I agree that if you do not trust your selector(s), a trial may be a better solution than a selector.
But one swallow does not a summer make, and one (relatively short) tournament against comrades is a poor basis for predicting results in a long international tournament.
Also, it ...
I think it is strange that most people who comment on this thread believes that a competition against pairs of your own nationality is the best criterion for picking a team who will be competing against foreigners with partly other languages, other customs, other systems etc.
(I have been the ...
Thank you, Ante
yes. If one of our pairs were often slow starters, I would look into how to get them fired up. But the problem would probably apply only for the morning match. At the European we played 3 x 16 boards normally. Some days 4 x 16. So ...
Thank you, Ante! As the npc of the Norwegian team for 8 years, I have calculated the relative butler myself for many years. But "by hand", not by a program. It is a lot of work, and I am very grateful that I do not need to do it now ...
As Norway's NPC, I was sitting between Boye Brogeland and Peter Fredin in the European championship in 2010.
The very first board:
None is vulnerable and Fredin's partner, Bjørn Fallenius, opens 1 spade and Boye enters with 1 NT.
Fredin had:
64 EJT82 QT7 KJ5
Fredin doubled. Two ...
The commentators today have often the wrong approach:
Far too often they start each board with an assessment like: "Here we have a nice 4 heart contract. If North finds the trump queen, it is lay down." They are looking for the solution to the hand, not the challenges.
The ...