Some Minor Miracles

There was a frisson of excitement throughout clubs in the Region as the quarterly Ranks Report was released just before Easter. If you've never heard of those before, they report the top ten most successful players by gender in each of the ten ranks (like in the army: Boot Camp to Brigadier corresponds with Unranked to Gold Grandmaster). You may download your own copy by clicking here.

Apart from that it's pretty slim pickin's out there amongst the region's websites this week so, as most of our clubs use Compass scoring, let me tell you just three of the minor miracles that programmer Bob Fearn has been wreaking lately.

• The jewel in the crown of this comprehensive scoring package (Bob's life's work) has got to be the new context-sensitive built-in html Help screens. Simply click on the query icon on any page and you'll get information relative to what happens on that page. If there's something specific you want to know then you can initiate a search for it.
• Between a quarter and a third of the nation's clubs are now playing X-Club deals in their regular sessions - that is: we're all playing the same hands simultaneously at different clubs. Sometimes there will be over a dozen clubs and up to 300 pairs generating all sorts of scores for Compass to process. Pianola tells us that we now have 2367 members - any of which can be receiving their results by Pianola email if they like to register - it's free! Of course, the more scores you have to compare yours with the better fix you get on how you did. Bob has recently made it an option for clubs to produce their competition ladders using X-Club scores - even if just for interest's sake. Examples may be seen on the Cambridge site.
• Over Christmas Bob put a lot of work into developing Individual movements. These are distinct from those that we are accustomed to call Individuals (where you play each session with a different partner - that's what Bob calls Singles). Bob's Indivduals involve you playing each board with a different partner. It's HUGELY social and a great mixer/icebreaker for your club. If you've never tried it before then give it a go! Fully recommended.