Issue 8 Contents

Editorial

We haven't had a newsletter for a while. This is partly because I was away 9 months, and since I have been back I have been busy catching up on all the things that didn't get done while I was away. While travelling, I took the opportunity to visit some of the Trax players that I had known only electronically. As a result, I was able to put names to faces, and enjoy the hospitality of players in several countries. My article, Trax Around the World, gives a summary of who I met, and the highlights of each visit.

Not having a newsletter in a while, there is quite a bit to catch up on. The results of last year's e-mail tournament are given. Also, there is a description of the new novices tournament which is starting later this year. This year is also World Championship year, although by the time you receive this, entries for the qualifier tournaments will have closed.

The official Trax Notation has been modified based on comments from players over the last few years. The article in this issue outlines the reasons for the changes and describes the differences between the old and new notations.

Finally, this issue contains the third Trax Tips column, looking at equivalence principles. Here, we will consider what it means for two positions to be equivalent along with some of the implications this has for recognising threats and playing Trax.

1998 World Championship

The World Championship series consists of a series of three tournaments, and is held every second year. The first tournament is the set Regional Qualifier Tournaments. These are open tournaments which will select the top candidates from each region. These candidates then battle it out in the Candidate's Tournament to select a challenger. Finally, the challenger plays against the defending champion in the Challenge Match.

All of the games of the World Championship Tournament are played live over the table (or most over the internet where over the table games are impractical).

Regional Qualifiers:

There are three regions or zones, with each zone providing two qualifiers. Registration for the qualifier tournaments closed on March 31, 1998. The zones, and tournament directors for each zone are:

• Zone 1: North and South America. Tournament director is Mel Nicholson, mel@csua.berkeley.edu
• Zone 2: Europe, Africa & Middle East. Tournament director is Martin Pedersen, martin.pedersen@person.dk
• Zone 3: Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Pacific Islands. Tournament directors are Donald Bailey, D.G.Bailey@massey.ac.nz, and Tom Siegenthaler.

The regional tournaments should be completed by May 31, 1998.

Candidate's Tournament

The two qualifying candidates from the regional tournaments, plus Dan Pless (who qualifies by right of making the challenge match in the last tournament) will play a round robin of best of 3 matches. This determines the 1998 challenger.

The Candidate's tournament should be completed by August 31, 1998.

Challenge Match

The challenge match is a best of 11 games, played between the winning candidate and the incumbent champion, Donald Bailey.

The challenge match should be completed by November 30, 1998.

Emerging Players Tournament

At some stage after the completion of the first round of the 1998 e-mail tournament, the International Trax Association is planning to stage an emerging players tournament for new and lower ranked players. The exact format of the tournament has yet to be determined, but we do know the following:

• There will be prizes of sets of Trax tiles, and copies of "Trax Strategy for Beginners"
• Players will be given detailed commentaries on their games by top players.
• Eligibility will be based on players ratings on Richard's Server at the time of registration.