Brain Warmup Department: Bridges

For those of you who used to like the puzzles I printed in the old bulletins, here is a link to an online version: one of the puzzles that I used to feature in the old paper Bulletins, but it is easy to play on a computer as well. Not so easy on a tablet or phone, since most of the puzzles require right-clicks, not easily done in a tablet or phone environment. Bridges starts you off with a grid of islands, circles with numbers inside them. Your job: connect pairs of islands with one or two bridges so that the number of bridges leading from each island matches the number in the island. Bridges can only be drawn in a straight up-down or left-right direction, and may not cross other bridges, and all of the islands must be connected. Click on the puzzle you want to try at the right (or the caption below) to go to the page with all the instructions you'll need. These puzzles come from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection and there are links there to apps for most devices. You can make puzzles of any size and difficulty level!

Easy puzzle (McBruce's time: 42sec)

Medium puzzle (McBruce's time: 4min)

Tricky puzzle (McBruce's time: 6min 45sec)

Masterpoints for all players are updated nightly here first, with everyone's current red and gold point total listed alphabetically below the leaders, before a shorter leaderboard is added to this page.

Thursday Open Pairs

Winners: Cristina Jacob, Dan Jacob

Dan and Cristina Jacob were fifth overall after the first session and had improved to second overall with three rounds to go, then rounds of 72, 98, and 67% in the home stretch left them ahead by one tenth of a top! Mojgan and Khosrow Shad led the B and C strats at the half and continued to get a small majority of the available matchpoints to maintain their lead!

Two-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Strat limits (by pair average): A: 3000+ / B: 2000 - 3000 / C: 0 - 2000.  
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 4297

Thursday Gold Rush 0-750 Pairs

Winners: Karen Tomkins, Ian Gilhooley

No rounds below average in the evening session, and quite a few well above average, was the recipe for Karen Tomkins and Ian Gilhooley, who went from eighth at the break to a tight win! Under 400 winners Colleen Perry and Susan Craven held altitude at 57-58% throughout the entire second session better than any jetliner's autopilot could, coming out three and a half boards ahead.

Two-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Strat limits (by pair average): 7: 400 - 750 / 4: 200 - 400 / 2: 0 - 200.  No player over 750 was eligible.
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 431

Thursday-Friday Whistler Knockout Teams

Semifinals begin Tuesday afternoon!

Teams played a round robin Swiss Teams over two sessions to decide the four semifinalists for tomorrow, leaders choosing from #3 or #4 (or #2 if they volunteer to be a choice). (If your team didn't make it, there is a two-session Round-Robin Swiss on Friday at 10 and 3.)

Thursday Afternoon Side Pairs

Winners: Michael Desaulniers, Dariusz Matus

Single-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Part of the Early Bird Side Game Series, session 1 of 6 in the series.  (In a side game series you are free to play as many sessions as you wish, even with different partners.)  Strat limits (by pair average): A: 2000+ / B: 750 - 2000 / C: 0 - 750.  
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 1322

Thursday Evening Side Pairs

Winners: Donald Sache, Samuel Krikler

Single-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Part of the Going Hiking Side Game Series, session 1 of 5 in the series.  (In a side game series you are free to play as many sessions as you wish, even with different partners.)  Strat limits (by pair average): A: 2000+ / B: 750 - 2000 / C: 0 - 750.  
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 1216