In
a come-from-behind
finish that bridge
aficionados will debate
for generations, the
United States
capitalized on brilliant
play and an opponent's
blunder to defeat
archrival Italy on
Saturday in the biennial
world contract bridge
championships known as
the Bermuda Bowl.
''This
match will go down in
history as one of the
most dramatic, exciting
and controversial bridge
championships of all
time,'' said Fred
Gitelman, a gold
medalist with Canada's
national bridge team for
many years, who
organized an online
videostream that allowed
a global audience to
monitor the action.
At
the end of two grueling
weeks of play that had
whittled 22 teams down
to the Americans and the
favored Italians, the
championship match --
128 deals over three
days -- moved toward its
climax like racehorses
pounding to a photo
finish, with the
Italians surging,
falling behind and
catching up again.
It
all came down to one
card. In the hushed
setting of a hotel
overlooking the
Mediterranean and the
belle epoque facades of
Monte Carlo, Lorenzo
Lauria of Italy, one of
the world's top bridge
players, reached across
the table to select that
card from the dummy hand
that his partner had
left face up.
Hundreds of spectators
watching on monitors and
thousands more on the
Internet held their
breath. They could see
that all Lauria had to
do, for the Italians to
secure a tie, was select
the queen of spades from
the dummy hand. It was a
play any bridge
enthusiast could make
routinely.
But, inexplicably,
Lauria touched the seven
of spades. A moment
later, he realized his
mistake and tried to
replace the seven with
the queen. But it was
too late.
A
pandemonium of jeers and
shouts, anger and dismay,
erupted among the
largely European hotel
audience, which had
supported the Italians.
Around the world,
spectators online gawked
in disbelief. Had it
been a mechanical error?
A mental lapse by an
exhausted player after
weeks of tense
competition?
Summoned to arbitrate,
the tournament director
ruled against the
Italians, and was upheld
by an appeals committee.
The result: the United
States, 304; Italy, 303.
''The U.S.A. and the
Italians have dominated
bridge forever,'' Mr.
Gitelman said in a
telephone interview from
Las Vegas. ''The rivalry
goes back to the 1950's.
The outcome of this
match is truly historic.''
In
the rarefied world of
competitive bridge,
where ferocious brains
lurk behind mild eyes
and unreadable faces,
where blindlike screens
divide the playing
tables diagonally above
and below to prevent
partners from seeing,
touching or illegally
signaling one another,
Americans and Italians
have long dominated the
Bermuda Bowl, named for
the island where it was
founded in 1950.
It
has been held every two
years or so in exotic
venues like Buenos
Aires, Manila, Stockholm
and Jamaica. This year's
competition began on
Nov. 2 in Monaco, the
little principality on
the southeast coast of
France, with 22 teams
from 21 countries (two
from the United States).
When the smoke finally
cleared, two six-member
teams were left -- the
Americans Nick Nickell,
Richard Freeman, Bob
Hamman, Paul Soloway,
Jeff Meckstroth and Eric
Rodwell, and the
Italians Norberto
Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin,
Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo
Versace, Fulvio Fantoni
and Claudio Nunes.
The American-Italian
contest unfolded in
simultaneous play at two
tables in separate rooms,
the ''closed room'' and
the ''open room.'' Under
the rules, players in
one room do not know
what is happening in the
other. Moreover,
identical hands are
dealt in the same order
in each room, so that at
the end of a match all
have competed equally.
The spectators watched
on monitors that
displayed the hands, the
bidding and the play of
the cards as it unfolded
in both rooms. Thus,
they could know more
about what was happening,
and had opportunities to
analyze the nuances that
the players themselves
did not have.
The Italians began
strongly, surging ahead
early. But after 103 of
a scheduled 128 deals,
the Americans --
somewhat to everyone's
surprise -- were ahead
by 62 international
match points. The
Italians struggled back
and, with only two deals
remaining, were ahead by
21 international match
points.
On
the next to last deal,
the Italians in the
closed room overbid to a
contract of five hearts,
while the Americans in
the open room stopped
accurately at four
hearts, gaining 10
international match
points and cutting the
Italian lead to 11.
On
the final deal, Rodwell
and Meckstroth in the
closed room defended
well against an Italian
contract, so that now
the match rested on play
in the open room, where
Hamman and Soloway faced
Lauria and Versace.
Unlike the spectators,
the players were aware
only that the match was
close, though they did
not know how close. The
Italians bid five
diamonds, and the
Americans doubled. The
move would concede the
match if the Italians
fulfilled their contract,
but would let the
Americans tie if they
beat the contract by one
trick, or win if they
beat it by two tricks.
With only a few cards
left to play, Soloway
could have played the
ten of hearts and won
the match. But the
position was apparently
not clear to him.
Instead, he lead the
four of spades. Now, all
Lauria had to do was
play the queen of spades
from the dummy's hand,
which he would have
known was the winner.
But he apparently was so
sure that Soloway had
played his high heart
that he reached across
the table and touched
what he thought would be
an inconsequential card,
the seven of spades. Now
Hamman topped that with
the ten, ensuring that
the Americans would win
the match.