Newswink 17 • 18 February 1984

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An official publication of the North American Tiddlywinks Association
Rick Tucker, editor · 18 February 1984 · Cambridge, Mass.

Equipage

by Rick Tucker

Since the last Newswink appeared, quality winks have been procured by Jon Mapley of ETwA from an Italian company (Manifattura Italiana Gettoni, Castello 12, Trezzo). These new winks were used by NATwA in the Fall Ithaca Tournament, and by ETwA in the November 1983 National Singles. The new winks are convex on both sides; all older winks were convex on one side and concave on the other. The differences from wink to wink is almost nil. The reject rate also is almost nil. The new winks have a slightly different feel than the old, and some shots that winkers are used to may require some relearning or different approaches. For example, since winks are convex against each other, Bristols may be more difficult. Similarly, nurdled winks may be harder to pot. All in all, despite Larry’s protestations regarding the thickness of the big winks, the new winks are rather good. They look good, feel good, and ought to be used as NATwA’s standard winks. With the availability of quality winks, as well as mats and cups, NATwA’s and ETwA’s equipment problems are nearly over. Now all we need is a good source of quality squidgers. There’s no need to pass off milled poker chips as squidgers. As for pots, well, the ones molded by NATwA aren’t pretty, but they do the job (for 10 cents each). And how to store winks presentably? In a handsome handcrafted wooden winks box made by Bob Henninge. I hope he’s still making them because I’d like to buy one.

Goings-On

by Rick Tucker

Since Newswink 16 appeared on the first day of the 1983 Singles, a few events of note have taken place.

The Kahn notched up two more defenses of his World Singles crown, first against Jon Mapley, the English champion, and then against Dave Lockwood.

Dave took vicious revenge for his World Singles loss by acing the North American Singles. A challenge promptly was issued to Horsemeat Kahn for another challenge to the World Singles. The match is expected to take place on 17 February 1984 at MIT.

Joe Sachs and Charles Frankston easily assumed the World Pairs title on the first of June, winning 29-20 in the best-of-seven series against the defending champions, Larry Kahn and Severin Drix. They were not quite as skillful the next day in the North American Pairs where they placed second to the pair of Larry Kahn and Arye Gittelman. Larry and Arye will vie with Joe and Charles on 20 February 1984 at MIT in the Fourth World Pairs championship.

At the 1983 English Singles in November, Jon Mapley repeated his win of 1982. Alan Dean and Charles Relle trailed, and Dave Lockwood, jetting in from Jeddah, placed fourth. Dave’s first exposure to the new winks was in this tournament, and perhaps not to his liking.

A pick-a-partner-style tournament at Cornell in November attracted an eager contingent of Ithaca High School winkers.

Remembrance of Things Past

by Rick Tucker

Fred Shapiro and I have been maintaining the NATwA Archives a a central repository for interesting items related to tiddlywinks. The Archives has a different slant than the Closet of Fame in the murk of Bill Renke’s basement grotto. The Archives intends to maintain a collection which reflects the origins and history of all forms of winks. I encourage the multitudinous throngs in the winking world to send me winks-related articles, book citations, etc. that they discover. If nothing else, these items will serve as filler for Newswink.

What is Past is Prologue Department

by Rick Tucker

NATwA is 18 years old this month. ETwA is 26 this year. The Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club was formed 29 years ago. The game of Tiddlywinks was patented 96 years ago; the name TIDDLEDY-WINKS trademarked 95 years ago.

On Winx Statistix

by Charles Relle, 18 May 1983

In my title I deliberately adopt American spellings as the statistical mania does not seem to have reached Great Britain, and if the article in Newswink 15 headed  Black Winx Scandal at Pairs has any basis in fact, I am glad it has not.

Did this scandal really happen? The evidence is against it, for the report of the U.S. Pairs Championship on page 7 of Newswink states that six rounds were played in the tournament, whereas in the Scandal article, paragraph 3 talks about `the 10th and last game’. It describes it as `irrelevant in the tournament standings’—rightly so, if the tournament had ended 4 rounds before! Did this game happen only in someone’s fevered imagination? It is a suspicious circumstance that the names of the opponents were not mentioned, and I wonder if their existence was only spectral. In short, did Larry, known as a bridge player, take a phantom sacrifice?

Statistics, and even tournaments, are not the high points of a player’s life in Britain. My own club, Newts, now meeting monthly in London, contains several players who come regularly but are not often seen at tournaments. Why? Partly because they do not wish to give up whole days or weekends to tiddlywinks, partly because they enjoy the convivial atmosphere of a club evening. Indeed, if I could play enough tiddlywinks, say once a week, I would seriously consider not bothering about tournaments at all, unless they occurred in places like Cambridge which I enjoy visiting anyway.

Of course, I am one of the few players in whose lives numbers do not feature. Latin and Greek are my profession, and Cyril Edwards and I are the only regular players in Great Britain with a non-mathematical or non-scientific background. I wonder what difference this makes to one’s attitude to the game. Certainly I tend not to remember results, or the positions that led to them, unless they are particularly remarkable. This for me is true of bridge: I can only remember about two hands I have held in my whole career. One game I do remember was the first time I beat Alan Dean 7-0, and who would not remember such a thing? The game took me 13 turns, and happened before the final of the 1981 London Open Pairs final. But the significant thing was that this game, and a subsequent one, took place while Lockwood was looking for his squidgers to play the final. These searches seem to me to happen fairly often, so here is a subject for investigation: how many games have happened, or could have happened while Lockwood was seeking out his squidgers? Quite a number, I guess, especially as all games go faster if he is not playing in them!

More typical of my powers of recollection is the memory of a game I played after the first Newts dinner. The other players were Jonathan Mapley, Cyril Edwards and Alan Dean. I do not know the result. I do not know who won. I do not know who my partner was. Put that on your computer, Sunshine, and a good few more like it!

Young Winkers Invade FIT

by Rick Tucker

Fall Ithaca Tournament, 12 November 1983, Upson Hall, Cornell

The first tournament of the 1983-84 season precipitously took place high above Cayuga’s waters (that is to say, it snowed for Larry). The new Italian-made winks debuted under the squidgers of 16 winkers, half of them playing in their first NATwA tournament. An avid crew of Ithaca High School winkers played quite well. Eric Torng of IHS went 5-1 for 27 points. Arye Gittelman was second in points, 4-2 for 26. Sam Pottle of Cornell gave a hint of things to come by getting 3 off Larry Kahn in a singles game, going 3-2 for 20 points (4.0 ppg). Chuck Houpt and Erik Cassel also played well, each with ppgs above Larry and Sev Drix. Rick Tucker’s 3-1 for 17 1/2 for the weekend helped (slightly) to offset the minor inconvenience of taking a tour of Dalton, Pa. on the return trip to Washington in order to buy two new tires.

Patent 4,030,760 Jun. 21, 1977

Tiddlywinks game

Mastery of tiddlywinks is dependent upon manual skill, that is, the development of the proper “feel” necessary to achieve the accuracy of direction and range required to shoot a shot disk into the target cup. Comparison of manual skill provides the primary competitive interest in the game of tiddlywinks. However, the basic game does not have great or lasting appeal for adults, primarily because it is lacking in competition value.

Dragon Breathes Fire at Singles

by Larry Kahn

28-29 May 1983, MIT Mezzanine Lounge

Dave Lockwood, still smarting after finishing with two zeros the day before in his World Singles challenge against Larry Kahn, took his revenge on the Singles field and rolled to an incredible 23 point win. He combined excellent play and lots of good luck to outdistance (in order of finish) Sev Drix, Arye Gittelman, Larry, Jon Mapley, Rick Tucker, Brad Schaefer, and Fred Shapiro, to set a new tournament ppg record of 5.91.

It was pretty much the same type of match as in the previous two years, with one player getting hot and the others beating on each other. Arye still had a shot with two rounds left in the round robin but finished with a 2 against Brad and 1 1/2 against Jon. The match actually started Friday afternoon when Sev played 3 of his games early so he could be absent on Saturday during the day. This messed up the schedule a byte, but all but one game of the round robin was completed on Saturday, with Sev taking a 5 from Jon after dinner to put Larry in the finals.

In general, the level of play appeared quite high, at least from what I saw. There were more bounce-outs over the whole 4 day period than I think I’ve seen in the last 5 years, plus a number of really gross (excellent/lucky) shots.

Rick had a very good tournament and may finally establish himself as a singles threat [who wrote this?]. Everyone was anxious to see how Charles would do on his own, but he couldn’t continue his hot streak since returning from California. Larry finally proved to be a human (although there are rumors that if he had won all three tournaments that weekend he would be barred from NATwA). Brad couldn’t quite continue his good showing from last year (swelled head from appearing in National Geographic?). Fred learned the hard way that there’s no substitute for practice. Arye claims he will never free one of Larry’s big winks.

And so Dave regains the top spot in NATwA Singles. Larry takes over the World Singles Albatross (since Sev in 1975, if you have the World Singles, you can’t win the NATwA Singles). For the third time, a male British winker came over only to finish 5th (Does this mean a Scandinavian vacation for Jon?)

Larry and Dave plan to meet for a record 5th slugfest, probably right before  the Continentals next year. So far, they have played nearly to a draw, the series being tied at 2 matches each, games at 13-13-1 and Larry with a slight edge in points, 99.5 to 89.5.

Winks Legalia

via Fred Shapiro

233 F. Supp. 578 September 22, 1964

OPINION:
The 42 million dollars additional deposits which were in the institution … gave the association a decided tax advantage in enabling it to write off … more than five million dollars, as bad debt reserve. And five million dollars contributing to a tax shelter is not tiddlywinks. The Bank Board contends that Equitable did not offer three million dollars for the good will of Long Beach because the good will of Long Beach was not worth that much.

443 F.2d 928.

We reject the notion that the mechanical problem of engaging and removing a flat resilient scale from the side of a fish is analogous to removing a soft thread-like piece of stringy matter from the body of a shrimp meat. This is no more logical than contending that playing tiddlywinks is akin to threading a needle.

231 A.2d 179

Engaging railroad cars is no tiddly-winks, pat-on-the-wrist operation. The locomotive rams into the stationary car, the violent impact forces open the coupling device at the rear of the car and the front of the engine; the locomotive and car join and roll away.

A Workable Winx Rating System

by Brad Schaefer

Ferd might have a high lifetime ppg, but he is currently out of practice, so his current ppg will not reflect his current playing strength. Ken Moraff is improving fast, but he still has a low ppg because of many games from his misspent youth. Renke’s ppg doesn’t reflect his true strength because he often had Gammer as his partner.

Many people have pointed out these inequalities and have longed for some sort of a fair rating system. One time-honored method is to count the number of national titles, but this is hardly valid for us normal folk. A system like bridge’s master points is no good because it mainly rewards perseverance. I propose that we adopt a rating system similar to the chess rating system which measures your current playing strength and takes into account your opponents’ and partner’s strengths.

R_New = R_Old + (S – 3.5) + 0.04 * (R_Opp – R_Pair)
where ABS (R_Old – R_Pair) may never exceed 50.

R_New = revised rating after a game is played
R_Old = rating before the game
S = score from the game
R_Opp = average rating of opponents
R_Pair = average rating of you and your partner (for pairs)
= R_Old (for singles)

Advantages

• Accounts for partner’s strength.
• Accounts for opponents’ strength.
• The formula is easy to understand and program.
• This scheme is already known to work (from chess) without any divergences or psychotic situations.
• The formula gives the ratings a relaxation time of around twenty games. This means that the ratings reflect the last two to four tournaments and that several freak wins or losses will not change the rating too much.

Disadvantages

• The formula implicitly assumes that the rating of a partnership is the average of the partners’ ratings. This is a reasonable first approximation and the best we can do without great complexity.
• The rating is not on an intuitive zero to seven scale. Of course, by a suitable linear transformation, the ratings from the formula can be translated into a zero to seven scale.

Examples

• With suitable summations, the formula can be used to rate all the games from a single tournament. For example, at a recent Singles, Larry Kahn scored 70 points in 12 games. I would guess that the average R_Old – R_Pair was three times the standard deviation of the population, which would translate into -100 points. But the maximum allowable R_Old – R_Pair is -50. Against Arye Gittelman and Sev Drix, the R_Old – R_Pair will be more like -20. With these estimates, we find that Larry gained 9 rating points for his excellent tournament.
• In this tournament, if Larry had scored 61 points, then his rating would remain unchanged.
• Anyone who scores 3.5 against equal opposition will not change in rating.
• If a novice upsets Larry 7-0, Larry would lose 5.5 points, and these rating points would go to the novice.
• If Sam Pottle had gotten 70 points in the Singles, then his rating would go up by 52 rating points.

Patent 4,244,584 Jan. 13, 1981

Flippable game piece target

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a game in which a game piece is moved about a playing surface which may include a plurality of adjacent, separately delineated scoring areas. Many games operate in such overall manner and generally differ from each other by the way in which the game piece is moved, i.e. it may be forced along the playing surface by a stick or other pushing element as in shuffle board or propelled in a linear path by another element such as in lawn bowling or marbles or even in an arcuate path as in tiddlywinks. All such games include elements of chance and skill and elementary scoring tasks in which some degree of basic addition or subtraction can be painlessly acquired by children of varying ages.

1983 Pairs (Fit to be Tied)

by Larry Kahn

2 June 1983, Cornell

This year’s Pairs was extremely disappointing in turnout but proved to be an interesting battle between Charles Frankston-Joe Sachs (who had won the World title the day before) and Larry Kahn-Arye Gittelman. Severin Drix-Sam Pottle and Roger-Rob-Robert tried to play the role of spoilers and Sev-Sam did just that in the first round by taking a 4 from Joe-Charles.

In the first Charles-Joe vs. Larry-Arye game, Arye had severe bring-in problems and Charles-Joe took a solid 6 to go a point up. Sev-Sam played tough again in their next Charles-Joe game, but in rounds Sev got greedy and instead of playing for a likely 3 ended up with 1. Larry-Arye, irritated at Sev’s greediness, punished him in the next game as Arye potted out his last 3 winks (2 not at all trivial), and then Larry ran 6 (including a very impressive nurdled small wink 1 mm from the cup) for a 7. Larry-Arye then took a tight 4 from Charles-Joe to set up the playoff game with Larry-Arye 1 point ahead.

The playoff was again a very tight game and towards the end became a potting race with Charles against Arye. Larry-Arye’s only hope was to get a tie for first, as Larry was irrelevant. Arye potted in the 4th and brought in to 4 inches in the 5th and when Larry missed a 2 1/2 foot squop of Charles’ wink (which was then potted) Arye needed to pot ending game for the 3. He just barely slithered it in the front edge, producing the 2nd tie in NAC (North American Championship) tournament history (Joe being in both).

In the final game, Arye came in extremely well, setting up a blitz threat. Joe came in well also (not quite so well) for a counter-blitz but Larry defused this with a squop from the line. Charles-Joe then had to jump into Larry-Arye’s area and after some brief skirmishes, Larry-Arye took solid control and ran out a 6-1 for the title.

Going into the match, Larry had needed 38 1/2 points to get to 200 for the season, so he needed the extra game plus at least 4 1/2 in the last game to get there.

Meat is better than veggies. Since 1980, Larry’s record against Sev is 14-0 for a 6.04 ppg.

EDUCATION: The Tiddleywinks Scholarship

If your son or daughter is getting ready to apply for college and you’re getting ready to apply for welfare at the thought of having to get up as much as $5000 a year, stop quivering. … There are literally thousands of scholarships offered yearly by churches, corporations, philanthropic organizations and professional associations. …

So if you’ve got a case of “how am I gonna pay for it?” blues, hang in there. Even if your child has never mastered anything more complicated than the game of Tiddlywinks; somewhere, sometime, someone has set up a scholarship fund for
Tiddlywinks players. So contact

SCHOLASTIC RESOURCE SERVICES
1749 Rockville Pike Suite 302
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 984-9103

(found on a bulletin board at Catholic University by Fred Shapiro)

— 

Even under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the word sex having barely squidged in beside race, most cases brought to court have involved discrimination against black women.

— New Republic, 18 Jan 1969, page 30 (via Fred Shapiro)

— 

NATwA Secretary-General
Larry Kahn
18802 Nathan’s Place
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20879 USA

Home: (301) 258-1129
Work: (301) 840-3315 EG&G

Newswink Editor
Rick Tucker
2701 Woodedge Road
Silver Spring, Maryland 20906 USA

Home: (301) 933-3840
Work: (703) 883-6699 MITRE

World Singles 16 and 17

by Larry Kahn

On May 26-27, 1983, Larry Kahn spent one third of a 24-hour period defeating Jon Mapley and Dave Lockwood in successive World Singles matches. The Jon-Larry match was the best match so far for consistently high-level play, replete with an amazing number of great pile shots and long squops. The Dave-Larry match was another classic slugfest featuring the first World Singles tie and the first back-to-back 7-0s. Jon and Dave became the first players to absorb their third WS losses. The combined Dave-Larry record in four matches stands at 13-13-1 with Larry holding a 99.5 to 89.5 point lead.

The Play-by-play follows.

World Singles 16 • Jon Mapley, challenger, vs. Larry Kahn

26 May 1983 MIT room 400, Cambridge MA

Larry green and yellow throughout.

Game 1: Larry 6 • Match: Larry 6, Jon 1 • Squidgeoff: G

Jon’s flip style squidgeoffs are erratic and he decides to try a difficult potout with one on the line. Larry catches him and a huge 19 wink pile develops. Larry counters every Jon attack with excellent pile shots including some difficult frees. Larry often has only 1 or 2 free turns after squopping Jon out.

Game 2: Jon 5 1/2 • Match: Larry 7 1/2, Jon 6 1/2 • Squidgeoff: B

Early positional game, Larry up slightly, but Jon captures pile with beautiful big B on 2 separate Ys. Larry makes several blowups throughout the game but none are very effective. Toward the end, Jon has more free winks and takes the win.

Game 3: Larry 4 1/2 • Match: Larry 12, Jon 9 • Squidgeoff: Y

Early G blitz prevented with 5 inch B squop away from cup. Larry lunches R to move Y into his territory. Larry up slightly throughout. In the zeroth round, Larry grosses out everyone (including himself) by “accidentally” making a 20 inch double of two R on a Y. In round 1, Larry makes a 10 inch double, this one intended. Jon has no free winks and Larry takes the 4 1/2, disdaining an eyeball pot in the 5th (made in the 6th). Key game of match as Jon was looking at a 5 or 6 without Larry’s two doubles.

Game 4: Jon 6 • Match: Jon 15, Larry 13 • Squidgeoff: Y

Jon takes early lead as Larry feeds him 3 times, but Larry blowup restarts game. Larry makes strategic blunder and lets Jon blow up a double. Jon starts to dominate, and squops Larry out. R misses easy squop, Larry blows pile but it’s not enough.

Game 5: Larry 6 • Match: Larry 19, Jon 16 • Squidgeoff: Y

Y has 5 winks in well, one far. B in well, and Jon starts potting with one at the line. The second B bounces out and lands next to a Y; Larry takes, has one of each color with good protection. Larry gains control, but Jon attacks well. Jon gets 4 R free late in the game, but no B. Larry sends G at R with a Y shot and makes subsequent shots to defuse R.

Game 6: Larry 6 • Match: Larry 25, Jon 17 • Squidgeoff: Y

Jon goes off with first B, puts second next to G. Larry sniffs at potout (4 easy, 2 a foot away) to keep Jon down significantly throughout most of the game. Jon plays for more than the match-losing 1 but Larry has too much material. Larry takes a 6 to win the match.

World Singles 17 Dave Lockwood, challenger, vs. Larry Kahn

27 May 1983 MIT room 400, Cambridge MA

Jetlagged and father-to-be (very soon!), Dave can’t beat the Kahn.

Larry green and yellow throughout.

Game 1: Larry 5 • Match: Larry 5, Dave 2 • Squidgeoff: Y

R and G pot threats. G starts first, making an 11 incher, but misses 8 inch off lip of cup. R pots totally nurdled big R, then misses 5 inch small next to G. Eventual squop battle, L up most of the way. Dave fails to make a necessary double in rounds and solidifies a 2-5 loss.

Game 2: Dave 6 • Match: Dave 8, Larry 6 • Squidgeoff: Y (again!) [100th World Singles game]

Bad bring-ins throughout—Y and R off, G Carnovskied. Dave assumes gradual control of main area, but blows eventual potout attempt to end with 6.

Game 3: Larry 6 • Match: Larry 12, Dave 9 • Squidgeoff: R

Dave begins to get many more winks in battle area but screws up eventual pile blow to give Larry control the rest of the way.

Game 4: Tie • Match: Larry 15 1/2, Dave 12 1/2 • Squidgeoff: G

In rounds, Dave finally blows a pile, inadvertantly potting the shooting color. Pot fest ensues with little success. Larry feebs a 1 incher to end the game in a tie, the first in World Singles play.

Game 5: Larry 7 • Match: Larry 22 1/2, Dave 12 1/2 • Squidgeoff: G

After close start, Dave feeds Larry all of his winks. Dave makes nice bomb but leaves Larry an easy pile. Dave is squopped out and Larry defends well. Larry maintains control and pots out with G on game-ending shot. Larry grabs a 7 with no Dave winks in the pot.

Game 6: Larry 7 • Match: Larry 29 1/2, Dave 12 1/2 • Squidgeoff: B

Dave brings in great, pots three B, but msises easy 3 incher in Larry’s territory. Dave tries Plan 47 [eh wot?] and pots all his free winks (five R, four B). Larry squops him out and has seven free turns. Dave pots freed B, and Larry has nine free turns, time enough to stroll all six Y winks into the pot. Larry takes a 7-0 for the first back-to-back 7s in World Singles history.

A rather ordinary match when compared to the previous day. Typical of Dave-Larry matches in that mistakes have proven very costly — the match ends up being lost rather than won. In the two World Singles matches of the weekend, Larry won nine of the twelve squidgeoffs.