Stratified Simultaneous Pairs: 7-11 March 2011

Stratified Simultaneous Pairs are a new type of club competition which gives pairs of all abilities the chance to shine at national level. Even if a pair never manages to come in the top half of your usual duplicate, they still have the possibility of doing well in their ‘strat’ (category) in this event and coming near the top nationally to win a good number of master points.

The EBU will be holding five separate Stratified Sims with different hands and ranking lists on each day from Monday 7 March to Friday 11 March 2011, so a club can participate on more than one day.

As usual for Simultaneous Pairs, there will be enhanced master point awards. In addition, national ranking lists and master points will be produced each day in each of four categories:-

• Overall
• For pairs both members of which are below the rank of Tournament Master.
• For pairs both members of which are below the rank of Star Master.
• For pairs both members of which are below the rank of District Master.

Pairs who feature in the master point awards in two or more of these categories will receive the highest of the awards available to them. Hand records and commentaries specially written with the club player in mind will be available online so that your members can study them afterwards.

The entry fee for the Stratified Sims is £2 per player — less than the usual entry fee.

The EBU will donate £250 to a charity chosen by the pair in Division D who achieve the highest percentage during the week.

The Sims will be administered and scored for the EBU by ECats. Organising a Simultaneous Pairs for your club is very simple. Anna Gudge, who arranges them on our behalf, will send you an organiser pack via email containing everything you need, and she is always available to help if you have queries. This competition is open to EBU affiliated clubs only, so why not give it a try at your club? Do get in touch with Anna to book your club into the Stratified Sims. You can email her by clicking here or telephone her on 01787 881920.

For more on how stratification works please see this article.

List of clubs entered

Simultaneous Pairs Event Policy from April 1, 2010

EBU, WBF and EBL Simultaneous Pairs will only be open to affiliated clubs.

BGB Simultaneous Pairs events will attract a surcharge of £1 per player for ALL BGB sessions played in unaffiliated clubs. As for the Children In Need simultaneous, Overall Master Points will only be awarded by ECATS to EBU members in unaffiliated clubs if the results are uploaded electronically to ECatsBridge with the EBU number of such members included in the file in the correct format. These will subsequently be uploaded to the EBU by ECatsBridge once the overall results are known and the Master Points will be credited accordingly.

All other licensed simultaneous events are being reviewed and a policy will be announced in early 2010.