nelson and distributed directly by him and through Eric Klien's ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL (Eric_S_Klien@com.portal.cup). Incidentally I couldn't think of a startling original name for this column so if anyone has any suggestions.... The next issue (hopefully with more contributors!) will appear when there is sufficient material. In actual fact this will be fairly soon (next week) as I currently have lashes of material on hand. Where somebody mailed in comments on a previous hand I've reprinted everything that has so far appeared on that hand. 4. A leading Question by Rob Douglas (maprjd AT UK.AC.BATH.GDR) What would you lead,as East, after the following auction? Love All West North East South You hold S AJ9642 1C x 1S 2D H T74 ---- 2N ---- 3N D 84 ---- ---- ----- C J6 MARK NELSON I would lead CJ. In these situations I feel that it is almo always better to lead partner's suit and the JC stands out. I would only lead a suit I had bid in preference to partner' suit in exceptional circumstances. ************************************************************************* SO WHAT HAPPENED? ROB TELLS ALL]]] Hand 1 S KQ107 H KJ83 D 32 C Q103 S void S AJ9642 **************************** H 652 H T74 **** Partner led the **** D QJ75 D 8474 **** S6 and the contract *** C AK9875 C J6 **** made... **** **************************** South S 853 H AQ9 D AK1096 C 42 HOWEVER...STUART DAGGER HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW... STUART DAGGER I can't help wondering what circumstances you do consider exceptional if 6 to the AJ9 is not. The opposition have gone to 3NT on less than 25 points and are clearly hoping to make it by running the diamond suit. The initial NT bidder is sitting under you and over your partner and in making his bid will have had greater regard for your partner's suit and values than for yours. A club lead is what he is expecting. He is, of course, aware that you have 5 spades, but he doesn't know that they are that good. Kx, Qx or Txx in your partner's hand is sufficient to kill this contract, and so I would lead my fourth highest spade. Either of us could be right on this particular hand; there are no universal laws in bridge. Nonetheless, I am going to be right more often than you on this one. When the opposition have gone 3NT on length rather than values, you should attack and try to get your suit set up before they get theirs. Leading a club is too defensive; had partner's suit been that wonderful, he'd have doubled. 5. "Here's A Declarer Play Problem" By Rob Douglas! NS Game. West North East South ---- ---- 1S 2C 2S 3C ---- 3H ---- 4H ---- 5C ---- ---- ---- DECLARER DUMMY S A72 A 5 The lead is the spade Queen. H KJ8 H A652 D 10 D KJ6532 C AK8763 C Q10 MARK NELSON Win with the Ace of Spades and then ruff a Spade with the CT. Play a small diammond towards the 10. Assume a trump is played back. Run J diammonds either discarding a Spade or ruffing if covered. Then ruff a diammond with C8. The contract should now be made! I think this line should be OK against any line of defence. If it isn't than Rob will doubtless tell me where it goes wr and we'll have to see if I can rescue the contract from ther ************************************************************************* HOW DID YOU DO? HERE'S THE SOLUTION.... For a reason only known to himself Rob has moved the hands around.... S K9864 H 107 D A7 C J942 North S 5 S A72 H A652 H KJ8 D KJ6532 D 10 C Q10 C AK8763 South S QJ103 H Q943 D Q984 C 5 Sally Horton suggests the following line of play in 5C; Win the spade lead, run the 10D. If North returns a spade,declarer ruffs cashes the KD pitching a spade, cashes the QC, ruffs a diamond and plays trumps. South is squeezed in the red suits. My partner was hampered by the 1S bid, but it makes good sense to run the diamond ten at trick 2. It is a mistake to ruff a spade early on. When oppo get in they can force you to ruff another spade in dummy. True, you can still get home with a trump coup against a 4-1 break, but there is no reason to play for it. (See actual hand). Also running the 10D is better than leading towards it. Admittedly North's psyche does make the hand harder. The good thing about your line is that you definitely make 10 tricks - partner only made 9! MARK....OK I got it completely wrong...I just decided to play the trumps to be 3-2 and didn't even consider the possibility of the 4-1 break. I should have followed Bobby Fischer's advice, which was...."You've found a good move, that's good; go back and think of a better one. What was Sally Horton doing to hand there? ********************88888********************************************** 6 ROB'S Last Question! How do you play 4NT (no opposition bidding) on the lead of 7S (top of a 4-card suit) remembering that this is pairs! DUMMY MARK NELSON. Win the spade with S8 and run the Queen of S QJ3 Clubs, covering the King if played by West and then play H QJ5 the Ten of Clubs. If the Queen wins, finesse the Club 10 D K87 If it losees and a Heart is returned then put up the Ace C AT93 finesse the Club 10. *********************************************************** DECLARER **** ROB'S ANSWER *** S AK983 **** *** H A3 **** Wining the spade in hand, then a spade to the *** D AQ42 **** table and leading a club towards the Queen looks *** C Q5 **** best. This gives excellent squeeze opportunities *** **** after a Vienna Coup or two. Partner made 11 *** *********************************************************** 7. A PROBLEM TAKEN FROM THE DAILY MAIL By Mark Nelson. The Contract is 3NT and the lead is S5 by North, SOuth playing SK. S AJ9 S Q H Q62 H KT43 D Q63 D KJ952 C AQJ4 C KT3 ROB DOUGLAS The main danger is SOuth holding AT8x, so an obvious line i Win the Spade Ace Club to the 10 Diammond to the Queen Club to the King Heart to the Queen (the above assumes the DA does not appea The only set-up where the avoidance play is going to come unstuck is when North has 5-2-4-2 with the red suit Aces and the diammond ten, I think this is unlikely, so put me down for the Avoidance play. If the Hea are Ax vs J98x it is pretty dodgy. Otherwise we can set up another diamm at our leisure. PER WESTLING Win with Spade Ace and play low Club to ten on table. Play low diammond towards Q. If South goes up with the Ace I have 9 tricks (3D, 2S &4C) so if he has the Ace he plays low, DQ, if North wins with the Ace he has no winning play (a spade gives the contract and other I can play a heart to make 1H, 2S, 2D, 4C) so the Queen will probably hold that trick. I then enter dummy by playing CJ to CK and play a small heart towards the Q. South has to play small if he has the Ace (else he gives me the contract) so in the case the HQ holds the trick so I can safely play a diammond to secure the contract (if N plays DA and then heart at most the defence can take 2H +1D). Therefore the only difficulty is if North has the HA and plays it. The best continuation is another heart. I win it and play a high diammond. Regarless who wins at most the defence get one more heart trick (either it's 3-3, or if it's 4-2 (5-1) the HT will protect the Hearts). This will give 2S, 1H, 2D, 4C for 9 tricks. Oh, there are more difficulties if North returns a club after HA. I cash the Clubs and then a high diammond. If this wins another diammond (if that also wins I cash HK for the 9th trick), if North wins then he can't return a Spade without giving me the contract: H return, go up with the King and continue with diammonds and the oppo must give me my 9th trick sometime; D return will raise d tricks...if SOuth wins and exits with a Spade I can win with SQ and cash high diamond (if necessary) with HK as entry to dummy. I think I covered all the possibilities although I don't have the problem to hand as I write this so the last part may be not quite right. 8. `Real-Timne Bridge on Internet' From Per Westling. There exists a possibility of playing Bridge in real-time via e-mail. If you want more info contact clegg@tolsun.oulu.ti Subject: some documentation for the okbridge program Sender: clegg@fi.oulu.tolsun ((MATHHEW CLEGG)) intro -- introduction to the okbridge program Matthew Clegg. August 1990. General Description ------- ----------- The okbridge program is an interactive computer-mediated bridge game. It allows four players at (not necessarily) different locations on the internet to participate in a game of rubber bridge. The program handles the dealing, scoring and communication of bids and plays. It is screen oriented, although the screen display is rather simplistic. Copyright Notice --------- ------ Most of the program was written and copyrighted by Matthew Clegg. However, the lowest level networking routines were written and copyrighted by Jarkko Oikarinen. This program may be copied and distributed freely, provided that you do not do so for a profit and provided that you retain this copyright notice. If you modify the program, let us know about your improvements! If you have any questions, comments, or bug reports, then please send them to "clegg@tolsun.Oulu.FI". System Requirements ------ ------------ The program has been compiled and tested on a few SUN and VAX systems running derivatives of BSD UNIX. To compile, it requires the "curses" package. To run, it requires that the host machine be an internet site. The source code is written in the C programming language. History ------- My interest in bridge began as an undergraduate at the University of California, Riverside, where I learned the game. After some time, I ended up in Berkeley :-), while one of my best bridge-playing friends somehow wound up stuck in Oklahoma :-(. But then a bridge program was discovered archived somewhere on the net, and we happily continued playing. When I later moved to Finland (my wife is Finnish :-), it became impossible to use this program anymore. So, I set out to write a new bridge program which would correct the deficiencies of the old one. The old bridge program was quite inspirational, but it was also rather idiosyncratic. Perhaps the difficulties with it can best be described by the authors themselves: This program provides communication between different machines so that people can play bridge even they are on different machine. It is written by Shyan-Ming Yuan and Jiang-Hsing Chu at University of Maryland, College Park. It was tested on Vaxes and Sun 3/50 running BSD 4.2 and BSD 4.3. Since we don't have the previlege to create a 'bridge daemon' as a normal user, we decided to use 'talk daemon' instead. The underlying communication program is modified from the 'talk' program. You will have confusion in trying to connect to the others... In particular, we found that the talk daemons on various systems were often incompatible. So it was only possible for us to play when all four of us logged onto a single machine via telnet. In writing the new program, I have abandoned the use of the 'talk daemon' in favor of establishing the network connections directly through operating system calls. This has the advantage that it is universally standardized and perhaps faster and more reliable. Also, the user interface for the old program was very unforgiving. I have tried to correct this deficiency too. Further Documentation ------- ------------- This distribution is organized into the following directories: okb/doc documentation files for the okbridge program okb/source source files for the okbridge program okb/help help files for the okbridge program Within the directory okb/doc, there are the following files: intro this file setup compiling the okbridge program playing playing the okbridge program network how the okbridge program implements network communications distrib a short description of each file in this distribution -------------------------------------------------------------------- playing -- how to operate the okbridge program Matthew Clegg. September 1990. Arranging the Game --------- --- ---- The prerequisites for using the okbridge program are (1) there must be four people wishing to play bridge together, and (2) each of these persons must have access to a computer on the internet where the okbridge program has been compiled. In addition, these players must reach prior agreement on the points outlined below. First, the players must agree on a common time to play. The okbridge program is interactive, in the sense that it requires simultaneous participation by all of the players. Second, the players must agree about who will be `sitting' in which `chair' around the bridge table. Conceptually, the players will be sitting at a table where the chairs are labeled north, south, east and west. North and south will form one team, while east and west will form the other. North will be the dealer in the first hand. And third, the players must agree about who will be the `server'. This is a networking issue which does not affect the play of the game. The program is built so that all of the messages between the players are mediated (invisibly) by a single player. This arrangement has simplified the design of the communication protocols. However, it requires that the players decide beforehand who will act as the server. I suspect that the performance of the okbridge program might be slightly improved if the server is `centrally located' with respect to the other players. I have found that the use of electronic mail is a fairly successful way of arranging the details of a bridge game. Invoking the okbridge Program -------- --- -------- ------- The situation we are about to describe is one where each of the four players is sitting at his or her terminal, ready to begin a game of bridge. We describe how to begin the game from the point of view of a particular (but arbitrary) player. This particular player will be known as the "local" player, while the other three players will be referred to as "remote" players. Given this point of view, the command which the local player should type is as follows: okbridge [-c] position name server where -c is an optional parameter to indicate that the playing and scoring conventions for Chicago-style bridge should be used. This parameter is only relevant for the player whose position is 'n' (north). In other words, north makes the decision for everyone about the scoring convention that will be used. If this parameter is omitted, then the playing and scoring conventions will default to those of rubber bridge. position is one of the characters: 'n', 's', 'e', or 'w'. This specifies which seat the local player wishes to have in the game. name is the name (a single word) which will be used to identify the local player. If this is omitted, then the local player's position will be used. server is the name (internet host name or address) of the remote machine where the `server' will be playing. If server is omitted, then the local player will assume the role of the server. Here is an example. Suppose that the names of the players are Alex, Bob, Cathy and Dot. Alex and Cathy will be one team, while Bob and Dot will be the other. They decide that Alex will be north, and Bob will be east. Further, they decide that Bob will be the server. Here is a list of the commands that each might use to invoke the okbridge program on their respective (hypothetical) machines: Name Position Machine Command to invoke okbridge ---- -------- ------- -------------------------- Alex north a.alaska.edu okbridge n Alex b.berkeley.edu Bob east b.berkeley.edu okbridge e Bob Cathy south c.florida.edu okbridge s Cathy b.berkeley.edu Dot west d.maine.edu okbridge w Dot b.berkeley.edu When the okbridge program first begins, it will attempt to establish the network connections with the other players. There will be no activity on the screen at this time -- the okbridge program is silently waiting for the other players to join the game. The length of this wait is of course determined by the time at which the last person joins the game. When the last person has joined the game, the first hand will be dealt automatically and your cards will be displayed. If the okbridge program waits for ten minutes without managing to establish the connections, then it gives up. The Modes of Operation --- ----- -- --------- There are two major phases in the playing of a hand of bridge. In the first phase, the players take turns bidding for the contract. When this phase ends, the contract and trump suit have been decided. In the second phase, the cards are played and the tricks are taken. When this phase ends, the hand can be scored. The operation of the okbridge program is similarly divided into two phases, which reflect these two phases of play. We will refer to the first of these two phases as the `bidding' phase. For lack of a better word, we will refer to the second of these two phases as the `playing' phase. Unfortunately, the verb `to play' is already being used in other contexts, and I'm afraid this may lead to some ambiguity. The Display and Entering Input --- ------- --- -------- ----- Here we give an example of the screen display during bidding. The numbers in the left column do not actually appear on the screen -- they are given for reference purposes only. ======================================================================== 1 OKBRIDGE 1.0 N - S E - W 2 ----- ----- 3 cathy's BID TRICKS 0 0 4 ABOVE 0 0 5 alex bob cathy dot |cathy BELOW 0 0 6 ---- --- ----- --- |----- VUL NO NO 7 1 1C -- |S KQ7642 8 |H 652 9 |D 76 10 |C K9 11 12 13 14 15 16 BID 1s 17 TALK 18 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20 |MODERATOR: WEST HAS JOINED THE GAME | 21 |MODERATOR: WELCOME TO OKBRIDGE, BY MATTHEW CLEGG | 22 |MODERATOR: TYPE /HELP FOR INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT THIS PROGRAM | 23 |MODERATOR: ACKNOWLEDGMENT RECEIVED FROM bob | 24 |MODERATOR: ACKNOWLEDGMENT RECEIVED FROM alex | ======================================================================== In the upper right corner of the screen (lines 1-6), the scores are displayed. The number of tricks taken by each side is displayed on line 3. The points above and below the line for each side are displayed on lines 3 and 4, respectively. And an indication of which sides are vulnerable is displayed on line 6. It has been pointed out to me that during ordinary bridge play, the scores are only available to the players between hands and not during the bidding and playing. I apologize that the okbridge program is not faithful to the real game in this respect. At the left hand margin of line 3, we can see that it is now Cathy's turn to bid. On lines 5-9, we can see the bids that have been made up to this point. The display shows that Alex has bid 1 Club, while Bob has passed. Cathy's cards are displayed to the right of this table of bids. Line 16 is the place where the local player's input to the program is entered. The word `BID' at the lefthand margin is printed by the program and indicates that the program is expecting Cathy to type her bid. The characters `1s' were entered by Cathy, and they indicate that she intends to bid 1 Spade. At the time this screen was copied, the cursor was located just to the right of the letter `s' in `1s'. If Cathy now presses the return key, then the bid 1 Spade will be transmitted to the other players. Line 17 is the line where the local player may type messages which will be transmitted to the other players. The position of the cursor is controlled by the okbridge program, and the cursor alternates between lines 16 and 17. When it is the local player's turn to enter a bid or play, the cursor is automatically placed on line 16. At all other times, the cursor is placed on line 17. The local player may type a message on line 17, and after pressing the return key, the message will be transmitted to each of the other players. When entering input, the backspace and delete keys will erase the last character typed. The escape key erases the entire input line. And pressing control-R causes the entire screen to be redrawn from scratch. Always press return to have your input transmitted to the other players. There is a `default' input option embedded in the input processor. When the input line is empty, pressing return results in the display of a `default' input. When in bidding mode, the default input is always `pass'. When in playing mode, the default input is the lowest ranked card, where the trumps are ranked above all others. Pressing return a second time (i.e., after the default input has been displayed) causes the default input to be transmitted to the other players. Sometimes in playing mode there is only one legal input. In this case, this input is displayed automatically -- you need only press return to transmit it to the other players. Lines 20 through 24 display messages from the program and from other players. Each message is of the form `source: text', where `source' is either MODERATOR or the name of one of the players. Messages from the MODERATOR give information about the internal state of the program. Bidding ------- The rules for bidding in the okbridge program follow the standard rules in rubber bridge. I think the only thing that needs to be specified here is the syntax of a bid. A contract bid is specified by giving the level and then the trump suit. The level is given as an integer in the range 1-7, while the trump suits are of course clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades and no trump. However, the name of the trump suit may be abbreviated to its initial letter. Thus, here are some examples of legal contract bids: 1c, 1 c, 1 C, 1 club, 1 CLUB 1d, 1h, 1s, 1n, 2c, 2d, 2h, 2s, 2n, 3c, 3d, 3h, 3s, 3n, ... 1 n, 1 no trump, 1 nt A passing bid is given by entering `pass' or just `p'. A doubling bid is given by entering `double' or `d' or `X'. A redoubling bid is given by entering `redouble' or `XX'. Playing ------- Similarly to bidding, I think the only thing that needs be specified in playing is the syntax of a play. A play of course consists of a selection of a card from the hand of the local player. The name of a card is specified by giving its suit and then its rank. The ranks of the honor cards are `ten', `jack', `queen', `king' and `ace', but this can be abbreviated to the first letter. Thus, one way to specify each of the cards in the deck is C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9, CT, CJ, CQ, CK, CA D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, DT, DJ, DQ, DK, DA H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7, H8, H9, HT, HJ, HQ, HK, HA S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, ST, SJ, SQ, SK, SA Note that CT for example could also be specified as `club t', `c ten' or `club ten'. Commands -------- There a number of special commands that are available in the okbridge program. These special commands are invoked by entering at the beginning of a line a slash `/', the name of the command, and perhaps some parameters. Here is a brief list of the available commands: /BELL [ON|OFF] By default, the okbridge program rings the terminal's bell whenever it requests input from you. However, this can be disabled by typing '/BELL OFF'. /CLAIM n This command 'claims' n additional tricks for the declarer. The other players are shown the declarer's hand and are asked whether or not they agree to the declarer's request. If both agree, then the hand is ended early. This command can be used only by the declarer and only when it is declarer's or dummy's turn to play. /HELP [topic] Type '/HELP' alone to obtain general help, or type '/HELP topic' to obtain help about a particular topic. /LOG [filename] Typing '/LOG filename' causes this hand and subsequent hands to be written to the file with name 'filename'. Omitting 'filename' causes the current log file to be closed. /PING Sends an invisible message to each of the other players, which is automatically echoed. Reports the round-trip communication time. /PROMPT [ON|OFF] By default, the dummy is asked to press RETURN after the end of each trick. This allows the dummy to see each trick as it is played. This prompting can be disabled by typing '/PROMPT OFF' (convenient if you need to run to the wc :-) /QUIT Terminates the program. /TALK message Sends a short message to the other players. This command can be used when the program is waiting for you to enter a bid or a play. Not needed if the word 'TALK' is displayed to the left of the cursor. Scoring ------- The following scoring table describes the rules used for scoring rubber bridge. It was derived from the documentation supplied with the bridge program written by Yuan and Chu. Trick Score (below the line) Spades of Hearts 30 per trick | If doubled: Diamonds or Clubs 20 per trick | multiply by 2 Notrump 40 for first trick | If redoubled: 30 for each additional trick | multiply by 4 Game - 100 points or more below the line Bonuses (above the line) Rubber bonus: 500 if you win two games out of three 700 if you win the only two games Not Vulnerable Vulnerable Slam Bonus: Small Slam 500 750 Grand Slam 1000 1500 Honors: 4 trump honors in one hand 100 5 trump honors in one hand 150 4 aces in one hand at notrump 150 Making Doubled (or redoubled) Contract: 50 points Not Vulnerable Vulnerable Overtricks: Undoubled trick value trick value Doubled 100 per trick 200 per trick Redoubled 200 per trick 400 per trick Penalties (above the line) Undoubled Doubled Not Vul. Vul. Not Vul. Vul. Down 1 50 100 100 200 Down 2 100 200 300 500 Down 3 150 300 500 800 Down 4 200 400 700 1100 Down 5 250 500 900 1400 Down 6 300 600 1100 1700 Down 7 350 700 1300 2100 Down 8 400 800 1500 2500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If redoubled: multiply the doubled penalty by two. 10. A SMOOTH PLAY IN TIME ...IS WORTH A TRICK OR TWO IN HAND?! Paul Cockayne (who does not have an email address!) Rob Douglas' hand in the last MOS (my snail-mail zine) reminded of an unhappy story from Nottingham Bridge Club some years ago. In an identical end position: AQJ East, last to discard, parted with --- 2S smoothly. I knew the distribution --- but not the position of KS, so had the --- choice of the Spade finesse or dropping the now singleton King to T93 K2 make the two tricks I needed. --- QJ --- -- I knew East, and was convinced that --- -- he wasn't good enough to bare his 76 King smoothly. I therefore took the 5 finesse, going two off. --- --- I swallowed my pride and turned to East "You did well to bare your King of Spades so smoothly", I congratualted him. He smiled "Yes, I gave you a chance to make that" he replied, evidently oblivious to the end play. "I meant to discard s heart but I pulled out the wrong card!" 11 A TRICKY 3NT CONTRACT Another hand taken from the DAILY MAIL, but an interesting hand which I always seem to get wrong whenever I look at it. Let's see how you fare... WEST EAST WEST has reached 3NT, after South dealt and passed. S Q6 AT84 North leads 2C which South wins with the King, then H K95 AQJT plays the Ace and another club for North to cash two D AQJ32 T4 more clubs and then exits with a heart. (You discard C J85 T97 a spade from dummy and a heartfrom hand, as does Dealer South South). How do you plan the play? 12 Captain Sputnik comes to the rescue... A hand from a duplicate this term when good ol'e Sputnik came in handy although there were play problems to overcome.... The contract is 5C by South on (I think) a Spade lead. NORTH The bidding was... S W N E (1) 6/7pts+ and at 1H 1S *(1) 3S least 4-4 in the S 984 5C -- -- -- minors. H T5 D K853 C KT83 Sitting South 5C had seemed a good bid (especially as it ennabled me to play a COntract...a rare event). Now all I had to do was to make the contract... S ---- H AKJ876 D AQT C J654 Finally I thought that this might be of interest to some people (those that enjoy discussing bidding). Tony and I both went to a Conferrence in Cambridge and agreed to play Bridge one night. Here's what Tony suggested.....comments on how we played next time. 13. SIMPLISTIC ACOL By Tony Humphries. Bidding is my forte (if I have one) so maybe we had better agree something. Comments on the following please: 1NT = 12-14 Stayman, red suit tranfers, 2S=?, 2N= ? 2C = Game Force (24+ bal on 2NT rebid still GF) (2D neg) 2D = Multi 5-9 pts 5+ cards in a major (less than 4 in other major) or 8 playing tricks at a minor or 22-23 pts balanced 2major = 8 playing tricks. 2s neg to 2H, 2N neg to 2S with 2H-2N=+ve with spades 2H-2s-2N= 55 in majors, forcing to 3 of major. 1NT rebid = 12-16 + crowhurst, or 15-16 ? 2 over 1s change of suit = 10+pts 2NT rebid by opener after 2 level response is 15+pts and game forcing. 4441 open 1H, other combinations open suit below singleton. Lebenshol ? Lightner doubles 5 ace blackwood, gerber only when no natural suit bids. Cue bid aces first. Trial bids- long, short, romex or don't bother ? Sputnik to 3D all meanings of doubles- double of suit held on your right more penalty orient ated, those on your left more competitive in nature. Defense to weak 2's=take out double Defense to multi = dixon defense to 3 level bids = ? (happy with DxxCx, DxCCx, FOXU) 2nd+4th Count Peter=Even McKinney discards. 4th suit forcing Anything else ? Yes: 2NT = 20-21 responses 3C = ? 5 card stayman 3D = transf to hearts 3H = to spades 3S = slam try in clubs 3N = to play 4C = gerber 4D = slam try 4maj = to play 4N = quantitive These also all apply after 2C,2D opening and 2N rebid. And 1S-2C-2D and similar sequences are nonforcing, and we don't play false preference. So what do you think ? Is this anything like you've ever seen before ? Comments on a postcard to.... Tony Publisher comments: Quote is from p. 284 of "One Up On Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. ****************************************************************************** To join in the fun, send your name, home address, home and work phone numbers, and country preferences to Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com. ****************************************************************************** Up