37th World Team Championships Page 4 Bulletin 13 - Friday 4 November 2005

IBPA Annual Awards 2005
Personality of the Year

Fred Gitelman (USA)

Our Personality of the Year is a fine player who is not only very well-liked, but who has also made a major contribution to bridge away from the table in the computer field, one that you will be seeing in front of you when play begins shortly.

As a player for Canada he won a silver medal in the World Junior Championship of 1991, losing to the USA1n the final, and, in 1995, another silver in the Bermuda Bowl, again coming in second to the USA.

They say if you cannot beat them, join them, and a few years ago Fred moved from Toronto to Las Vegas and became eligible to represent the USA. Last year he won the Cavendish partnering Brad Moss, and this year the Spingold and US Trials, again partnering Moss, to become part of the USA2 team here in Estoril.

Fred is also the author of the book, Master Class that made our shortlist for Book of the Year, but the contribution away from the table he is best known for is Bridge Base Online. BBO offers a free and valuable service to bridge players worldwide, including watching bridge live with excellent commentary. Tens of thousands of bridge players have benefited and are benefiting now from that service. In the last year, BBO has become the source of the vugraph screen picture you will be seeing in a moment. The few problems we have seen with the feed dropping are no fault of the service provider.

By now you should all have guessed who the man is, but I now ask him to come to the podium. Please give a warm welcome to FRED GITELMAN. (From the presentation made by Patrick Jourdain.)