[Trinidad]

Vampyr, on 2015-August-05, 07:52, said:

A fair movement is very important to me personally, but I read a letter in Mr Bridge in which a person complained bitterly about the new policy. This got me thinking that there are probably quite a few clubs somewhere in the back of beyond where the concept of a fair movement is unknown and if it were known people wouldn't care. I think that the EBU need to recognise that not every place is London or similar, and that a one-size-fits-all approach may not, actually, fit all. Not all bridge players are keen competitors; in fact these are probably outnumbered by those who just want to spend a social afternoon or evening enjoying themselves. If these people are happy, I think that a better policy would be simply to let them be. They are not hurting anyone.

If I understand correctly, the EBU has basically said that, in order to be eligible for masterpoints, the competition needs to be fair. The EBU has not said that unfair competitions are banned or that -to take the unfair movement to the extreme- rubber bridge is forbidden.

If a bridge club wants to run an unfair movement, e.g. because the players would get really unhappy when they need to share some boards, they can still do that. But the players won't get EBU masterpoints.

I would expect that the masterpoints are not going to be a deal breaker for these players, since you describe them as "not keen competitors". Should it be a problem anyway, then I would suggest that the club calculates the masterpoints the old fashioned way and keeps a record of these points that are not recognized by EBU. Nothing stops them from recognizing these points at the local level (e.g. for the club's masterpoint race). However, if you want your masterpoints to be recognized in "London", you need to earn them in fair competitions. But I guess that these players never get to "London", at least not to play bridge.

Rik