What's new in Bel Atout 6.90

January 8th - 2026
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New features for prepared games

I don't yet have many ideas for creating a new webpage with prepared games focusing exclusively on the card play. But if I make progress on this, I'll need to be able to ensure that the user plays the correct contract on each deal. If, in contract belote, a deal is only interesting with the 130♥ contract, a cautious player shouldn't simply bid 110♥ and ultimately fail to grasp the difficulty or the relevance of this too easy deal. Here are the new tools I've implemented to improve my prepared games, tools that may meet your own needs.

Complete the bidding (and set the opening lead if needed)

This new option allows the computer to make all the bids, so that the final contract is set on every deal of the game. The program will therefore start each deal on the card play, and the user will not have to make any bids. Before playing their first card, however, the player can review the bids by right-clicking on the table.

If the contract and opening lead found by the computer on a given deal do not suit you, you can describe the right bidding sequence yourself, and play a better opening lead if necessary. Then, simply click the button to save the position. This way, before starting the deal on the card play, the program will use the bids and opening lead that you saved.

The option can be activated by selecting the File / Presentation of a file when opened menu, then check the Complete the bidding (and set the opening lead if needed) box. Note that if you check the option, the comparison of the deals will always be based on the card play, never on the bidding, since the final contract cannot be modified.

The comment window in the center of the table
To describe a game plan on a deal, I often need several lines to detail the different steps of the reasoning. Therefore, I've improved the comment dialog box by slightly enlarging the text area and placing the window in the center of the table so that North and South's hands are clearly visible.
I've enabled this central display by default, but if you prefer, you can disable it by unchecking the Position the title window in the center of the table option in the general preferences on the Display / Layout page.
A more practical way to read the comment
During a prepared game, at the end of each deal, a comment can be displayed on a yellow background in the title bar at the bottom of the screen. However, the single line is poorly suited to a long comment, and the tooltip that displays the entire text does so in a small font that isn't always very legible. Therefore, I've enabled clicking on the title bar to open the same window used when entering the comment. The text, in read-only mode, is then displayed on a yellow background, centered on the table so the user can read the explanations while clearly seeing South's and North's hands.
When you want to write a comment about a deal, clicking on the title bar at the bottom of the screen already opened the input window. But I've added a right-click on the bar, which now opens the window with the text on a yellow background, exactly as it will be displayed during a prepared game. This allows for better testing.
Some mistakes have been corrected
Some very nice playing mistakes have been corrected, almost all submitted by experienced users. You can have a look at them in the last corrections file (accessible by the Examples menu). On that note, please remember to send the deals in .bel format, as the mere screenshot of a situation isn't enough for me to understand and correct the error.

Thanks to all those who proposed these enhancements.

Best wishes
Vincent