Issue 9 Contents

Editorial

Welcome to the 1998 tournament issue of On Trax. That is all we feature in this issue - the results of the various tournaments that have been held throughout this year. There have been 3 events in this year's tournament calendar:

• the annual e-mail tournament,
• the emerging players tournament,
• and the world championship series of tournaments.

The mail tournament is now into its sixth year. Numbers were down a little on last year, with only 26 players (down from 31, or from the peak of 41 players two years ago). Part of the reduction was the unavailability this year of several of the top players (david, dan, mel) from previous tournaments.

The emerging players tournament was an attempt by the International Trax Association to encourage and help some of the newer Trax players. One of the limitations of Trax is that there is no known way of handicapping players to provide an even match between players of differing abilities. This makes it harder for new players who have to face more established players. Any small difference in playing ability is translated into the win / loss record, usually with the newer player losing. This can be discouraging for those who are just learning and want to play Trax for fun. By holding an emerging players tournament, new and weaker players are playing each other where they have a better chance of winning. Also, by providing comments to the players on their games, we are helping them to learn many of the fundamental strategies.

The tournament attracted 29 players, of whom 20 had played fewer than a handful of Trax games on the server before. There was some strong play towards the final rounds of the tournament so the regular players in next year's e-mail tournament will need to watch out!

From the point of view of attracting new players. the tournament was a great success. However, providing the comments for over 200 games was a mammoth effort.

1998 was also World Championship year again. The format was unchanged from the last tournament (1996), with a set of three Regional Qualifier Tournaments, a round robin Candidates Tournament, and a best of 11 Challenge Match. The Qualifier and Candidate's Tournaments were played live over the internet, and the Challenge Match was played live over the table.

7th Annual E-mail Tournament

The next annual e-mail tournament will be played on Richard's PBeMServer. It is scheduled to start on February 1, 1999. Contact Donald Bailey as soon as possible to sign up for this tournament.