GEZZER BRIDGE CLUB

Finale

Team                                                     Segment 1  Segment 2  Segment 3  Summer

Home: TBC Frankfurt 1958                       22                  17                 19                 58

Visiting: Nachteulen Leverkusen             12                   36                 31                79

Kampf um Platz 3

Team                                                    Segment 1  Segment 2    Segment 3  Summer

Home: Stuttgarter BC                                 54                42                  42                138

Visiting: BC 52 Berlin                                 28                 50                  30                108

Congratulations to Nachteulen LEV!

Thailand is to host the 2011 World Women's Festival which will be held in Bangkok's Montien Hotel, January 22-27.

At the peak of Thailand's tourist season, women players are invited to participate in a rich program of bridge, sightseeing and holidays. Husbands, family and friends are also welcome in the side events.

The champion team OPSTEIN of The Netherlands succeeded in capturing the prestigious European Champions' Cup, at the 9th edition of the competition, held in Izmir, Turkey, 11-14 November 2010.

The Dutch team met the defending Cup holders, Italy's ANGELINI team, in the final and beat them 93-72 after an exciting match which was close almost until the end.

This was not only the first time that The Netherlands has won the European Champions' Cup, but also only the second one not won by Italy! Indeed, since the introduction of the competition in its present form in 2002, Italy had won all events, except the 2006 edition where the Cup was captured by Germany.

The new European Champions' Cup holders are Bauke Muller, Bas Drijver, Simon de Wijs and Sjoert Brink. The silver medal went to Italy's ANGELINI team, comprising Francesco Angelini, Boye Brogeland, Fulvio Fantoni, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Claudio Nunes and Ercole Bove (npc). The bronze medal went to the Russian national champion team MATUSHKO, consisting of Sergey Drachev, Andrey Gromov, Yury Khiuppenen, Jouri Khokhlov, Vadim Kholomeev and Georgi Matushko (playing captain). MATUSHKO had an easy run against Turkey's IZMIR in the playoff for third place.

The European Champions' Cup is open to the champion teams of the ten countries which finish at the top of the classification at the previous European Team Championships. The Cup holders are invited to defend their title, while the host country is also invited to field their champion team. No country is allowed to participate with more than two teams.

The top 10 countries in the open classification of the European Team Championships in Ostend '10 were: Italy, Poland, Israel, Iceland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Russia, Germany and Turkey. All took part in this year's edition of the European Champions' Cup, with Italy (Cup holders) and Turkey (host country) fielding two teams each.

The format of the event was a qualifying round robin, followed by a knockout phase. Teams were divided in two groups of six and the round robin determined the top four who contested the title in the knockout phase. The remaining teams also proceeded to a knockout phase to determine the final rank.

The end of the round robin saw ONSTEIN, ANGELINI, Sweden's STERIK and Bulgaria's VITO qualifying from one group (Iceland's THORNTON and Turkey's CERKEZKOY following), while IZMIR, MATUSHKO, Poland's AUGURI and Italy's VILLA FABBRICHE advanced from the other (Germany's BAMBERGER and Israel's BAREKET following).

All semifinal matches ended with easy victories for the winners. ONSTEIN beat MATUSHKO 137-22, ANGELINI prevailed over IZMIR 160-54, ST ERIK over VILLA FABBRICHE 144-43 and AUGURI over VITO 88-42.

Participants and guests at the 9th European Champions' Cup enjoyed a splendid organization provided by the Turkish Bridge Federation, under the button of President Dr. Serhan Antalyali and his team of officials and volunteers. Ege Palas, the venue, and the maritime historic city of Izmir, from the Mayor down to ordinary people, offered a warm hospitality to be remembered and serve as an example.

Thank you Turkey,Izmir!

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 Championships, 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.

The election of Mr Rona had taken place last year in São Paulo, to enable the new administrative head of the WBF to prepare for office. Mr Damiani who served as WBF President continuously since 1994 (the longest serving President in WBF history), did not run for re-election. He now plans to concentrate on his duties as President of the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA).

Gianarrigo Rona is a very experienced sports administrator. He was President of the Italian Bridge Federation (FIGB) for 23 years (1986-2009) and served as President of the European Bridge League (EBL) from 1999 until last June. He was instrumental in the Italian Bridge Federation being recognized by CONI (Italian Olympic Committee), and represented associated members to CONI before he was elected on the CONI board in 2005; he was re-elected for another 4-year term in 2009.

The 9th European Champions' Cup will be held in Izmir, Turkey, 11-14 November 2010. This is the annual competition between the national team champions of the strongest European nations, as determined by the final classification of the most recent European Team Championships. For this year's event, the qualified countries are Bulgaria, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Russia, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. Italy and Turkey will be fielding two teams each: Italy because they are also the defending champions, and Turkey because they are the host country.

The just concluded World Bridge Series Championship in Philadelphia marked the end of José Damiani’s 16-year reign as President of the World Bridge Federation (WBF).

Damiani’s achievements in the service of bridge during that period are numerous. Most notably, during Damiani’s reign bridge was recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee, and the WBF became an active member of SportAccord, the biggest international sport organization bringing together over 100 of Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations. Damiani was also the founder of the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) which organized the 1st World Mind Sports Games in Beijing in 2008.

In recognition of Damiani’s achievements and tireless efforts in the service of bridge, CBF President Nader Hanna, (on the left in above photo) on behalf of the CBF and all Canadian bridge players, presented Damiani with a plaque honouring him for his extraordinary service to the WBF and bridge throughout the world. The presentation was made at the WBF Congress meeting in Philadelphia.

Team Diamond is the winner of the Rosenblum Cup!

The win is extra special for BBOers as our most familiar BBOer, founder Fred (Fred Gitelman) is part of the team. Team Diamond is the winner of this year's NABC Spingold Cup, and two members of the team, Geoff Hampson and Fred Gitelman were also part of the successful USA team who won the Warren Buffett Cup last month. Overall, this World Championship win capped an extremely successful year for the still young team.

Congratulations to Team Diamond (John Diamond, Brian Platnick, Eric Greco, Geoff Hampson, Brad Moss and Fred Gitelman).

HOW TO SURVIVE JIMMY CAYNE? ( PART 1 )

New York banker Jimmy Cayne is well known as a bridge player and as a sponsor of successful bridge teams. On Bridge Base online, a very popular internet bridge club, one often sees Cayne and his partners practice against teams from all over the world. Yesterday bridgetopics’s editor - Jan van Cleeff - accepted an invitation for a match against Jimmy’s team for the GEZZER. Approximately ten out of a total of 28 hands proved to be of interest, not bad for a rainy Saturday Afternoon.

The diagrammed board for instance would make a fine sample in ‘Misplay this hand with me’, a series by bridge journalist Mark Horton from England. he opened the westhand with 1NT (15-17), partner (Roberto Martinez, an expert bridge player from Uruguay), bid 2C (Stayman), him 2D, partner 3S (Smolen) and him 3NT.

North, Dano de Falco, a former Olympic and European bridge champion from Italy, led a spade to the nine. Jan returned the SQ – ducked – and he continued to play the SJ (South – Jimmy Cayne - D7, encouraging). North won the ace, cashed his DA and played a diamond to his partner's King. On the third round of diamonds he pitched a heart from dummy.

Mr.Cleff continued with HA and king and when the queen did not drop he played another heart. Of course Jan hoped that North had the HQ and that he was forced to lead from his CQ. Not so, and Jan went down. At the other table 3NT was made on a club lead, so the damage was ten IMPs.

HOW TO SURVIVE JIMMY CAYNE? ( PART 2 )

Mr.Cleff have a strong feeling that he misplayed the hand. After he kept the trick with the SQ, Jan should have continued with a low club. With the CQ on side or with the suit 3-3 divided, he would have survived. Not being sure of what the best line of play is, he hope for your comments. Thanks beforehand!

HOW TO SURVIVE JIMMY CAYNE? ( PART 3 )

Here is another hand from the BBO Saturday Afternoon match we played against Jimmy Cayne’s team. After three passes Jan opened on fourth position with 1NT (15-17) and after a Stayman sequence he soon became declarer in 3NT. Looking at the diamond and the club suit, the final contract is not exactly a piece of cake, even if you pick up four heart tricks.

Dano de Falco as North led the H7: small, eight and king. he played a club to the king, which Cayne won with his ace. He switched to a low spade, which ran to the eight. Jan won the spade return and cashed HQ, HA and the fourth heart. From hand Jan pitched a spade, South did the same, as North discarded a club. Mr.Cleff played a diamond to the queen and king and North returned the suit, which he ducked. South won the Jack and switched to a club. Jan Van Cleff won the queen and cashed SK.

Dano de Falco, who was squeezed, got rid of his CJ and the C10 was my ninth trick. Being friendly opponents Dano and Jimmy wrote “wd” in the chatbar. Nice, though the board appeared to be a push. At the other table it was South to lead. She kicked off with a low club, which immediately presented the ninth trick to declarer.

PostMortem

After winning CA South might have put declarer to the test by returning the suit. Far from easy though. Still declarer could survive. He should refreign from finessing in clubs, but win the CQ, cash all his winners in the major suits and endplay North in clubs. A toughie.

With the election of Yves AUBRY of France as President of the European Bridge League, a new page in EBL history has started.

The election took place at the EBL General Assembly which convened in Ostend on 27 June 2010. Yves Aubry was the only candidate for the presidency and was elected by acclamation.

Yves Aubry has replaced Gianarrigo Rona who retired in Ostend after 11 years in office, having been first elected EBL President in 1999 in Malta. Gianarrigo Rona will be the new leader of the World Bridge Federation and is to assume his duties in October 2010.

Together with the new EBL President, elections took place for the entire EBL Executive Committee, which now comprises the following: Marc de Pauw (1st Vice President), Radoslaw Kielbasinski (Poland), Jens Auken (Hon. Secretary), David Harris (Treasurer), Jean-Charles Allavena, Sevinc Atay, Panos Gerontopoulos, Joseph Harsanyi, Jan Kamras, Filippo Palma, Pim Vaders (Members).

The original name of the congress was the British Bridge League Swiss Teams Congress at Llangollen.

It was renamed the WBU Swiss teams congress when the WBU took it over in 2000.

The Llangollen Congress attracts teams from all over Britain and is always played in a friendly atmosphere.

The Swiss format means that you will meet teams of a similar level and so is suitable for all abilities.

Prizes

In addition to prizes for overall ranking, wine prizes will be awarded to the team with the highest imp score on each round. 20% of entry fees will be returned in prizes.

Master Point Awards

¼ Green Point will be awarded for each match won or drawn and there will be Green Points for overall ranking dependent upon the number of teams entered.

Permitted Conventions

This is a level 4 Congress

This year will be a celebration of the event and the Welsh Bridge Union intends to make it a weekend to remember!

Entries strictly limited to 40 Teams – 16th September – NOW FULLY BOOKED.

from WBU