BRIDGE
TOPICS
New Headline News Service
now available for the bridge world. Everyone's
excited about the new BridgeTopics.com,
launched in September by Eric Rodwell and Jan van
Cleeff who is quoted as saying "We publish at
least one interesting news item every 24 hours from
somewhere in this world. For that reason, we founded
a worldwide network of correspondents." Not since
Eric Kokish and E-bridge has the bridge world been
able to enjoy this kind of service. BridgeTopics.com
also offers a subscription based 'Topics' collection,
and a forum called The Grape Vine.
From the IBPA Monthly Bulletin December 2011 (Editor John Carruthers)
3rd World Online University Team Championship
The start of this event has been delayed until January
2012 to give extra time for teams to enter. It is a knock
out competition on the internet between countries
where the schedule is determined by draw. Play will
start in groups, followed by a knockout final stage. A
country can enter an unlimited number of teams.
Site Turmoil- The economic crisis in Greece has forced them to
withdraw from hosting the next (2012) European
Closed Team Championships. The EBL is investigating
alternatives (rumours abound). Additionally, the 2012
World Bridge Games (formerly the World Team
Olympiad) site had still not been determined at press
time.
Turmoil at the Top - The news was announced recently that Lew Stansby and Chip Martel have broken up their long-standing
partnership. Together, the pair have won three
Bermuda Bowls, a Rosenblum and a World Open Pairs
and thus are among only a handful of players to have
won three of the four Grand Slam titles. They need an
Olympiad Team title to complete the career Grand
Slam. Additionally, Stansby has won two World Senior
Teams titles. It has been reported that Stansby will
partner Bart Bramley, which whom he won one of
the Senior titles, and that Martel will join forces with
Zia on the Fleisher team. Bobby Levin-Steve Weinstein
have left the Fleisher team to join Nickell, immediately
re-establishing them as the team to beat in the USA.
Bob Hamman, formerly of the Nickell team, will partner
Justin Lall on a team with Joel Wooldridge-John Hurd
(all three of them on the 2nd–place Bermuda Bowl
team in Veldhoven) and Bob and Shane Blanchard (père
et fils).
Gianarrigo Rona takes the lead. Gianarrigo
Rona of Italy assumed his new role as the 10th President
of the World Bridge Federation at the closing of the
World Bridge Series, held in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
He succeeded José Damiani of France who stepped
down as WBF President after serving 4 full terms -
a total of 16 years in office! In recognition of his
services, Mr Damiani was elected WBF Chairman Emeritus.
Read
More Here
2010 International
Bridge Press Association Annual Awards were
handed out in Philadephia. Thomas Bessis of France
wins Personality of the Year, and the Master Point
PRess IBPA Book of the Year award went to Krzysztof
Martens of Poland for “Owl, Fox and Spider”
- For all the awards and hands, - click
here PDF.
From July IBPA Newsletter. www.ibpa.com
BetterBridge1 by Bakhshi
English International David Bakhshi (one of our
members), has just released an app for the iPhone, iPod
Touch and iPad. It is called BetterBridge1, and comprises
16 deals constructed and analysed by David. There are
ten declarer play hands and six focusing on defence. The
user is presented with the bidding (Standard English and
Standard American auctions can be displayed), and then
given the chance to play the deal before taking advantage
of a ‘show’ facility which demonstrates
the suggested line of play or defence. For more information,
go to: http://itunes.com/apps/mooedutainment
26th CACBF Zonal Championship
& X International Open Bridge Festival
These exciting events will be held on the fascinating
island of Cuba, from 20th – 28th May 2011.
The Tournament will be held in Havana-Varadero and
special prices have been arranged at the hotels for
the participants. More information can be found on
the website for the event at: www.festivalbridgecuba.com
and you can email the Cuban Federation to make hotel
reservations or for more information: f_f_bridge@hotmail.com
2010 Lederer Memorial
The Lederer Memorial Trophy is an annual event for
eight
invited teams from England and abroad. This year’s
event
will be held at Young Chelsea Bridge Club, 32 Barkston
Gardens, London SW5 (Tel: 020 7373 1665) on Oct. 30-
31. Spectators are very welcome to watch matches at
the table, or on VuGraph with lively and witty
commentary from the likes of Ian Payn and David Bird,
or at www.bridgebase.com.
50th Gold Coast Congress Grant
An anonymous donor has pledged $5,000 to the 2011
Gold Coast Congress, to be used for promoting bridge
amongst the ‘rank and file’, and not to be used to offset
general operating costs. Additionally, a $250 prize will
be awarded to the person making the best suggestion
for the use of the $5,000. Suggestions should be sent to
Kim Ellaway at manager@qldbridge.com.
Women's Online Festival successful
Women from all over the world took part in an ex-clu-sive
online Festival, which scored a great success, re-ports
Anna Maria Torlo-nta-no, WBF Women's Com-mit-tee Chairman.
There were two events every day for 7 days, April
12-18, 2010. The overall winners were Maud Khouri
and Lily Khalil of Egypt. A Women's Festival is planned
to be held early in 2011 in Thailand. For
details click here
New
Year's Message from the President of the World Bridge
Federation. Looking back over 2009 shows
us a year in which we consolidated the excellent work
done during the World Mind Sport Games, as we followed
up the extremely important contact made with the IOC
and GAISF in order further to cement and develop our
relationship with these two bodies. Bridge and the
other Mind Sports, Chess, Draughts and Go, are working
together under the aegis of IMSA (the International
Mind Sports Association) and seeking to stage an equally
successful Mind Sport Games in 2012. We will, of course,
keep you fully informed of any developments regarding
this event. Read
PDF here 
2010 WORLD BRIDGE SERIES OCT 1-16, 2010
The 2010 World Bridge Series Championship
will be held in Philadelphia from October 1 through
October 16. The host hotels for the tournament are
the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, the Philadelphia
Marriott Courtyard Downtown, and the Hilton Garden
Inn Philadelphia. All three of the host hotels have
set up online booking sites for the 2010 World Bridge
Series. There will be an ACBL Regional concurrent
with the 2010 World Bridge Series Championships. Click
here to see the Regional schedule. For brochures,
booking links and more click
through here to the ACBL-hosted website.
Bridge on YouTube - Wow. Did you
know there's a whole lot of content on YouTube regarding
bridge? Funny stuff (Bridge
is Dangerous), instructive stuff (Introduction
to Bridge) and just plain stuff stuff (Bill
Gates plays bridge). You can see clips from Andrew
Robson's latest release (Click
here) or you can watch young people introduce
and teach bridge concepts (Bridge
Union). All I can say is, I like it! You can use
the Youtube search bar and find more for yourself.
USA Recaptures Bermuda Bowl in 2009 -
The team captained by Nick Nickell stormed back from
a 57-1 shellacking in the second set against Italy,
built a big lead then turned back every challenge
by their opponents to win the most coveted prize in
bridge the Bermuda Bowl. The final score was 285.33-249.
Even after winning the penultimate set 54-26, Italy
needed a big showing over the final 16 deals to take
back the title they have won so many times over the
years. Italy made some gains against the Americans,
but the set ended virtually even, 28-24 to Italy.
The victorious USA2 squad includes two first-time
winners: Zia Mahmood and Ralph Katz. Nick Nickell,
Bob Hamman, Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell all have
multiple wins in the event, including four times as
teammates.
The silver medallists are Alfredo Versace, Lorenzo
Lauria, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Antonio Sementa
and Giorgio Duboin.
Gold for China and England - Two
teams taking different routes to their respective
championships became gold medal winners on Friday
as China Long Zhu captured the Venice Cup and England
won the D’Orsi Seniors Bowl.
The first Venice Cup victory for China they have two
seconds and two thirds came in a dominating 220-148
victory against a strong American team USA2. China
won five of the six sets, losing only the last 19-18
when the issue was just about settled.
With the victory, four members of the Chinese
team became World Grand Masters, the highest rank
in the World Bridge Federation. They are Liu Yi Qian,
Sun Ming, Wang Hongli and Wang Wenfei. Another Chinese
player, Zhong Fu, also achieved World Grand Master
rank in Sao Paulo.
In contrast to China’s win, England
had to come back from a serious deficit against their
Seniors Bowl opponents from Poland. After falling
behind 59-1 in the first set (62.67 including carryover),
England knuckled down and played tough the rest of
the way, particularly on Friday, when they surrendered
only 47 IMPs over 48 boards to emerge with a 187-163.67
decision.
England’s win was the first in the event for
a non-USA squad. The Seniors Bowl was inaugurated
in 2001.
Rona
Elected President of the WBF - Gianarrigo
Rona, president of the European Bridge League and
first vice president of the World Bridge Federation,
has been elected president of the WBF. He will succeed
José Damiani, WBF president for a decade and
a half, at the end of 2010.
“I am honoured,” Rona said. “It
is not an easy task to follow the four giants before
me,” he added, referring to Damiani, WBF President
Emeritus Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, Ernesto d’Orsi
and Bobby Wolff, both former presidents.
Rona is a retired attorney who lives in Milan, Italy.
He has a long record of service in bridge administration,
starting with his election to the board of the Italian
Bridge Federation in 1978. He was president of the
IBF from 1986 until earlier this year. He has been
EBL president since 1999.
2010 World Bridge Series goes to Philadelphia
The World Bridge series, the world’s biggest
and most complex bridge competition, held bi-en-ni-al-ly,
will be organized next year in Philadelphia, PA, USA,
October 1-16 – the first such event to be held
in the United States since 1994. Up to 100 nations
are expected to participate in the world series, represented
by thousands of the world’s best players competing
for world titles in many categories.
Read more
Grand Slam : Weekly Email Publication
for 2009
by Matthew and Pamela Granovetter. Find out more at
bridgetoday.com
Mastering Bridge. A new website
from the Master Point Press group. www.masteringbridge.com
is an instructional site for teachers and students
to meet.
Bridge
Hand Pro. The world's first publically available
Bridge Hand Database. Created by James Heneghan, you
need to register but after that process is complete,
you'll be able to search hands played by the world’s
top bridge experts by entering their names and bids.
A mammoth work no doubt!
Karen's
Bridge Library. A favourite and one of the oldest
bridge links site has changed its url to kwbridge.com
- lots to discover and love about this site.
