USA's Spring National started on March 9 in Kansas City and numerous BBOers are attending, including many of BBO's techs and staff. Vugraph on BBO started on Tuesday, March 19, with the Vanderbilt Round of 32. Don't miss these excellent transmissions enhanced by typed and voice commentary.

Vanderbilt Quarterfinals		Segment
		1 of 4	2 of 4	3 of 4	4 of 4
1	Lavazza
8	Cayne [9]
2	Nickell
7	Bramley [10]
3	Schermer [19]
6	Rosenthal
4	Schwartz [20]
5	Lall [21]

March 16

• Winners of the Rockwell Mixed Pairs: Cristal Nell and Igor Savchenko.
• The squads captained by Albert Shrive and Viktor Anikovich will face off in today's final of NABC 0-10,000 Knockout Teams. Shrive leads the all-Florida squad of Jim McKeown, Donald Dalpe, Michael Ranis, Lee Bukstel and Michael Wolf. Anikovich is playing with fellow Southern Californians David Pelka, Alan Daniels, Ellen Kent and Robert Kent, and Igor Milman of Brooklyn NY.
• In Wednesday's round-of-16 action in the Vanderbilt KO Teams, the Nos. 4, 5 and 7 seeds – captained respectively by John Diamond, Daniel Zagorin and Aubrey Strul – were eliminated from the competition. Diamond fell to Richard Schwartz's squad (original No. 20 seed), 127-115. Down 49 IMPs at the end of the third quarter, Diamond came roaring back in the last set, only to be held back on the final board when a doubled game contract came home for Schwartz. Zagorin lost 130-90 to Hemant Lall and company. The match was close for three quarters, but Lall pulled away in the last set. In another close match, Strul enjoyed a small lead against Bart Bramley’s team for the first three quarters, but lost control in the final segment. Bramley won 107-89. The Cindarella run of NRK, the original No. 62 seed led by Kirubakara Moorthy, came to an end as they were defeated by John Schermer's team, 157-110.

March 15

• The round of 32 in the Vanderbilt KO Teams saw a few minor upsets and many close matches. The No. 8 seed captained by Vinita Gupta lost narrowly to the Chinese-Singaporean squad led by Chen Zhao, originally seeded 40th, 106-100. Pierre Zimmermann’s team (No. 12) fell to Hemant Lall’s crew (No. 21), 142-123. John Schermer and company (No. 19) took the measure of Paul Fireman’s team (No. 15), 146-91. The closest match of the day was No. 6 Andrew Rosenthal vs. No. 27 Roger Bates: Rosenthal prevailed by a single IMP, 98-97. Other close matches: Daniel Zagorin (No. 5) trailed Dawei Chen’s team (the original No. 37 seed) by 35 IMPs in the first quarter, but rallied to win 112-107; and Bart Bramley (No. 10) held off Mitch Dunitz (No. 23), 118-113. There was a tie for the biggest comeback in the last quarter: Both Aubrey Strul and Paul Street were trailing by 19 IMPs in the third quarter against their respective opponents, Dan Morse and Stan Tulin, yet each emerged victorious. Strul won 119-93, and Street advanced 113-87. Also notable: The original No. 62 seed led by Kirubakara Moorthy continued to win, dispatching the original No. 35 seed captained by Jie Li, 149-98.
• The ACBL Hall of Fame will induct three this year, including Jeff Meckstroth, who was chosen by the electors. The Hall of Fame Committee also selected Zeke Jabbour and the late Peter Nagy as recipients of the Blackwood and von Zedtwitz awards, respectively

March 14

• Bill Marshall and David Hampton won the Leventritt Silver Ribbon Pairs.
• Murat Veysoglu and Kevin Lane of District 23 won the Golder NAP Flight B.
• Yanping Zhang and Henry Zhang of District 12 won the President's Cup NAP Flight C.
• Monday's first round in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams was marked by several notable upsets and close calls for the higher-seeded teams. The No. 3 seed led by Marty Fleisher was ousted by the No. 62 seed, the all-India squad captained by Kirubakara Moorthy, 104-94. Next, the No. 13 seed – Barbara Sonsini and company – lost to the No. 52 seed led by Kevin Collins, 156-104. Also, Alex Kolesnik's team, the No. 48 seed, defeated the No. 17 seed led by Mike Levine, 99-71. Lou Ann O'Rourke's No. 22-seeded squad exited the event when they lost by a single IMP to the Canadian team led by Nader Hanna, the 43 seed, 100-99. And Eric Leong's team – the 41 seed — defeated Jeff Wolfson's No. 24 seeded squad, 148-132. Chen Zhao (who won the IMP Pairs on Saturday) captained the No. 40 seed that beat Rose Meltzer's No. 25 seed, 95-62.

March 13

• The title in the prestigious Kay Platinum Pairs was captured by Justin Lall of Charlotte NC and Dennis Bilde of Denmark, but their participation in the six-session contest almost didn't happen. "My flight was delayed into Kansas City, and I arrived just 15 minutes before game time," said Bilde. The duo had agreed months ago to play in the Platinum Pairs, but because they had never played together before or even practiced online, they had planned to discuss their methods before the game. Bilde's late arrival made that impossible. "It didn't matter," said Lall, laughing. "It's just a pairs game." This was the first victory in the Platinum Pairs for Bilde, but the second for Lall who also won the event in 2012 playing with Bob Hamman. In second place was Jeff Meckstroth of Clearwater Beach FL and Thomas Bessis of Paris, France.

March 12

• Chen Zhao and Jing Liu (China) won the four session Lebhar IMP Pairs, holding off a challenge by runners-up Fred King and Barry Bragin. Chen and Jing's margin of victory was 1.8 IMPs.
• Bill Gates and his team, Sharon Osberg, Richard Friesner and Eric Robinson won the 0–10,000 NABC Swiss Teams. Microsoft chairman and BBO partner Bill Gates likes to keep a low profile when he plays in bridge tournaments. That became impossible on Saturday, when his team won the 0–10,000 NABC Swiss Teams. This was a first NABC win for Gates and Friesner. The team finished with 126 victory points, 1.75 ahead of Ellen Kozlove’s squad (Ralph Letizia, Lee Bukstel and Michael Wolf). "We’ve never done this well before," Gates said. "We had a really good day Friday."
  

Bill Gates, Sharon Osberg, Richard Friesner and Eric Robinson

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