Source ACBL Bulletins and Results
December 10th 2013: Monaco repeats with strong Reisinger final showing
Second in the Reisinger went to Krzysztof Buras, Norberto Bocchi, Andrew Gromov, Aleksander Dubinin and Grzegorz Narkiewicz, Agustin Madala.
Meltzer surges to win Keohane North American Swiss Teams
Second place in the North American Swiss went to Jan Jansma, John Valliant, Michael Polowan, team captain Ron Zambonini, Darren Wolpert and Shan Huang.
Fleisher is Player of the Year, Madala captures Goren Trophy
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Martin Fleisher, captain of the third-place squad in the Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams, earned enough platinum masterpoints to win the Player of the Year masterpoint competition for 2013. The Player of the Year is the ACBL member who wins the most platinum masterpoints, available only in NABC events, in a calendar year. Fleisher’s platinum point total of 746.25 put him 41.6 points ahead of Steve Weinstein, the leader at the conclusion of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs on Thursday. Weinstein’s team did not make the cut on the first qualifying day of the Reisinger.
The other award achieved at the Fall NABC – the Goren Trophy – goes to the player who wins the most masterpoints of any pigment. This year it belongs to Agustin Madala, whose 402.22 points (all platinum) led the field.
December 9th 2013: Zimmermann ahead in Reisinger BAM
The team captained by Pierre Zimmermann –better known as Team Monaco – takes a slim lead into the two final sessions of the Reisinger Board a-Match Teams today. Zimmermann is playing with Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes. Zimmermman’s carryover of 23.67 is just ahead of the next two teams – led by Martin Fleisher and Paul Fireman – with 21.92 each. Holding down the
fourth spot is the young team from Sweden captained by Mikael Groenkvist, playing in their first Reisinger, arguably the toughest event on the ACBL calendar.
Lynch maintains NA Swiss lead
The team captained by Carolyn Lynch, leading after the first day of qualifying in the Keohane North American Swiss Teams, will start play today still in first place. Lynch, playing with Mike Passell, Garey Hayden, Adam Zmudzinski and Cezary Balicki, takes a carryover score of 31.58 into the final two sessions. Less than 5 victory points behind is the team led by Paul Street, whose teammates are Barnet Shenkin, Matt Granovetter, Ron Rubin, Morten Bilde and Dennis Bilde. Two VPs behind Street is the Piotr Klimowicz squad.
Tournament masterpoint winners first 5 positions (through Saturday December 7)
1 318.90 Steve Weinstein
2 258.87 Agustin Madala
3 197.22 Boye Brogeland
4 197.22 Espen Lindqvist
5 185.66 Marc Bompis
December 8th 2013: Fleisher leading Reisinger BAM
The team captained by Martin Fleisher takes a carryover lead of a half board into today’s two
semifinal sessions of the Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams. Fleisher is playing with Mike Kamil, Zia Mahmood, Michael Rosenberg, Chris Willenken and Chip Martel. The team scored 19.5 in the first qualifying session and followed with 16 in the second session. Fleisher’s 11.83 board carryover is just ahead of the 11.33 held by the James Cayne team, who are only .16 ahead of the third-place Eric Greco squad. Missing from the list of qualifiers is the powerful
Nick Nickell team, who finished the day in a threeway tie for the final qualifying spot, which went to the Daniel Zagorin squad.
Lynch out front in NA Swiss
With a huge carryover score of 30 victory points, the Carolyn Lynch team is out front in the Keohane North American Swiss Teams as the event enters the semifinal stage. Lynch is playing with Mike Passell, Garey Hayden, Cezary Balicki and Adam Zmudzinski. In second place, with carryover of 22.24, is the team captained by Andre Asbury, whose teammates
are John Stiefel, Jonathan Steinberg and Jeffrey Juster. In a tie for third place, another 6.72 VPs back, are teams led by Ahmed Hussein and Rose Meltzer.
December 6th 2013: Weinstein, Madala zoom into Blue Ribbon victory
Steve Weinstein and Agustin Madala felt they had too many bidding misunderstandings in the third and fourth sessions of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, so they knuckled down and talked things over for about half an hour before the two final sessions on Thursday. Whatever they said worked wonders, especially in the second final session, when the two posted a 68.47% game to win the event by more than a board and a half on a top of 38. Second place went to Bar Tarnovski and Dror Padon of Israel, with Mike Kamil and Martin Fleisher about 2.5 points behind them.
Madala, an Argentinian now playing internationally for Italy. He was a member of the winning Bermuda Bowl team in Bali in late September. The Blue Ribbon win was his first North American championship. Weinstein won his second Blue Ribbon Pairs and he has three seconds. He and his regular partner, Bobby Levin, are among the top pairs in the world.
Weinstein said he and Madala, playing together for the first time, had a rough patch in the middle two sessions, playing a slam hand in a part score and misinterpreting a double meant for takeout, among other glitches. Despite the hiccups, they entered the final day of play in sixth place. They dropped to 11th after the first final session – Kamil and Fleisher taking the lead – but had the monster final session to win handily.
Weinstein leading in Player of the Year race
With his win in the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs on Thursday, Steve Weinstein surged into the lead in the Player of the Year race. The winner is the competitor who earns the most platinum masterpoints in a calendar year. Platinum points are available only in nationally rated even with no upper masterpoint restriction.
Weinstein and Agustin Madala earned 190 MPs for winning the Blue Ribbon, which took Weinstein’s platinum-point total for the year to 705.19, 66.95 points ahead of Jeff Meckstroth, who was the leader going into the NABC. Right behind Meckstroth is Martin Fleisher with 633.52, followed by Zia Mahmood at 546.27, Boye Brogeland at 544.80 and Kevin Bathurst at 540.51. Mike Kamil has 604.92 masterpoints but cannot win because he is playing with Fleisher in the Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams, the outcome of which will likely settle the Player of the Year Race.
Reisinger BAM starts today
Competition for the Reisinger Trophy (the Chicago Trophy until 1965) starts today. The event is a six-session open team-of-four event scored by board-a-match with two qualifying sessions, two semifinal sessions and two final sessions. The winners of the 2012 Reisinger Boarda-Match Teams: Tor Helness, Claudio Nunes, Geir Helgemo and Fulvio Fantoni, y Pierre Zimmermann and Franck Multon.
December 5th 2013
Blue Ribbon Pairs: The leaders going into today’s two final sessions are Mike Kamil, Holmdel NJ, and Martin Fleisher of New York City. Their lead is razor thin, however, as Sabine Auken, Denmark, and Roy Welland, New York City, are just 2.13 matchpoints behind. Top today will be 38. Two other New Yorkers, Kent Mignocchi and Joel Wooldridge, are just four matchpoints out of second, and they are followed by Melih Ozdil, New York City, and Xiaodong Shi, Naperville IL, 1.3 matchpoints behind. Two Israelis, Bar Tarnovski and Dror Padon, are 7.45 MPs off the leaders’ pace.
December 4th 2013
Norwegians leading Blue Ribbon Pairs: Boye Brogeland and Espen Lindqvist will start today’s semifinal sessions of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs with a carryover of 129.34 matchpoints, about 14 matchpoints ahead of the Dutch/English partnership of Ricco van Prooijen and David Bakhski.
Agustin Madala of Argentina and Steve Weinstein are less than a matchpoint behind them in third place.
Big third quarter propels Gupta squad to Senior KO victory: The team captained by Vinita Gupta took the lead at the halfway point of the Baze Senior Knockout Teams, then put the match away with a 57-1 third quarter on the way to a 156-81 victory over the Carolyn Lynch squad. Gupta, of Woodside CA, played with Billy Miller, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Lew Stansby and Bart Bramley. With the win, Miller became a Grand Life Master. Lynch’s teammates were Mike Passell, Garey Hayden, Cezary Balicki and Adam Zmudzinski.
December 3rd 2013
Mahaffey wins Open BAM
The team captained by Jim Mahaffey charged from behind in the final of the Mitchell Open Boarda-Match Teams to win the event by less than a board. The winners scored 36.77 to 36.03 for the runnersup, captained by Jill Levin. Mahaffey played with Tony Forrester, England; Jean Quantin and Marc Bompis, France, and Josef Piekarek and Alexander Smirnov, Germany. Levin played with Jenny Wolpert, Bobby Levin and Steve Weinstein.
Fireman wins Women’s BAM
Buoyed by three excellent sessions, the Phyliss Fireman team was able to withstand a less-than superlative final qualifying session to win the Marsha May Sternberg Women’s Board-a-Match teams. Finishing second was the all-Florida Bernace De Young team. Fireman of Chestnut Hill MA was playing with Shannon Cappelletti of Delray Beach FL; Meike Wortel of Amsterdam, Netherlands; Marion Michielsen, Stockholm, Sweden; and Sylvie Willard and Benedicte Cronier of Paris, France.
Lynch and Gupta in Senior KO final
Teams captained by Carolyn Lynch and Vinita Gupta cruised into the final of the Baze Senior Knockout Teams. Lynch (Mike Passell, Garey Hayden, Adam Zmudzinski and Cezary Balicki) dispatched the Rose Meltzer team 180-92. Gupta (Billy Miller, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Lew Stansby and Bart Bramley) led from start to finish in knocking out the original No. 21 seed led by Fred King.
Today begins the Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs:
The Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs ranks with the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs (and now the new Platinum Pairs in the
spring) as one of the most prestigious — and toughest — pair events on the ACBL calendar. Like the LM Pairs and
Platinum Pairs, the Blue Ribbon Pairs is played over three days and includes two qualifying, two semifinal and two final sessions. Entry is restricted to winners and runners-up in regional championships — plus high finishers in North American championships, members of current Grand National district championship teams, members of current official teams representing ACBL and the top 100 lifetime masterpoint holders.
December 2nd 2013
Baze Senior KO down to four teams
Four teams will do battle for the final two spots in the Baze Senior Knockout Teams today. Matchups, by team captain, are Rose Meltzer versus Carolyn Lynch and Vinita Gupta versus Fred King. Most of the matches in the quarterfinal round
were close. All but the Lynch-Hemant Lall contest could have gone either way. In the match between Gupta and Stan Tulin, the latter had rallied from 39 down to take a 17-IMP lead midway through the match, but Gupta tied it with a 17-IMP swing (6
plus 1370 at one table and 7 minus 200 at the other) and put it away with an 11-IMP slam swing a couple of boards later.
Gromov squad leading Mitchell Open BAM
The team captained by Andrew Gromov takes a narrow lead into today’s final two sessions of play in the Mitchell Open Board-a-Match Teams. Gromov is playing with Aleksander Dubinin, Krzysztof Buras, Grzegorz Narkiewicz, Norberto Bocchi and Agustin Madala. Gromov starts the day with a carryover of 4.60, just ahead of two teams with carryover of 3.58 –squads captained by Paul Fireman and Bob Drake.
December 1st 2013
Ishmael Del’Monte
Cheek, Del’Monte are Nail LM Pairs champs
Curtis Cheek and Ishmael Del’Monte, playing together in a pairs game for the first time, put together two solid sessions in the final of the Nail Life Master Pairs to win the event by more than a board on a top of 77. Second place went to Kevin Bathurst and Bobby Levin.
Barbara Nist
Magical final session wins LM Women’s Pairs for Nist and Hartley
Patti Hartley, Kirkland WA, and Barbara Nist, Seatac WA, unleashed a 71.15% finale to take the Smith Life Master Women’s Pairs. Finishing second in the 90-pair field were Cheri Bjerkan of Elmhurst IL and Rozanne Pollack of New York NY.
Senior KO in quarterfinals
Eight teams remain in the Baze Senior Knockout Teams, with most of the top seeds still in the hunt for the championship. The exception was the No. 2 seed, led by Lou Ann O’Rourke, who fell to No. 15, captained by Peter Lesnik. O’Rourke (Marc Jacobus, Roger Bates, Drew Casen, Eddie Wold, Jim Krekorian) fell behind 35-19 after one quarter, but regained the lead after the third set. Because of a seating error, four teams (including Lesnik and O’Rourke) did not record results for the second sets of their matches. Trailing 58-50 with a set to go, Lesnik (Pamela Granovetter, Allan Falk, John Lusky, Barry Rigal and Glenn Milgrim) rallied to take the final set 34-4 to advance to the quarterfinal round.
Marsha May Sternberg Women’s B-A-M: Play in the Marsha May Sternberg Women’s Board-a-Match Teams gets underway today, with two qualifying sessions followed by two final sessions tomorrow.
Mitchell Open BAM begins today: The Open Board-a-Match Teams is a four-session event that consists of two qualifying and two final sessions.
November 30th 2013
Locals win Manfield Non-LM Pairs:
Judy St. Arnold of Scottsdale and Brenda Huff of Phoenix put together two strong games to win the final Manfield Non-Life Master Pairs by more than a board.
Past champs lead LM Women’s Pairs:
Cheri Bjerkan of Elmhurst IL and Rozanne Pollack of New York NY are women on a mission. On the strength of a 64% afternoon game paired with a 58% evening session, they lead the Smith Life Master Women’s Pairs, and come into Saturday with a 78-point carryover. Bjerkan and Pollack won this event in 2011.
Israelis lead Nail Life Master Pairs:
Ron Schwartz and Lotan Fisher of Israel put together two strong games to grab the lead after two qualifying sessions of the Nail Life Master Pairs. The event ends today. Schwartz and Fisher led the field in the first session on Friday with a 64.11% game. They improved on their total in the evening session with a 65.03% effort. In second place are Curtis Cheek of Las Vegas and Australian star Ishmael Delmonte, just 10.55 matchpoints off the pace.
Baze Senior KO in quarterfinals:
After a day off with the only bye in the Baze Senior Knockout Teams, the Rose Meltzer team joins a strong field in the round of 16 today. The event ends on Tuesday. Twenty-eight teams – including more than 50 North American champions – played head-to-head matches, plus one four-way, to get down to the quarterfinal stage today.
Meckstroth leads Player of the Year: First five positions…
| 1. Jeff Meckstroth, Clearwater Beach FL 509.96 | ||
| 2. Martin Fleisher, New York NY 490.26 | ||
| 3. Michael Kamil, Holmdel NJ 474.92 | ||
| 4. Zia Mahmood, New York NY 423.11 | ||
| 5. Joe Grue, Las Vegas NV 422.75 |
November 29th 2013
Nail LM Pairs begins today: Play begins today in this four-session event, restricted to Life Masters and played over two qualifying sessions and two final sessions.
Play begins today in Smith LM Women’s Pairs: Play gets underway today in the four-session Life Master Women’s Pairs with the Helen Sobel Smith Trophy going to the winners. They won the 2012 Smith Life Master Women’s Pairs: Victoria Gromova and Tatiana Ponomareva.
Play begins today in the Manfield Non-Life Master Pairs, a two-session event. The contest, previously known as the Rufus L. “Skinny” Miles Jr. Non-Life Master Pairs was renamed in 2010 in honor of Ed Manfield.
Baze Senior Knockout Teams starts today: Day-long matches will occur until the contest is decided. The event is limited to players 55 and older.
Today November 28th starts the last North American Bridge Championships of the year: the Phoenix NABC.
CsbNews.org will be reporting each day all the news
Here is an overview of the event locations.
Sheraton: NABC+ and NABC events will be played in Phoenix Ballroom on the 3rd floor. Regional events at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. will be played on the 2nd floor.
Hyatt Regency: Regional events at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. will be played in Regency Ballroom CD on the 1st floor. Intermediate/Newcomer events (0-299) will be played in Regency Ballroom AB on the 2nd floor.
Opening Reception
On Friday, Nov. 29, join us after the evening session for a night of fun, food, drinks and dancing with The Walkens. The fun starts at 10:30 p.m. in Valley Overlook on the 4th floor of the Sheraton. We’ll rock to music from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s until 1 a.m.!
On-Line pre registration for select NABC events in Bridgewinners, click here