Saturday, August 4
Gawrys meets Rosenthal in Spingold final
The squads captained by Piotr Gawrys and Andrew Rosenthal face off today to determine the winner of the Nate Spingold Trophy.
Gawrys is playing with Michal Klukowski, Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo and Tor Helness. With Rosenthal are Aaron Silverstein, Migry Zur Campanile, Chris Willenken, David Berkowitz and Eldad Ginossar.
In the semifinal round, Gawrys handled Stan Tulin’s team, 137-68, with Gawrys leading the match all four quarters.
In the other semifinal bracket, Rosenthal faced Vinita Gupta’s squad and inflicted a 68 to 7 beating on Gupta in the first quarter. Gupta did not give up, however, shaving 23 IMPs off of the difference by halftime and then jumping into the lead by 2 IMPs at the end of the third quarter. The fourth quarter was a ses-saw affair with Rosenthal ending up on top, 136-134.
Berg leads Roth Swiss
A strong performance in Saturday’s semifinal round of the Roth Open Swiss Teams pushed Mary Ann Berg’s team into the lead over Paul Street’s squad. Counting carryover from the qualifying round on Friday, Berg finished the second day of the three-day contest with 192.67 victory points to Street’s 191.48.
Berg has a carryover of 32.22 VPs in today’s two-session final, while Street has 31.27 VP.
Epstein leads Mixed Swiss
The squad captained by Linda Epstein leads the 0-10,000 Mixed Swiss Teams after yesterday’s qualifying round. The Epstein squad scored 121 victory points and will have a carryover of 30 VPs in today’s two-session final.
Tied for second-third are the teams led by Ellen Kent and Hua Yang who each scored 107 VPs in Saturday’s round. Each time will have a carryover of 20.73 VPs.
Friday, August 3
Wild action in Spingold QF
The quarterfinal round of the 2018 Spingold KO Teams was the most exciting thus far in the contest. The defending champions led by Marty Fleisher were defeated by Piotr Gawrys and company 137-112, despite leading Gawrys by 42 IMPs in the first quarter. Gawrys advanced 137-112.
Andrew Rosenthal’s team brought the run of Hyatt npc to an end when Rosenthal won their match 138-103.
Vinita Gupta’s team trailed Marty Fleisher’s squad 59-8 in the first quarter and was still behind at the half, 107-58. But the Gupta squad owned the second half and squeaked by Fleisher in the last set to advance 152-147.
Stan Tulin’s team dominated Hemant Lall’s squad in their quarterfinal match, leading the contest by 76 IMPs at the half, and then by 120 IMPs after three quarters, prompting Lall’s surrender. Tulin won 173-53.
Today’s semifinal pairings are Gawrys vs. Tulin and Gupta vs. Rosenthal.
Mini-Spingold final pairings
Mini-Spingold 0-6000:Weeks vs. Vander Zanden
Today’s final of the 0-6000 Mini-Spingold KO features a match between squads captained by James Weeks and Brad Vander Zanden.
Playing with Weeks are Neil Stern, Jim Johnsen and Dorn Bishop. With Vander Zanden are David Shepler, Marsha Platnick and Keith Hungate.
In the semifinal round, Weeks defeated Saul Gross and company 155-109. In the other bracket, Vander Zanden beat William Bailey’s team 135-125 to advance.
Mini-Spingold 0-2500: Xiang vs. Liu
Teams led by captains Liu Xiang and Jim Liu meet today in the final of the 0-2500 Mini-Spingold KO. With Xiang are Zhengwen Li, Yike Xie, Xuxuan Chen and Liang Min. Playing on Liu’s team are Tsao-Tung Tsai, Xuhua Lin and Leon Yu.
Xiang defeated David Haydon’s team 145-78 in the semifinal round, while Liu won in two quarters over the team captained by Buddy Landis, 114-35.
Street leads Roth quals
The squad captained by Paul Street of Delray Beach FL scored 123.16 victory points in the opening round of the Roth Open Swiss Teams to lead the field going into today’s final. Playing with Street are Nicolas L’Ecuyer of Montreal and Thomas Bessis-Cedric Lorenzini-Frederic Volcker-Jerome Rombaut of France. Their carrover is 85.15 VPs.
In second with a carryover of 77.04 VPs is Steve Shirey’s Texas-Oklahoma foursome (Shirey, Robert Adams, James Thurtell, and John Schwartz).
Boston pair leads Red Ribbon
Michael Feeney and Mary Jo Feeney of the Boston area are sitting atop the leader list in the Bean Red Ribbon Pairs after Friday’s qualifying round. The Feeney’s scores from the two qualifying sessions were convincing: 65.90% and 67.10%. They start today’s two-session final with a carryover of 61.90 matchpoints.
In second with a carryover of 49.68 MPs is the Chicago-based duo of Michael Kelley and Martina Kelley.
Collegiate Bowl Enters Semifinals
In a new format this year, the Collegiate Bridge Bowl opened with a three-session round-robin to reduce the field to four teams. In semifinal action this afternoon, Georgia Tech will take on Harvey Mudd (Claremont CA), while Columbia University does battle with the University of California at Berkeley. The final will be played this evening. Scholarship team awards for the top four squads are $15,000, $10,000, $5000 and $2500.
Also new this year is the Collegiate Individual: a three-session individual event, with scholarship awards to the top three winners. Drop-ins from the team round-robin are permitted. Leading the way at the one-third mark are Michael Muschella from Winter Springs FL and Hakan Berk from Potomac MD.
Thursday, August 2
Nickell, Lavazza exit Spingold
The Spingold round of 16 was harsh to the higher-ranked seeds, with half of them losing their matches.
The No. 2 seed led by Nick Nickell was shown the door by the original No. 47 seed, Hyatt npc. Hyatt’s roster is Hansa Narasimhan, Carlos Pellegrini, Michael Whibley, Sumit Mukherjee and Debabrata Majumder. Hyatt led Nickell the entire match and won 143-91.
No. 4 Lavazza also got bounced from the event, losing 131-85 to Stan Tulin and company, the No. 13 seed. Tulin’s lineup includes Cornelis van Prooijen, Alon Birman, Dror Padon, David Bakhshi and Louk Verhees.
No. 7 Aubrey Strul is also on the sidelines after losing to Andrew Rosenthal’s No. 10 seed 171-82. Rosenthal’s lineup: Aaron Silverstein, Migry Zur Campanile, Chris Willenken, David Berkowitz and Eldad Ginossar.
In the No. 8 vs. No. 9 battle, Jimmy Cayne ceded the higher seed position to Piotr Gawrys, 2014-103. Gawrys is playing with Michal Klukowski, Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo and Tor Helness.
Hemant Lall (No. 12 ) ousted the Adam Wildavsky (No. 5; original No. 28) 138-115.
The top-seeded John Diamond team defeated Sonsini npc 149-78 after trailing at the half.
No. 6 Vinita Gupta had few problems ending the run of Phyllis Fireman (No. 11; original No. 43) 138-57.
QF action in the Mini-Spingold KOs
In today’s semifinal round of the 0-6000 Mini-Spingold KO Teams, the squad captained by James Weeks will face William Bailey’s team in an all-California bracket, while Saul Gross and company will do battle with Brad Vander Zanden’s team in the other bracket.
In the 0-2500 Mini-Spingold, the team captained by Buddy Landis squares off against Jim Liu’s squad. In the other bracket, the local-ish team led by David Haydon meets the all-Chinese squad captained by Liu Xiang.
Wednesday, August 1
Pepsi falls flat in Spingold Rd. Of 32
The highest-ranked seed to get the boot in yesterday’s Spingold KO round of 32 was the No. 5 team captained by Jacek “Pepsi” Pszczola. Despite leading the No. 28 squad captained by Adam Wildavsky by 24 IMPs after three quarters of play, the Pszczola team managed to post just 9 IMPs in the final quarter while Wildavsky added 55. Wildavsky advanced 107-85.
The No. 11 seed – George Mittelman and company – enjoyed a 29-IMP lead against Phyllis Fireman’s team (the original No. 43 seed) after three quarters, but Fireman held Mittleman to a single IMP in the last set as they increased their own tally by 45. Fireman won 99-84.
Steve Robinson (No. 19) dealt Joyce Hill (No. 14) a crippling blow in the first quarter of their match, winning it 53-1. Hill recovered somewhat by the end of the third quarter to trail by just 23, but Robinson was firmly in control in the last set, and they went on to win 142-102.
Several other upsets were averted when the higher-ranked teams got serious in the latter part of their respective matches. The top-seeded diamond team trailed Jared Lilienstein (original No. 33) by 28 IMPs at the half, but came back in the third set to lead by 2 IMPs. Diamond won the last set, too, to advance 127-110. Stan Tulin (No. 13) trailed Lynne Tarnopol’s team (No. 20) by 19 IMPs after three quarters, but came back in the last set to advance 113-105.
In the close-call department, Hemant Lall (No. 12) got by Gaylor Kasle (No. 21) 151-147, while The No. 7 seed (Aubrey Strul) outlasted the Indonesian Men’s team (original No. 39) 157-155.
Binder, Watson lead Wernher Pairs
The Massachusetts-based duo of Rick Binder and Alan Watson posted the best score in the opening round of the Wernher Open Pairs. Binder and Watson scored 63.96% in the first qualifying session and 61.31% in the second to start today’s two-session final with a carryover of 220.99 matchpoints.
In second with a carryover of 190.82 are Mike Sheng of Northbrook IL and Sherman Gao of Brea CA.
Third place is occupied by Juan Carlos Ventin of Barcelona and Joaquin Pacareu of Santiago with 184.46.
The event drew 284 pairs of which 144 qualified for today’s final.
Meltzer, Passell share lead in Mixed BAM
Rose Meltzer’s multi-national squad and Mike Passell’s foursome tied for the top score in the qualifying of the Freeman Mixed Board-a-Match Teams. Meltzer and Passell each scored 34 in Wednesday’s opening round.
Playing with Meltzer are Nik Demirev, Meike Wortel, Bauke Muller, Justyma Zmuda and Simon De Wijs. Passell is partnering wife Nancy Passell, with another husband-wife duo – Paul Lewis and Linda Lewis – as teammates. Their carryover is 3.73.
In third with a carryover of 2.80 is the team captained by Bill Pollack.
Fifteen squads qualified for today’s two session final from an unusually small field of 28 teams.
Tuesday, July 31
Top seeds plow forward in Spingold
The top 10 seeds in the round of 64 in the Spingold Knockout Teams had little difficulty advancing, many by lopsided margins, although many of the mid-range seeds were not so lucky.
No. 11 George Mittelman survived a challenge from the team captained by local Kevin Collins, the No. 54 seed, but Mittelman held on to win 115-111. The Francophone team led by Paul Street (No. 15), however, could not handle the challenge presented by the No. 50 seed, the Indonesian Super Mixed squad (so named because the team is composed of men’s pairs and women’s pairs), falling 144-115.
The Indonesian Men’s team (No. 39), also took out a higher-seeded team, the No. 26 squad led by Kevin Rosenberg. Indonesia advanced 124-108.
In a battle of multinational squads, the No. 18 seed led by Nick Demirev is on the sidelines after losing to the No. 47 squad (Hyatt, npc).
Paul Lewis captained a strong team this year (Linda Lewis, Mike Passell, Eddie Wold, Marc Jacobus and Mark Itabashi), but the No. 24 seed met their match at the hands of the No. 41 seed led by Mike Rippey of Orinda CA. Rippey was playing with the legendary Benito Garozzo, Poles Woaciech Strzemecki and Kamil Nowak, and Italians Leonardo Cima and Gandogua Alessandro. Rippey won 137-77.
Monday, July 30
Spingold KO Teams
The 2018 Spingold KO Teams attracted 78 entries, and yesterday’s opening round whittled the field down to 64 squads.
The top 24 seeds were given byes in Monday’s opener, while the No. 25 seed played the sole head-to-head match against the No. 78 seed. The remaining 52 teams played “four-way” matches. These are groups of four teams in which two squads play the other two in a half-day (32-board) match. The winners advance, and the two losers play another 32 boards for a final shot to qualify. Bottom line: three teams advance from each set of four, meaning that 39 squads emerged from the four-way matches. 24 byes plus one head-to-head winner plus 39 four-way advancers equals 64.
There were few upsets yesterday. The highest-ranked team to be eliminated was the No. 41 team captained by Li Yiting. The lowest-ranked team to advance was the No. 71 seed led by Tom Bishel.
Sherwood leads Senior Swiss
The squad captained by Atlanta NABC co-chair Joe Sherwood topped the qualifying round of the Truscott/U.S. Playing Card Senior Swiss Teams. Sherwood, playing with Janet Sherwood, Arthur Lowen and Joe Rickman, has a carryover of 27.38 victory points in today’s two-session final.
In second with a carryover of 25.16 is the team lead by Beth Palmer, while third place is occupied by Peter Stein and company with a carryover of 24.86.
Seamon-Molson, Moss set pace in Wagar
Floridians Janice Seamon-Molson and Sylvia Moss lead the qualifiers in the Wagar Women’s Pairs following yesterday’s opening round. Seamon-Molson and Moss scored 63.46% in the first qualifying session and 61.65% in the second session. Their carryover in today’s two-session final is 79.92 matchpoints.
In second with a carryover of 64.01 matchpoints are Anam Tebha of Charlotte NC and Signe Buus Thomsen of Denmark.
Rozanne Pollack of New York City and Cheri Bjerkan of the Chicago area are sitting third with a carryover of 63.89.
Saturday, July 28
GNT Finals Today
The final in each of the four flights of the Grand National Teams takes place today, bring the year-long grassroots contest to an end.
Championship: Vegas vs. Florida
The final of the Championship Flight is a battle between the Vegas-based foursome from District 17 (Josh Donn, Roger Lee, Sylvia Shi and Daniel Korbel) and the perennial contenders from Florida /District 9 (Warren Spector, Michael Becker, Gary Cohler, David Berkowitz, Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell).
In the semifinal, Donn’s squad hammered the NYC team from District 24, 156-58 in three quarters. In the other bracket, Spector and company defeated the Chicago-based D13 squad 102-80 after trailing at the half.
Flight A: Toronto vs. Florida
In the Flight A final, the D2 team led by Colin Lafferty will face off against the D9 squad captained by Edward Schuster.
Flight B: Michigan vs. Florida
The Flight B final features Bob Rasmussen’s team from D12 (Michigan) and Mark Raphaelson’s squad from D9.
Flight C: LA vs. BC
D23 (Los Angeles) is represented by Yunkai Song’s team, and they will meet the D19 team from British Columbia – Jordan Tessarolo, captain – in the Flight C final.
Lindqvist-Brogeland lead LM Pairs
Norwegians Espen Lindqvist and Boye Brogeland are sitting atop the leader list in the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs as today’s final round commences. Lindqvist and Brogeland were in 32nd place after Friday’s opening round, but a 65.69% score in the first semifinal session and a 61.41% result in the second session propelled the duo into the lead. They have a carryover of almost two and a half boards.
In second are Sabine Auken of Denmark and Roy Welland of New York City. They trail the leaders by a half board.
Close behind in third place are Indonesian players Taufik Asbi and Lusje Olha Bojoh.
Jacksons lead Bruce LM Pairs
Stephen Jackson and Susan Jackson of Roseville MN are leading the qualifiers in the Bruce Life Master Pairs, limited to LMs with less than 6000 masterpoints. The Jacksons stood sixth after Friday’s opening round and moved into the top spot after scoring 57.82% and 58.68% in the semifinal sessions on Saturday. They will take a two-board carryover into the final.
Currently in second is the California-based duo of Rick Kerbel and Fran White, while third place is occupied by David Meyer of Scranto PA and Albert Shrive of Naples FL.
Quebec duo sets pace in Young Pairs
Jean La Traverse and Robert Guerard of the Montreal area have a slim lead going into today’s final of the Young 0-2500 Pairs. Their two-board carryover puts them slightly ahead of Giorgia Botta and Siqing Yu of the New York City area. The third-place pair – Bay area duo Tsao-Tung Tsai and Michael Hu – are a fraction of a matchpoint out of second place.
10K Pairs leaders: Jackson-Doylee
Boosted by a strong first session, Texans Daniel Jackson and Mike Doyle won Saturday’s qualifying round of the 0-10,000 NABC Pairs. Jackson and Doyle scored almost 70% in the afternoon session and backed it up with a nearly 61% game in the evening. Their carryover is more than three and a half boards.
In second place are Frank Treiber III of Toledo OH and Jordan Kaye of West Bloomfield MI. They trail the leaders by a board. Treiber won the event in 2015.
The NYC pair of Marc Nathan and Cathy Nathan are in third place.
Friday, July 27
GNT Open: Vegas vs. NYC, Chicago vs. Florida
In today’s semifinal action in the Grand National Teams, the Championship Flight features two battles. In one bracket, the District 17 squad of Josh Donn and his Vegas-based teammates takes on the District 24 team of Raluca Dobrescu and company from the New York City area. In the other bracket, Jeff Wolfson’s Chicago-based team (District 13) faces the Florida powerhouse captained by Warren Spector, representing District 9.
In the quarterfinal round, Donn trailed the New England-based team led by Doug Doub by 31 IMPs after three quarters, but rallied in the final set to advance 103-96. Dobrescu led the defending champions from District 21 (captained by Chip Martel) throughout their match and successfully held off a last-quarter challenge by the Bay Area team to win 101-95.
After a close first quarter, Wolfson gained control in the second quarter of yesterday’s match against the District 12 team led by Jonathan Fleishmann and did not look back. Wolfson won 181-83.
Spector continued its domination of their bracket by crushing Dan Morse’s District 16 team 145-39 in three quarters of play.
In Flight A, District 21 (Vance) will meet District 2 (Lafferty), and D9 (Schuster) will take on D7 (Rice).
The Flight B matchups are D12 (Rasmussen) vs. D14 (Spitze), and D9 (Raphaelson) vs. D11 (Goyal).
The Flight C pairings for today’s semifinal round are D25 (Duan) vs. D23 (Song), and D19 (Tessarolo) vs. D20 (Marnell).
Brenner-Caprera lead von Zedtwitz LM Pairs
The Denver duo of Anne Brenner and David Caprera topped yesterday’s qualifying round in the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs. Brenner and Caprera scored more than 64% in both the first and second sessions to lead the 156 pairs of qualifiers for today’s semifinal round. Their carryover is 142.06 matchpoints.
Narrowly in second are New Yorkers Kent Mignocchi and Joel Wooldridge. Their carryover today is 140.22.
Third place belongs to Canadians Michael Roche and John Carruthers with 136.57.
Bruce, Young Leaders
James Weeks of Palm Desert CA and Neil Stern of Indio CA posted the best score in the qualifying round of the Bruce Life Master Pairs, restricted to players with less than 6000 masterpoints. The leaders scored a modest 57.10% in the afternoon session and combined it with a 61.32% effort in the evening session. Their carryover is 509.67.
In second with a carryover of 505.67 are John Bridgewater II of Columbus IN and Rajasekhar Menon of Southlake TX.
The third-place pair is the St. Louis-based duo of Mark Boswell and Mark Zellmer with 499.13.
Michael Heins of Champaign IL and Bharat Rao of Berwyn PA had the best performance in the first round of the Young 0-2500 Pairs. They lead the qualifiers with a carryover of 30.00 matchpoints.
In second with 26.89 are San Francisco-area players Charles Riffle and Douglas Grant, while third place after the qualifying round is the Toronto duo of Jacob Freeman and Martin Zhao with 26.01.
Thursday, July 26
GNTs enter QF round
The top seeds dominated yesterday’s round of 16 in the Championship Flight of the Grand National Teams, with several matches ending early when squads that were trailing badly withdrew before the fourth quarter.
Josh Donn’s District 17 squad won 186–83 in three quarters against the District 11 team led by Bob Lyon. District 25 (Doug Doub and company) also won in three sets, dispatching the District 10 squad captained by Bryan Howard 106-43. Dan Morse (D16) won in three quarters, 145-70, against Joe Houde’s team from D22. The defending champions from District 21 (Chip Martel) manhandled the D20 team (John Lusky) 112-28. Even more lopsided was the contest between the powerhouse squad from D9 led by Warren Spector in their match against their D4 opponents captained by Jay Apfelbaum: Spector led 126-18 at the half, prompting Apfelbaum’s withdrawal.
The closest match of the round occurred between D12 (Jonathan Fleischman) and D6 (Leo LaSota). Fleischmann led by 40 IMPs after three quarters, but LaSota came roaring back in the final set. Fleischmann barely held on, however, to win the match by a single IMP, 167-166.
Plays continues today in all four flights.
Wednesday, July 25
NABC Online Individual
On Tuesday, Chicago-area player Andrzej Bednarczyk topped the second session of the ACBL Online Individual, scoring 72.60%. Because Bednarcyk is eligible to play in Flight C (for players with less than 500 masterpoints), he was the top scorer for all three strats. (Flight A is unlimited, and Flight B is limited to players under 2000 MPs.)
The overall leader – combining Monday’s opening round with Tuesday’s results – is Danny Miles of Toronto with a two-session average of 71.54%.
The Flight B leader after two sets is William Neumann of Columbia MD with 69.625 (third overall), while the Flight C leader is Rose Hou of Richmond Hill ON with 64.61% (35th place).
Wednesday’s third session is the last of the event.
For Tuesday’s session, click here.
For overall leaders, click here.
Tuesday, July 24
NABC Online Individual
Nicolas Hammond of Alpharetta GA leads the field after the first day of play in the NABC Online Individual. The three-day tournament, hosted online by BBO, drew more than 1850 players. Danny Miles from Toronto ON and Lin Goldstein from Reno NV round out the top three.
The stratified event, which awards a national championship to the winner of the top strat, precedes each of the ACBL North American Bridge Championships. Leading the B field and in 14th place overall is William Neumann from Columbia MD; the C leader, Bonnie Belanger from New Orleans, sits 31st overall.
Click here for results.
