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.
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Vanderbilt Quarterfinals
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Segment
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2 of 4 |
3 of 4 |
4 of 4 |
| 1 |
Lavazza |
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| 8 |
Cayne [9] |
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| 2 |
Nickell |
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| 7 |
Bramley [10] |
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| 3 |
Schermer [19] |
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| 6 |
Rosenthal |
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| 4 |
Schwartz [20] |
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| 5 |
Lall [21] |
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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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Good luck to all BBOers
in Kansas!