August 11: The 2013 Summer NABC Atlanta last News

Source:  Atlanta Bulletins

August 11th: Polish squad rallies in OT for Spingold KO victory

The four-man Polish squad known as Bridge 24 shrugged off a missed opportunity on the first board of overtime and scored two big swings against Joe Grue and company to win the Spingold Knockout Teams 134-113. The winners are Jacek Kalita, Michal Nowosadzki, Rafal Jagniewski and Wojciech Gawel. Grue played with Les Amoils, Brad Moss, Thomas Bessis, Peter Bertheau and Jacob Morgan. It took a game swing for Bridge 24 on the last deal of the 64-board final to force the eight-board playoff, but on the first board, a bad opening lead against 6 by North let the contract through. North-South at the other table actually made it a 1-IMP swing to Bridge 24 by bidding the cold 6NT from the South side, helping the team win the overtime 22-1.

Lynch strong in Roth final

Carolyn Lynch’s team combined a strong performance in the final of the Roth Open Swiss Teams with a healthy carryover from the qualifying round to win the contest by 6 victory points. Lynch, playing with Mike Passell, Adam Zmudzinski, Cezary Balicki, Bart Bramley and Lew Stansby, finished with a four-session total of 136.29 VPs (117 in the final plus a carryover of 19.29). Lynch finished second in last year’s Open Swiss, with Andrew Gromov and Aleksander Dubinin in the lineup instead of Bramley and Stansby. In second with 130.29 VPs was the squad led by Martin Fleisher — Michael
Kamil, Zia Mahmood, Chip Martel, Chris Willenken and Michael Rosenberg (116 VPs in the final, carryover 14.29).

August 10th 2013: Spingold Final 

Polish team rallies  for Spingold berth vs Grue: The Polish team calling themselves aas a new web site: Bridge 24 , trailing by 22 IMPs with a quarter to go, stormed from behind with a 69-32 set against the Andrew Gromov squad to make it to the final of the Spingold Knockout Teams. Bridge 24 will face the team captained by Joe Grue, 138-105 winners over Richard Schwartz and company. Originally seeded at No. 39, Bridge 24 is Jacek Kalita, Michael Nowosadski, Rafal Jagniewski and Wojciech Gawel. Kalita has been regular at NABCs in recent years, but the others are not well known on this side of the Atlantic. Gromov played with Aleksander Dubinin, Norberto Bocchi, Agustin Madala, Krzysztof Buras and Grzegorz Narkiewicz. Gromov, the No. 6 seed, cruised into the semifinals with an average margin of victory of 120 IMPs in four matches. They started with a 40-14 first quarter against Bridge 24 and led 66-43 at the half. It was 95-73 for Gromov, who could not hold off the Polish team. Grue is playing with Les Amoils, Brad Moss, Thomas Bessis, Peter Bertheau and Jacob Morgan. The team won every quarter against the Schwartz squad: Allan Graves, Boye Brogeland, Espen Lindqvist, Lotan Fisher and Ron Schwartz.

 Spingold Semifinals Results:

Street leads Roth Open Swiss quals:  The team captained by Paul Street topped the field in the opening round of the Roth Open Swiss Teams. Street is playing with Barnet Shenkin, Israelis Dror Padon–Alon Birman and Danes Morton Bilde–Dennis Bilde. The Street team scored 122 victory points in the qualifying sessions. In second with 119 VPs are Doug Doub of West Hartford CT, Adam Wildavsky of Longboat Key FL, Richard Reitman of Los Gatos CA and Michael
Schreiber of Memphis TN. The third place spot is held by “Team Monaco,” the multi-national squad of Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness and Geir Helgemo. Their score is 116 VPs.

August 9th 2013  Spingold semis: Schwartz vs. Grue, Gromov vs. Bridge24

The teams captained by Richard Schwartz and Joe Grue face off in one semifinal bracket of today’s Spingold KO Teams, while Andrew Gromov and company take on a quartet of strong Polish players in the other. Schwartz, playing with Allan Graves and Norwegians Boye Brogeland–Espen Lindqvist and Israelis Lotan Fisher–Ron Schwartz, will battle the
multinational squad of Grue, Leslie Amoils (Canada), Brad Moss, Thomas Bessis (France), Peter Bertheau (Sweden) and Jacob Morgan. In the round of eight, Schwartz beat Carolyn Lynch’s team 129-77, while Grue defeated John Schermer’s team 164-118. In the other semifinal bracket, Gromov is playing with fellow Russian Aleksander Dubinin, Italy’s Norberto Bocchi, Agustin Madala of Argentina and Poles Krzysztof Buras and Grzegorz Narkiewicz. Their opponents are the Polish squad dubbed “Bridge24”: Jacek Kalita, Michal Nowosadzki, Rafal Jagniewski and Wojciech Gawel. In the semis, Gromov buried Bob Hamman’s team 200-103, as Bridge24 stayed in control against Nick Nickell’s squad to win 89-61.

August 8th 2013:  More high seeds fall in Spingold

Two more high seeds – No. 3 John Diamond and No. 4 Martin Fleisher – were defeated in the Spingold Knockout Teams on Thursday. The event enters the round of eight today. In one of the lowest-scoring matches in Spingold history, Diamond was beaten by the Bob Hamman team 66-54. The IMP total in that match was lower than single totals for nine of the other 14 teams that played on Thursday. Hamman’s team is Sam Lev, Billy Cohen, Gary Cohler and Brian Glubok.
Fleisher, who will represent the U.S. in the Bermuda Bowl in Bali, Indonesia, later this year, was defeated by the Richard Schwartz squad 131-128.

Moss holds on to take Wagar title: The team captained by Sylvia Moss survived a scare on the last board of the Wagar Women’s Knockout Teams to defeat the Phyllis Fireman squad 127-122. Moss played with Joanna Glasson, Lynn Deas, Beth Palmer, Catherine D’Ovidio and Janice Seamon-Molson. The win for Moss and Glasson was the third straight in major women’s teams events. They were on winning teams in the Marsha May Sternberg Women’s Board-a-Match Teams last fall and the Machlin Women’s Swiss Teams in St. Louis earlier this year. Fireman’s team was Shannon Cappelletti,  Meike Wortel, Marion Michielsen, Benedicte Cronier and Sylvie Willard. Fireman started well, taking the first quarter 55-20, but Wagar Women’s KO winners: Joann Glasson, Catherine D’Ovidio, Moss came back by winning the second set 64-8. With Moss leading 127-108 and one deal to play, Deas and Palmer gave up minus 780 (2♦ doubled with three  vulnerable overtricks) while D’Ovidio and Seamon-Molson were minus 200 in 3NT. That was 14 IMPs to Fireman but not enough.

August 7th 2013: Top Spingold seed goes down

Powerful Team Monaco, the defending Spingold Knockout Teams champions, are on the sidelines today, defeated  125-120 by the Mitch Dunitz squad. No. 7 Daniel Zagorin suffered the same fate, falling to Bridge24, a Polish squad, 123-119. Monaco is led by Pierre Zimmermann, playing with Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes. Dunitz’s teammates are Ed Davis, Jill Levin, Jenny Wolpert, Howard Weinstein and Ross Grabel.
Most of the other tops seeds made it to the round of 16 with relative ease, the exception being No. 4 Martin Fleisher, who won by just 3 IMPs over the Ernesto d’Orsi team.

Moss, Fireman in Wagar KO final: Teams captained by Sylvia Moss and Phyllis Fireman are in the final of the Wagar Women’s Knockout Teams. Moss, the No. 1 seed, made it to the championship round with a 116-115 defeat of the Stasha Cohen squad. Moss is playing with Joann Glasson, Lynn Deas, Beth Palmer, Catherine D’Ovidio and Janice Seamon-Molson. Cohen’s teammates were Pam Wittes, Cheri Bjerkan and Rozanne Pollack. Fireman, the No. 2 seed, ousted the Lynn Baker team 121-81. Fireman’s teammates are Shannon Cappelletti, Meike Wortel, Marion Michielsen, Benedicte Cronier and Sylvie Willard. Baker played with Karen McCallum, Kerri Sanborn, Irina Levitina, Jet Passman and Anneke Simons. Moss won the first quarter 62-16, but Cohen won the second set 42-6. Trailing by just 7 IMPs with a quarter to go, Cohen rallied with a 23-17 fourth quarter, falling just short. Fireman lost the first set but Fireman roared back
to lead at the half and was never threatened from that point.

Kovachev–Rosenbaum win Wernher: The Chicago-based duo of Valentin Kovachev and Lynne Rosenbaum put together four solid sessions in the Wernher Open Pairs to win the contest by more than a board. This is the first NABC title for
both players. In second were Larry Sealy of Huntsville AL and Jim Foster of Birmingham AL. Kovachev and Rosenbaum won Tuesday’s qualifying round, and in Wednesday’s final, they posted scores of 56.37% and 60.55% in the morning
and afternoon sessions to clinch the win. “It’s not easy to play with me,” said Kovachev, praising his partner. “I took all the risky actions that didn’t work out. She was terrific.”  Rosenbaum is a retired businesswoman. Kovachev, who has represented his native Bulgaria in international contests, immigrated to the U.S. in 2004. He is not technically a Life Master — he has not met the black-point requirement. In third were Nashville-area players Terry Spector and Bryan Howard.

August 6th 2013

Rosenthal, Mahaffey exit Spingold early The No. 11 and No. 12 seeds captained by Andrew Rosenthal and Jim Mahaffey, respectively, were the highest seeds to be upset in the round of 64 in the Spingold KO Teams. Rosenthal (Aaron Silverstein, Bjorn Fallenius, Peter Fredin, Johan Upmark and Fredrik Nystrom) was defeated by the U.K.-U.S. team of captain Stephen Peterkin, Samantha Punch, Christopher Gibson and Chris Wiegand 151-102. Mahaffey (Tony Forrester, Giorgio Duboin, Antonio Sementa, Walid Elahmady and Tarek Sadek) lost to Omer Ekinci’s team (Ovunc Yilmaz, Zizhuo Wang and and Erez Hendelman) 145-122. The No. 3 seed led by John Diamond survived a scare by defeating the No. 62 seed captained by Haibo Zhao by a single IMP, 168-167.

Adams grabs Senior Swiss title

Chicago pair leading Wernher: Valentin Kovachev and Lynne Rosenbaum, from the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, have a slim lead going into the two final sessions of play today in the Wernher Open Pairs. Their carryover score of 215.30 is just ahead of the 212.73 posted by Emory Whitaker of Macon GA and Jon Nance of Springfield MO. In third place with 210.88 are Bernace de Young and Sean Ganness of Miami FL.

August 5th 2013

Bragin team leads Senior Swiss: The Maryland-based squad led by Barry Bragin topped the field of 94 teams in the qualifying round of the Truscott/U.S. Playing Card Senior Swiss Teams. Bragin, playing with Mark Laken, Andrew Gofreed and Alan Tenenbaum, scored 130 victory points. In second with 113 VPs was the team captained by Dee Adams of Memphis TN. Her squad includes partner Al Stone and teammates Fred Hamilton, Mark Itabashi, Dan Morse and John Sutherlin. The New England squad led by Geoffrey Brod is third: They scored 109 VPs in the qualifying round. Brod played with Alan Applebaum, Pat McDevitt, Victor King, Richard DeMartino and Sheila Gabay. Fourty-eight teams made the cut to today’s twosession final.

Head-to-head matches begin in national KOs: The opening round of the Spingold Knockout Teams, the Wagar Women’s Knockout Teams, Mini- Spingold I (0-5000) and Mini-Spingold II (0-1500) reduced each of the respective fields to proper sizes to allow head-to-head matches in today’s action. The Spingold, which had 67 entrants, saw the
top 55 teams receive byes, while the remaining 12 squads slugged it out to become seeds 56 through 64. Team Monaco, the defending Spingold champions with captain Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes, is the top seed. The field in the Wagar was 13 teams, which had to be reduced to eight. The top two seeds received byes on Monday, while the 11 other squads vied for the other six slots. The No. 1 seed in the event is Sylvia Moss’s team: Joann Glasson, Lynn Deas, Beth Palmer, Catherine D’Ovidio and Janice Seamon-Molson.
The pattern was the same for both Mini-Spingold I (29 entrants) and Mini-Spingold II (23 entrants). Both contests used a series of byes and playoffs to reduce the field to 16 teams in each.

August 4th 2013

District 9 Spector Team repeats as winners of the Championship Flight: Eric Rodwell, David Berkowitz, Jeff Meckstroth, Michael Becker, captain Warren Spector and Gary Cohler.

Mark Itabashi and Ross Grabel: winners of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs.

These are the first 5 positions:

1 Mark Itabashi-Ross Grabel,
2 Kevin Bathurst- Steve Weinstein
3 Peter Boyd- Steve Robinson
4 Zia Mahmood – Bjorn Fallenius
5 Godffrey De Tessieres – Julien Gaviard

August 3rd 2013

The first big event is the GNT (Grand National Teams), as usual played in 4 categories. After the first two days, the Quarter finals are being played (august the 3rd). Eight squads remain in each GNT bracket. Today is the quarterfinal round for all four flights of the Grand National Teams: Morehead Championship Flight, Goldman Flight A, Sheinwold Flight B and MacNab Flight C. The defending champions in the Championship Flight —the District 9 squad led by Warren Spector — defeated their opponents in the round of 16 (Joe
Grue’s District 17 team) to advance. The defending champs in Flight A — Edward Piken’s team from District 23 — are also back this year. Piken advanced to the quarterfinal round by beating the District 19 team led by Jeffrey Ford.

At the end of the day the GNT Champ final is rematch of 2012: The final of the top flight of the Grand National Teams features the exact same squads that met in last year’s final: District 9 (Florida) vs. District 24 (New  York). Playing for District 9 are captain Warren Spector, Michael Becker, Gary Cohler, David Berkowitz, Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth.

The District 24 lineup is captain Jared Lilienstein, Michael Polowan, Sam Lev, Brian Glubok, Joel Wooldridge and John Hurd. In the semifinal round, both squads forced their respective opponents to surrender early. Lilienstein crushed the District 2 team led by Robert Lebi 143-36 in two quarters. Spector beat the District 10 team captained by Larry Sealy 128-48 in three quarters. In the Goldman Flight A final, District 16 (Texas) will battle District 22 (Southern California). The Texans are led by captain Anthony Bianchi playing with Gary King, Mitch Towner and Robert Whitcher. They defeated the District 2 team led by Shan Huang 132-118. The District 22 team is captain Soichi Yoshihiro, Philip Hiestand, Weishu Wu, Xiao-Yan Gong and Bo Liu. They ousted the defending champions led by Edward Piken. His District 23 team included Robert Kent, Howard Einberg, Viktor Anokovich and Paul Markarian 146-135. In the Sheinwold Flight B final, District 11 (Joseph Keim, William Gottschall, Lori Harner, Donna Moore, Douglas Millsap and Larry Jones) will face District 21 (captain Eugene Hung, Han-Yu Chang, David Weinberg, Steve Chen, Stephen Tu and Lynn Shannon). The MacNab Flight C final features a matchup between District 5 (captain Huei Rong Chern, Sue Lan Ma, Manju Ceylony and Shakeel Ahmad) and District 23 (captain Frederick Upton, Om Chokriwala, Yichi Zhang, Jack Chang and Nolan Chang).

von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs

After the semifinal round of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs, Geoff Hampson of Las Vegas NV and Eric Greco of Wynnewood PA lead the field of qualifiers. In second are Canadians Darren Wolpert and Daniel Korbel, and in third are “New Yorkers” Zia Mahmood and Bjorn Fallenius. Seventy-eight pairs remain in the six-session contest. In the Bruce LM-5000 Pairs, the Florida duo of  Susan Fraser and Nancy Williams are in front of the field of 40 qualifying pairs after four sessions of play, followed by Sankar Reddy of California and Richard Kuti of New Jersey. In third are Californians David Wakeman and Rita Wakeman. There are 20 pairs remaining in the Young LM-1500 Pairs, led by Rich Pestien and Charles Young of Peoria IL. The East Coast pair of Jeffrey Scott and David Cohen are in second place, followed by DCarea players Jay Cherlow and Albert Lauber in third.