In the Bermuda Bowl, USA II find themselves in a hole behind 65 imps with 32 boards to go.  It is certainly an insurmountable lead for most teams but the Juniors bid them up so if any team can do it, then USA II will find a way to beat The Netherlands. 

I want to thank the organizers, staff, volunteers and the hosting country (The netherlands) for putting on a fabulous World Championships.  The players really appreciate everything you do for us (even if we don’t always act like it).

We will have the prize giving ceremony and dinner at 7pm this evening and then all everyone will head home tomorrow morning.

Until next time…

In the Bermuda Bowl, USA II (the juniors) also took a 51 imp lead over USA I in the first day of the semifinals.  However, as I write this entry, USA I is winning the set 20-0 so it looks to be a great match to watch today.   The closets match at the beginning of the day is in the other Bermuda Bowl semifinal of Italy vs. The Netherlands where there is a .5 imp difference at the end of 48 boards.   

In the other Senior Bowl semifinal France and England are battling out for the opportunity to play one of the USA teams for the GOLD.  Early on, it looked like France was in control but Poland has come back with a vingence and has made a match out of it for today.

In the Venice Cup – Indonesia is playing England and Netherlands is playing France – Both matches are going to be fun to watch near the end. 

Yesterday I mentioned a conversation with a volunteer where he said that today is called the longest day.  I found out later in the afternoon i saw the same volunteer and asked him if he slepted in the “Party Room”.  He responded that it felt like it.  His name is Jacques Beljaars and he is the Scoring Table Manager.  He said he had so much to do that he would be working long after the players have left for the day.  Thank you again for all the volunteers do to make the World Championships run so smoothly.

Today, the team wives have moved from the vugraph room to the “Party Room” to watch the match.  It gets a little loud when the 152 Transnational Teams break between matches, but otherwise, its a much nicer atmosphere.  There is great light, nice music in the background, and large tables for all of them to sit around and watch BBO on their ipads and laptops.  It is quite a scene.  I joined them for the first set while I write this entry – all sorts of stories are written when you are sitting in a room full of bridge players!

With 48 boards to play in the semifinals – it is anyones match to win.  Be sure to follow the scores – ALL MATCHES are on BBO so wake up and watch your favorite USA team to victory! I personally hope you will be cheering for Senior USA II! Live scores on WBF Results or watch live play on Bridge Base at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45am (NYT). Enjoy interesting stories and hands in the Daily Bulletin or on two of my favorite bridge websites Bridge Winners and Bridge Topics!

Enjoy!

The air is getting thinner for the players and supporting cast as the Finals near.  Even the spouses are getting nervous butterflies in their stomach!  The vugraph room is particularly exciting today because Zia Mahmood is a guest commentator and we also have the running results of the Transnational Open Team event which started last night.  So now a spectator can sit back and watch the live vugraph of one of the closer matches (with pictures of the player), watch running scores for the 154 teams in the Transnationals.  If you like to multi-task, you can also watch the running scores of the 4 semifinal matches and listen to Zia’s wise chatter about anything and everything to do with bridge!  Such stories he has to tell…and thoroughly entertaining to those who like a good story. 

A little about the Transnational Teams – It is a relatively new Team World Championship, thought of an a secondary event designed for the teams that are knockout of the main events (Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Senior Bowl) and all the rest of the players who didn’t qualify for the main events.  Shanghai held the record for the most teams entered with 149 teams.  This world championship now holds the new record of number of teams with 154 teams – and boy is it a mad house with all the new teams on site. 

Cudos go to the directing staff and again to the volunteers for the long hours they work at these championships.  The main events started at 10:30 yesterday morning (which means they are down by 9:30am).  The main events finished at 7:05pm and the Tranationals started at 8:30pm, playing two matches of 10 boards each ending around 11:30pm.  I walked past one of the volunteers, (you know the volunteers because they all wear yellow long-sleeved shirts) and I said, weren’t you hear early this morning?  He responded, “Yes, they call this the longest day.”  I would have to agree! 

The Transnationals is a swiss event of 15 rounds and 10 boards.  At the end of the swiss, the top 8 teams go into a knockout stage which ends on Saturday along with the other team finals.  It is a rather long way to come to play 3.5 days in an attempt to make it into the top 8 teams – now that is a deap cut!  Two of my favorite pairs on playing together for once on the Angelini team – Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell (Meckwell) along with Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes (Fantunes).  I am usually watching these two pairs face off in the Bermuda Bowl final with me as NPC of Meckwell.  This tournament I get to cheer for both pairs on the same team! 

Heading into the semifinals of each event, ALL MATCHES are on BBO.  So wake up and watch your favorite USA team to victory!  I personally hope you will be cheering for Senior USA II!  Live scores on WBF Results or watch live play on Bridge Base at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45am (NYT). Enjoy interesting stories and hands in the Daily Bulletin or on two of my favorite bridge websites Bridge Winners and Bridge Topics!

Enjoy!

At the beginning of the World Championships, I wrote about what Bobby Wolf once told me that to win teams at the world level, you must have three great pairs playing at the top of their game.  This is what USA II has and they are all playing up to their abilitiy.  Let’s just hope lady luck is also on our side…because you need that too!

The other 5 USA teams are leading their matches – so the prospect of seeing all USA semi-final in all events is looking good at this point although there are still 48 boards to go and anything can happen!

In the Bermuda Bowl, USA I is leading Israel 134-76 and USA II is leading Sweden 96-78.3.  The USA II vs Swedin match will most likely come down to the wire and is definitely one of the matches to follow today.  USA II’s average age is 31 so they are being called the “junior team” and because of their youth, they are a very dangerous team.  USA I is a seasoned world championship team.  If they meat in the semi-finals it will be interesting to watch the experiences vs the youth.  But, of course, both teams must get past their opponents today.

In the Venice Cup, USA I is leading Netherlands 113-92 and USA II is leading Indonesia 118-94.  These are both close matches at the end of Day 1 but look for both USA teams to pull away and finish big against their opponents.  This event is the most likely one to have a USA semi-final playoff.

Senior USA I is leading Denmark 109-93.5 and looks to be the match to watch in the seniors (besides the USAII match )  As I am writing this entry, Indonesia has run off 33 unanswered points against USA II and taken the lead in the first match today.  Yikes!  Our USA fans need to wake up and start cheering for us!  The one thing I have learned about USA II, however, is that they stand up to adversity; and hopefully, this set will be no different.  It’s always easy to be a NPC when the team is leading – the tough part of the job is when your team loses a bunch of imps on one set!  10 boards to go in this set so let’s go USA II!

Just a follow-up on the discussion of the volunteers that make the World Championships so nice for the players… I met the Volunteer Coordinator, Jan Vos, yesterday.   He even has a business card as the coordinator.  He told me that on any one day, there are appoximately 100 volunteers helping with the tournament – 85 in the registration/information stations and recorders and 15 as drivers.  Since we are somewhat far away from any city to speak of, the volunteers run shuttles to the different surrounding towns.  It’s a very nice touch!  I thanked him for all of his efforts and he responded – as long as you are super-organized before the tournament, it runs rather smoothly once the players are here.  He said he started recruiting and organizing the local volunteers over two years ago!  Wow.  Thanks again for all of your efforts Jan.  The players might not always say it, but we really do appreciate all that you and your volunteers do to make our days easier.

Be sure to follow all of the USA matches so we can see an USA vs. USA semi-final in all three events! Live scores on WBF Results or watch live play on Bridge Base at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45am (NYT). Enjoy interesting stories and hands in the Daily Bulletin or on two of my favorite bridge websites Bridge Winners and Bridge Topics!

Enjoy!  Hopefully I will be writing about USA II’s adventures in the semi-final stage tomorrow!

With the Round Robin stage over, the teams now enter the Round of 8 Knockouts – playing 96 boards until the finals and then 128 boards.  There are three sets of 16 per day.

In the Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup – all four USA teams qualified – setting up the possibility for three semi-final matches of USA teams!  This is something to cheer for – It leaves open the opportunity for USA to bring home 6 medals!  In the Venice Cup, USA  II finished in 1st place and USA I finished in 2nd.  In the Bermuda Bowl USA II finished 3rd, while USA I finished 5th.  Sound familiar? 

The Round of 8 match-ups in the Senior Bowl are Germany vs. France; USA 1 vs. Denmark; Australia vs. Poland and USA 2 vs. Indonesia.  In the Captain’s meeting, France chose German and Poland chose Australia so that left USA 1 and Indonesia for USA II from which to pick – not good senarios in any case.  Since it would just be wrong to choose the other USA team, Indonesia was the choice of the evening.  The carry over is distributed based on team finishes higher in the Round Robin stage.  If the leading team finishes higher in the Round Robin, then they get 1/2 their imps and if they finish lower in the Round Robin they get 1/3 their imps.  the maximum carry over is 16 imps.  USA II beat Indonesia by 11 imps so the match and finished higher in the Round Robin stage and starts off today leading by 5.5 imps. Probably TMI at this point but sometimes its interesting to know how the teams start with leads when no boards have been played. 

In the Venice Cup the match ups are USA II vs. Indonesia; Sweden vs. England; Netherlands vs. USA 1; and France vs. China.  In the Bermuda Bowl the match ups are Italy vs. China; USA 2 vs. Sweden; Iceland vs. Netherlands; and USA 1 vs. Israel.   

Be sure to follow all of the USA matches so we can see an USA vs. USA semi-final in all three events!  Live scores on WBF Results or watch live play on Bridge Base at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45am (NYT).  Enjoy interesting stories and hands in the Daily Bulletin or on two of my favorite bridge websites Bridge Winners and Bridge Topics! 

It’s getting exciting!  Time to start waking up at 4:30am NYT to cheer on the USA Teams – especially Senior USA II!!!

Enjoy!

 For the complete brackets of all three events please see the Sunday Daily Bulletin on page 4.  See you tomorrow!

Another successful day for the USA Team as a group – all finishing in the qualifying positions. With three matches to play: BB USA II is in 3rd place and 18 VPs out of first while BB USA I is in 5th place 18.5 out of the dreaded 9th place.  In the Venice Cup, USA I is leading the field with 325 VPs and USA II in hot pursuit is USA II in 3rd position with 321 VPs.  As predicted, the Senior USA I team has had two fabulous days and have zoomed into 2nd position, just 5.5 VPs behing the leaders, Denmark.  Good Luck to all of the USA teams in the final day of the Round Robin!

A BIG thank you to all of the staff and volunteers that make these World Championships happen!  there are 396 players and 66 NPC and some number of coaches – These people just show up and eat, sleep and play.  On the other hand, the Championship Manager Maurizio Di Sacco begins his preparation for the World Championship at least 18 months prior to each WC.  He has hundreds of staff and volunteers which help to organize the accommodations, transportation, publicity, tables, screens, supplies – the list just goes on and on.  Once the WC begins, there are a hundred or so volunteers daily answering questions at the registration deck and information desk, working on the bulletins, and making the boards.  Just imagine how many boards are made on site daily – there are 66 tables in play each match with their own set of boards.  16 boards a match – that is 1,056 boards multiplied times 3 matches which comes to 3,168 boards a day.  WOW!  I live on the yellow hall and each day I pass by the board making room where these volunteers are sitting at their stations making boards.  It truly is an amazing site to see.  Once they are made, the directors use large carts to deliver the boards to the 66 tables.  Such a large scale production that no one ever thinks about.  So thanks staff and volunteers for making these WC possible for the players and spectators!

Todays matches for Senior USA II are Bulgaria, The Netherlands (never good to play the hometown team) and India.  None of the three teams are in qualifying position so it may be another day where the opponents swing from the vines in hopes of just beating the USA team.  I certainly hope not!

Follow the live scores on WBF Results (click on the name of the event at the top of the results table) or watch live bridge on Bridge Base Online.  BBO shows matches at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45aam (NYT).

Enjoy the Daily Bulletin or interesting stories and videos on Bridge Winners and Bridge Topics.

I will update this blog after the Captain’s meeting today to let you know the line ups for all three events.

Enjoy!

For the first time in the Round Robin stage, all 6 USA teams are in qualifying position at the end of the day.  In the Bermuda Bowl, USA 2 is in second position with 271 VPs trailing the Italian leaders by 16 VPs while USA 1 is in 6th position and a key 29 VPS out of the non-qualifying position.  Both Venice Cup teams are well positioned to qualify and competing to win the Round Robin stage.  USA II with 274 VPs trailing the leaders from England by 4 VPs and USA I in 3rd position with 265 VPs. 

Once it is mathematically impossible to not qualify, the teams turn their focus on winning the Round Robin stage – or at least attempt to be in the top 3.  With 8 teams qualifying for the knockout stage, the next step is to seed the field by allowing the top 3 teams to choose their opponents for the Round of 8.  The 1st place team gets to pick their 1st opponent out of the 5-8 placing teams.  2nd place then chooses from amongst the remaining three teams and then the 3rd place finishers get to pick out of the last two teams – ultimately, the 4th place team plays whomever is left!  What all of the USA Teams attempt to avoid is for both teams to finish in the 4th-8th positions because they then end up playing each other in the Round of 8.  This type of faceoff means that only one USA team (per event) would have an oppotunity for a medal.  The flip side of this type of seeding is that the conditions are written so that two USA teams may not meet in the finals so the best medals we can win (per event) are the Gold and Bronze.  Which, of course, would be wonderful!

Today’s matches for Senior USA II is Egypt, China Hong Kong and Brazil.  In theory, this should be an “easy” day but with two days to go, the teams which are mathematically out of the event have nothing to lose and so crazy things happen along the way to “Taking Care of Business.” 

Please be sure to follow along with the results at WBF Results and enjoy the Daily Bulletins as well.  Bridge Topics and Bridge Winners are doing an excellent job of World Championship coverage including interviews of the players and NPCs!  You can also follow running socres on Bridge Winners.  Yesterday, the WBF site had over 100,000 unique visiters which crashed their site.  They have now set up an alternative server at www.worldbridge1.org.  

Enjoy all of this incredible bridge!  See you tomorrow.

In the Bermuda Bowl, USA 2 is sitting in 3rd position with 218 VPs and USA 1 is in 6 position with 201.5 VPs - Remember the top 8 teams continue to the KO stage and 9th position currently has 186.5 so as long as the Open USA teams “Take Care of Business”, they should both qualify easily.

In the Venice Cup, USA I is in 3rd position with 221 VPS with USA II one VP behind in 4th position.  9th place currently has 200 VPs so both USA teams are 20VPs ahead of the non-qualifying position.  Looks safe at this point for these teams as well.

With 9 matches to play, Senior USA I looks to be the only team in danger of not qualifying at this point (although anything can happen in to the other teams) sitting in 10th position with 189VPs – 12 VPs out of 8th place.  They have a weakish schedule left so look for USA I to pull up into a qualifying position by the end of the Round Robin stage. 

Along with people in Veldhoven being super nice, the tournament organizers have gone out of their way to make the players feel like they are home away from home.  Outside the Open and Closed playing rooms there is a gymnasium size room with 6 big screen tvs (bigger than the ones in the vugraph room) on opposite sides of the room.  There is music playing in the background and they call this the “Party Room”.  During play, there are roaming cameras flash pictures of the players and spectators in the playing rooms or sitting around the party room.  Between the matches, the results, standings and table assignments are rotated through the screens.  Underneith these screens are vendors with all sorts of bridge stuff to purchase.  In the front of the room is the registration/information desk.  The volunteers are so incredibly helpful – no matter what your question, they either know the answer or find it out for you immediately.  In the back of the room is a snack shop with sandwiches, soup, pastries snacks and drinks.  It really is quite an amazing set-up for the players to gather before, during and after the matches for comparison and hospitality.

In today’s matches, USA II starts out against Poland who has medalled in this event in recent history.  They are definitely one of the favorites to win the whole thing.  It will be the toughest match of the day for sure but our boys are up for the fight!  Matches 2 & 3 are against New Zealand and Canada.  Canada will be hungry to beat USA II since they are out of qualifying position at this point in the event – this will be out most dangerous match of the day.

Follow the match results at WBF Results and read about interesting hands and stories in the Daily Bulletin.  If you are up early enough, you can follow live action on Bridge Base Online at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45am (NYT).

Enjoy your Day!

The other 5 USA teams are in qualifying position with 4 days (12 matches) left to play.  Yesterday in the Bermuda Bowl, USA 2 faced off against Italy on vugraph with USA 2 winning the match 27-11 (19 out of 25 points).  At the World Championships, they have an auditorium dedicated to the onsite vugraph show.  The matches are usually the “Matches of the Day” .  The bridge is exciting, the room is generally packed, and the commentators are entertaining.  There are five huge screens across the front of the room – one with a picture of the players, one with the hand being plays/analyzed and three with the running scores of the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Senior Bowl.  For bridge junkies, its just heaven!   Each morning I make sure my players are in their seats for Match I, and then I am off to the vugraph room to blog and prepare for the next day matches. 

Good news on the food front – well at least on the desert front!  The fru-fru restaurant that takes three hours to eat a meal has an amazing chocolate desert with three different chocolates, vanilla ice cream  and caramel sauce.   So now we find something for dinner and then have a “second dinner” at the fru-fru restaurant for our desert!  We were in and out in 15 minutes with smiles on our faces  

At this point in the Round Robin portion of the event, the remaining schedule becomes critical. There are some teams which have played their tough matches and have relatively easy matches remaining and then there are those teams who played the weaker teams early on and have the strong teams remaining.   For instance, in the Senior Bowl, France, who is leading the Round Robin, has played more teams in the bottom half of the field and have tougher matches remaining.  Whereas, USA II has played most of the teams in the top half of the field and their remaining schedule is mostly teams currently positioned in the bottom half of the field.

Today will be the toughest day for USA II – facing Australia (complicated systems), France (the current leaders) and Italy (always dangerous, even in the Senior Event).   USA II is in great spirits and are prepared for the grueling day ahead.  If you are reading today’s blog before 7:45am (NYT), then jump on BBO and cheer on USA II vs France!  We love to have our fans watching the matches when we are on BBO!  Each day the there are three matches on Bridge Base Online at 4:30am, 7:45am and 10:45am (NYT) – always fun to watch even when USA II is not playing! 

You can also see running scores at WBF Results by clicking on the Event name at the top of the scoring chart.  Then click on the team name and their scorecard comes up with “running scores”.  You can watch as the scores are entered at the table – that is if you are awake while during the actual play.  Otherwise, you can click on the round number in the scoring chart once the round is over.  You can still look at individual scorecards but the scores are obviously all in.

You can also access daily scores, interesting hand discussions and player stories in the Daily Bulletins which may be found at the WBF Bulletin Page.