Scoring and other IT questions — EBU Forums

Exempt Player

GrahamC — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 00:40:53 +0000

Instructions for exempting a player are given here:
https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/miscellaneous/ngs/exemption-from-NGS.pdf

This says to also notify the scorer "to mark the player as exempt in the scoring program".

How / where do you do that in EBUscore please?

Schedule for file updates for EBU score file from EBU?

PeterB001 — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:47:41 +0000

Is there a fixed schedule for the EBU file downloaded by EBU Score to be updated, or is it just ad hoc? I have the impression that it's only updated a few times a month. We have new members joining at various times during the year, and I'd prefer not to have to download it during every session from then in the hope that the new members have been added to it. Thanks

Hesitation Mitchell

Vlad — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 07:06:08 +0000

Following from my earlier discussion on this subject, I ran a 22 table, 2 sections of 11 tables each, 2 session game, using Hesitation Mitchell to be able to play 24 boards.
For the second session I switched EW pairs between the two sections, which worked fine for tables 1-10, but for tables 11 in each section if I switched only the EW pairs then the NS pairs would end up playing against the same EW pairs in their original section, and if I switched both then these two pairs would play against each other a second time in the second session. Is this correct or is there a way around this? Or is this only to be expected if we play 12 rounds in an 11 table game.

Hesitation Mitchell

Vlad — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 13:55:10 +0000

I am running a two-section two-session tomorrow, 22 tables in all divided into two sections of 11 tables each.
In order to play 24 boards in each section instead of 22, I plan to use Hesitation Mitchell as the movement.
I will be using Hesitation Mitchell for the first time. I have gone through the movement and am comfortable with it.
Only one question: Once the movement is set and the bridgemates activated, will the bridgemates show the players' names and board numbers automatically or will I have to do anything different for the bridgemates to show the movement.

Grateful for an early response as this possibility has just struck me.

Player information in BBO

shed53 — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:05:12 +0000

We're rationalising how we store player information and we'd like to include BBO usernames in our player records. Can anyone tell me if it's possible to download information for players who've played in my club's BBO sessions? If so, how does one go about that? I can log on to BBO with our club's ID, but that doesn't list any tournament history. I haven't been an online TD for 3-4 years now and I mainly play F2F, so I can only see a few of my club's online tournaments in my history.
Thanks in anticipation.
Chris Woodhouse

Double-dummy and EBUScore/BCS/Bridgemates

tickerBerkin — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:47:16 +0000

The .pbn deal files that we import into EBUScore includes double-dummy analysis and this shows when results are uploaded to Bridgewebs. However this DD data doesn't seem to be available in BCS, either for suspicious contract checking or to be passed on the the Bridgemates where it could be seen in the TD menu. I realise we can get BCS to run the Double-dummy analysis when directly loading the deal file but we really don't want to do this. Is it possible to get the DD data into the BCS interface database (maybe HandEvaluation is the table where it should be)

Writing New Movements in EBU Score

Mike — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 11:51:57 +0000

I need to write the movements for the Junior Camrose.
I have never understood the meaning of the first digit of the five digits in line 1 of EBU Score movements and I can't find an explanation.
For instance, this is the movement used for the first round of the Camrose. (In each round. each team plays 2 x 16 board matches against the same team.)
5,6,32,16,2
4,6,1,4,6,2
3,5,1,3,5,2
2,1,1,2,1,2
6,4,1,6,4,2
5,3,1,5,3,2
1,2,1,1,2,2

Top line:
1st digit ?
2nd digit - number of tables
3rd digit total number of boards in play
4th digit number of boards each round
5th digit number of matches/rounds

New laptop - no names appearing automatically on Bridgemates.

PeterB001 — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 23:05:58 +0000

We use EBU Score with Bridgemates (V2), and EBU numbers to identify players. The Bridgemates do not now identify the players names, though we have a work around to write the names back from EBU Score.

In EBU Score .. Bridgemates Scoring .. set BCS options ... BM2 The Players Names Name Source is set to Player & EBU Names table, which appears to be the default, and is how the old PC was set up, where this all worked.

Can someone suggest what might be wrong, or just what I can check to try and identify the problem.

Thanks

EBUScore - Movement found to be incorrect after session completed

Keithharmer15522 — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 13:05:14 +0000

The movement for the last session before Christmas was set as -
Tables 10
Rounds 7
Boards 30
Low Board 1
Missing Pair None
Skip after 5 Rounds
Retain Results ticked

There were in fact 9 and a half pairs with a NS pair missing. The results were uploaded to Bridgewebs, and then to the EBU via Pianola. The latter is showing bad results.

If I go through the setup process again, changing missing pair to NS10, and then retrieve the results from BCS, will this produce the correct results acceptable to the EBU?

Keith

3 Session Teams Event

Jerseybean — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:48:23 +0000

Historically I have run these as 1 session events and combined them after the third session. What advantages and pitfalls are there to setting up and combining the 3 sessions before commencement of the first session?

Howells and Arrow Switching seating

SteveMap — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 16:20:01 +0000

I’m interested to know, in Howell type movements, is there a protocol for the pairs playing N/S then E/W.
I know in some scoring software you have an individual assessment of your Declarer play or your defence. (So the direction is important, if it is to be correct)
As an example, in the initial setup, where I am entered as North and my partner is South; When we move, in a Howell movement, should I (North) move to the East or West seat.
Equally, in a Switched Mitchell, should the board be rotated 90deg Clockwise or Anti-clockwise.
Kind regards Steve

EBU Score teams not showing cross imps

108839 — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 11:00:06 +0000

Recently held a teams event. 18 teams but just played 10 rounds, so obviously did not play every other team.

The score did not produce cross-imps for the individual pairs. Is this beacuse it was not a full movement, or is there another reason?
Scoring method was "teams of 4:IMPS" which has always previously showed x-imps for each pair , but always for a movement where each team played every other team.

Any thoughts on why no x-imps

EBUScore for teams with polarity switch

Laminator — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:46:35 +0000

I am trying to set up EBUScore Teams for a number of parallel 24-board head-to-head matches (one night of a year-long league). Players switch polarity after 12 boards ("Home" team stays seated as-is, pairs in the "Away" team switch tables). I can't find information on how to set this up. The online support for "Pivot Teams" seems to reference a different type of movement. Setting up the matches is straightforward, it is the polarity switch that is at issue. I can set the game up as two rounds and have players re-register for round 2, but there must be a better way...

Additional software - Dealing Machines?

JohnBaker — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 16:09:09 +0000

My club has a relatively new computer and a Bridgemates-Scorebridge-Bridgewebs software set up.
Were we to procure a Dealing machine would we need any additional software to be able to:
1. Deal set hands sent to us electronically ?
2. Print curtain cards?
3. Upload hands with results to Bridgewebs ?
4. Deal hands either imported or of our own devising multiple times for teaching sessions?
And are there other questions I don't know to ask!?

Ebuscore manuals

Rob999 — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 16:05:36 +0000

Hello. Are there any manuals or documentation available on how to set up Ebuscore for Swiss Teams?
I would also be interested in documentation for Swiss pairs and Teams (and also BMtest).
Just to be clear I can readily find the programs but not instructions on how to use them.
Thanks

Teams Scoring

JeffreyS — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:35:03 +0000

We know in a pairs game, Av+/Av+ awards 60% (or better if pairs averaged higher) to both sides.

In a Teams match, does Av+/Av+ award +3 Imps to both sides ? or is it 0 Imps each as one cancels the other?
WB 8.90.3 (e) suggests to me 0 Imps, but currently EBUScoreTeams is awarding the 3 Imps?

(Ref WB 8.90.3 quotes "AVE+/AVE+ or AVE/AVE or AVE−/AVE− make no difference in the result of a match." The problem is in a Multiple Teams rather than Head to Head match, it may affect the winner?)

Arrow switching

weejonnie — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 13:17:43 +0000

The mathematical 'proof' that you arrow-switch just over one round in eight to get close to the ideal average level of competition between two pairs, playing in the same direction is well known.
https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/media/bridge-movements-the-maths.pdf

However: what happens if you compare two pairs playing in opposite directions.

If T = tables, R = Rounds and Q = Rounds arrowswitched. (We will assume one board/ round and Single matchpoint/ board)

Given that the total matchpoints is R.(T-1) and the number of opposing pairs is (2T-1) we have.

Average competition = R.(T-1)/(2T-1) which is a bit less than R/2

However for our two pairs.

When they play each other (1 round) they are competing for (R-1) matchpoints.

On (R-1)-2Q rounds they are co-operating but for the 2Q rounds they are again competing - as they are now playing in the same direction. (2Q because each arrowswitched round affects two boards).

This gives us (R-1) + 2Q - (R-1)+ 2Q as the level of competition. The (R-1)s cancel leaving us with, unsurprisingly 4Q.

But this time 4Q is LESS than R/2 so you should arrowswitch less than one round in 8. The opposite.

Is this correct or is my argument (ignoring anomalous cases) flawed?

No Names on Bridgemates

GrahamC — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:48:44 +0000

Using EBUScore Pairs, players input EBU number on the Bridgemates. But it does not then automatically display their names until we go into EBUScore Pairs and then tell read and write the name back to the Bridgemates.

How do we configure this to display the names automatically? It used to work as wanted, but not now. I assume we misconfigured something.

Fixing a ClubPairs scoring problem from home

thebeercard — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 10:05:47 +0000

Last night one of our inexperienced TDs made a couple of errors using ClubPairs: they forgot to mark the missing pair when there was a half-table and they did not receive all the results from the Bridgemates. The club computer is locked up at the club, but I was able to rectify the problems from home as everything is shared using Google Drive.

I have made a 20-minute video of what I needed to do to resolve the problem. It is a little technical, but hopefully it is clear enough for most club scorers.

A key to my method is nothing is changed, or lost, from the club computer until everything is rectified so it remains a useful backup device.

Happy to answer any questions on our setup for those who make it to the end :)

Cheers

Paul

Scoring Swiss Pairs

415788 — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 09:10:57 +0000

For Scoring Details in EBUScore, my copy shows EBU (pre-Sep 2013).
Is this the right one to use, or WBF Discrete or, indeed, another of the options?

Thanks!

randhl2 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 17:17:27 +0000

I telephoned an hour ago and such a great response.
Seldom is the quality of the service noticed.

Really grateful. Not patronising or critical. Just helpful.

BCS crashes

shed53 — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 16:24:43 +0000

At our afternoon session (Wednesday 10th Sep), we were not able to use computer scoring. We use EBUScore and Bridgemates on a Windows 11 laptop. The behaviours observed (reported to me, and then shown to me on FaceTime) was:
― EBUScore was launched.
― A player was added to the database.
― The session details were set and the hands imported.
― The movement was chosen.
― In Bridgemate Scoring, "Create Database" was clicked, followed by "Launch BCS". The dialogue box (which asks the user to confirm they wish to launch BCS with Server reset (etc)) appeared, and the TD clicked on "Yes".
― BCS started then promptly vanished.

Our evening session on Tuesday 9th Sep ran just fine. After that session, Windows insisted on installing some updates.

The club member who runs our dealing machine noted that the most recent Windows 11 update screwed up the dealing machine application. I have no idea if that behaviour is connected to what this afternoon's TD experienced. I will collect the club laptop on Saturday 13th Sep to experiment.

In the meantime, has anyone else encountered anything like this or heard of anything similar?

Thanks in advance,
Chris Woodhouse
Bakewell Bridge Club

Ebuscore beyond Club pairs

Rob999 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 22:24:35 +0000

Looking for advice.
I was new to Ebuscore this year when my Club took it on and am now fairly comfortable with it having been able to set up and work through examples with deals and movements I have set up. I have been able to work through these to ensure that the Results files reflect what should have happened.
For my club, for club pairs, I constructed an mpeg that runs through the entire process, from soup to nuts as it were, so other members could familiarise themselves with the buttons to press and the windows they should be encountering.
But Club Pairs is very easy.

However, I am having much more difficulty in familiarising myself with Teams, Swiss Pairs, Swiss Teams etc
I have found some documentation which runs through using a program but these seem quite "casual" in how they employ terms in the descriptions as they apply to the screenshots. They assume a lot of existing knowledge on the part of the reader
I am left with feeling the documentation, such as it is, would be OK for people who already know how to use the software rather than a teaching resource for newbies.

Ideally, I would like to see some much more fleshed out examples.
I'd like to know how I become certain that the table numbers, movements and scoring procedures, etc will work from the start.
At the moment I am very wary that I could produce a set up that looks superficially correct but then find I crash and burn as the session unfolds or reaches an end.
Please can anyone point me in the way of useful resources?

EBU Score Player Managemet tab uses

00053002 — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 11:48:57 +0000

In the player management tab I can't find out from the EBUScore manual what the following button/tick box do, and how they may alter the current set up.
1."Set handicap File" button
2 "Use Average for handicaps" tick box

Thanks
Andy

Board not played

Vlad — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 04:29:26 +0000

If a board is entered in a bridgemate as 'not played', how does EBU Score allot the score for that board?
Is there a formula?

Correct way to handicap an individual pairs event

thebeercard — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:40:05 +0000

For the last 40+ years my local club has run a handicapped individual tournament scored by matchpoints.

Traditionally, if a player had a handicap (we don't use NGS in the English part of Scotland) of 52% then 2% would be removed from their scratch result to give the handicapped result.

Does this sound reasonable? Or should, perhaps, only half the handicap be applied? Or something else?

I'm not a big fan of ScoreBridge but handicapped individuals is an area where it shines as it supports the format - unfortunately we don't use it any longer. EBUScore Individual does not support handicaps and Pianola does not support individuals so there is always a manual element to the scoring for the trophy; which I'm currently preparing for next season and what got me thinking.

Seating Problem

CMOT_Dibbler — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 10:50:27 +0000

I suspect others may have the same problem. We have one elderly couple that now have difficulty moving and also have trouble dealing with the bridgemates (yes I could tell them (and tried) to let E or W deal with the bridgemates but they are from an era that say North should do it all). I have looked at one movement (M38) for 5 tables and have changed pair 10 from N/S to E/W and left them stationary. This seems to work but I am not sure whether this affects the "balance" or "fairness" of the movement. Should I also change pair 9 on Table 4 to E/W as well?
I intend changing other movements to suit so would also appreciate any opinions based on "balance" or "fairness".

ClubPairs

00519917 — Fri, 03 May 2024 08:49:42 +0000

Has anyone any experience of using ClubPairs rather than EBUScore Pairs? How did you migrate?

Scoring Sim Pairs

Jeff — Thu, 22 May 2025 10:50:10 +0000

Our club is considering running a Sim Pairs event (some players on BBO and the remainder face to face). Is there any established way to combine the two score files for Bridgewebs and uploading to EBU? Is it just a case of merging the two xml files, or will other considerations come into play?

Bridgemate and EBU Score

DavidAP — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:04:53 +0000

We use the above set up and for one player when we put the EBU number in the bridgemate their name does not appear on the bridgemate but it does in EBU Score at the end, it’s only this one player. Can anyone advise how to solve please.