Brain Warmup Department: Filling

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. Filling gives you a grid of cells, some of which have digits in them. When the puzzle is solved, all of the cells will have a digit in them, and each cell will be part of a connected group (diagonally adjacent cells are NOT connected) with exactly the same number of cells as the digit. This means that a "1" will be a complete group and not adjacent to any other "1", a "2" will be connected to a second two, a "3" will be part of a 3-cell group, etcetera. Different groups with the same digit in their cells will never be adjacent. Solving strategy: Corners and sides are good places to start, looking for possible groups of cells with the same number. It is rare, but possible, that you will have to add a new group that does not have a cell among the initial hints. 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 (see below) 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: 0min 56sec)
	Medium puzzle (McBruce's time: 5min 5sec)
	Tricky puzzle (McBruce's time: 5min 26sec)

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.

Saturday Open Pairs

Winners: Sheldon Spier, Michael Ainsley

Very close finish with no less than five pairs over 60% on the day, and the final factor was a huge final round by Sheldon Spier and Michael Ainsley, valuting to the top with 80% over the final three boards! The event winners also took the under-4000 strat, and the under-2000 strat was won by Howard Coren and John D Aguiar, who led the third group wire-to-wire.

Two-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Strat limits (by pair average): A: 4000+ / B: 2000 - 4000 / C: 0 - 2000.  
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 4844

Saturday Gold Rush Pairs

Winners: Bruce Nelms, Wolfgang Dost

Not only did three-strat winners Bruce Nelms and Wolfgang Dost win the event by over two full boards, they also led all three flights at half time and had a final round sitout: by which time the outcome was nearly clinched!

Two-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Strat limits (by pair average): 7: 500 - 750 / 5: 300 - 500 / 3: 0 - 300.  No player over 750 was eligible.
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 288

Friday-Saturday Magnolia Bracketed Knockout Teams

Winners: Sharples, Reid, Powell, Sherburne

The Hideous Hog (In Training) scored 18/40 on the predictions for a Victoria total of only 63/150, 42%....which is actually better than usual.

Bracketed Knockout Teams event, with 2 rounds of 24-board matches.  Teams are grouped by team masterpoints into team brackets, with a two-session round robin to reduce to four teams.  

Saturday Canada Goose Bracketed Round-Robin Teams

Winners: Bates, Tuff, Voth, Simpson

Bracketed Swiss Teams scored in Victory Points. Teams played all or most of the teams in their bracket in short matches.

Saturday Morning Side Game

Winners: John Heck, Marla Patterson, William Curtis, Bette Flannigan

Single-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Part of the Morning Side Game Series, session 5 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: 1200 - 2000 / C: 0 - 1200.  
Average masterpoints for players in this event: 1384

Morning Side Game Series Overalls

Winners: Mitch Dunitz

A quick story about a nice thing that I witnessed on Saturday afternoon involving our Morning Side Game Series winner. I responded to a Director call at Mitch Dunitz's table about a strange transfer auction that might possibly require an adjustment, and the opponents were a little uneasy and uncertain about the reason for the call. The first step was to get a result on the deal, and as they played I consulted the hand record and saw that an adjustment was unlikely. I stayed in order to not give away that impression, but was called to another nearby table, and when I returned, the players had completed the hand and had come to the same conclusion. A short break followed but a few minutes later, I noticed Mitch talking to the player and very nicely explaining how the auction might have required an adjustment in different circumstances, and even suggesting a better way to handle hands of that type. Bravo!

Overall awards in the Morning, after 5 completed sessions.  Scores are based on the sum (in percent) of an individuals two best games, even if played with different partners.  Side Game overall awards are in gold points and replace the points you won in individual games in the series.  But if you played several games and got masterpoints, that sum may be higher than your overall award, and you would get the overall award in gold points and the rest of your sum in red points.

Saturday Afternoon Side Game

Winners: Trudy Hurdle, John Hurdle

Single-session pairs event, scored in matchpoints.  Part of the Afternoon Side Game Series, session 5 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: 1551