The United States took home gold from the world bridge championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, earlier this month, and for one player in particular, it was an especially sweet victory.
The U.S. team of Bob Hamman, Zia Mahmood, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Nick Nickell and Ralph Katz defeated the top- ranked Italian team in the Bermuda Bowl. The Italian squad included Lorenzo Lauria, Giorgio Duboin, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Antonio Sementa and Alfredo Versace.
The last-round score in the multiple-day event was 285 to 249 international matchpoints, close enough to make it exciting down to the wire.
Hamman was the World Bridge Federation’s top-ranked player from 1985 to 2004. He lost that standing when the world championships were placed in Istanbul in 2004 and many players, including the Hamman team, elected not to attend for security reasons. Istanbul had been the site of rerrorist bombings.
The Italians won that year, and Lauria took over as the world’s top player, bumping Hamman down to second place.
Today in the WBF open-classification rankings, Italian players occupy the top five spots, all of the players on the second-place Italian team this year, except for Sementa. Hamman is ranked ninth.
A half century ago, the Italians dominated world bridge. Then in the 1960s, financier Ira Corn put together and sponsored a professional bridge team called the Aces, designed to challenge Italian supremacy. They were successful.
For several decades, American players tended to fare better at the world-championship level than the Italians, but in recent years, a new batch of Italian players has been reclaiming some of the former glory.
The same players who just won the Bermuda Bowl frequently play in the American Contract Bridge League’s North American Bridge Championships in the U.S. and make off with many a major title.
Of course, this year’s win alone doesn’t put Hamman back on top, but it’s a start. This was also the 18th time the U.S. had claimed gold in the Bermuda Bowl since the debut of the event in 1950.
Next year’s world championships will be in Philadelphia.
Back in the USA.
In local news, Colorado Springs had its summer bridge tournament last month with these top scorers in upper- division events.
Bracketed Knockouts: David Graff, Cheryl Schwartz and Susan Krassy, all of Colorado Springs, plus Daryl Dietrich of Woodland Park.
Stratiflighted SwissTeams: Dennis Goldston of Colorado Springs, Neil Petrie and Jon Gustafson, both of Fort Collins, and Linda Sundbye of Broomfield won the double session event with the single session championship going to Allen Kane of Pueblo West, En Hay of Littleton, and Don and Anita Heitler of Englewood.
Pair Events: The first single session went to Leigh Shallenberger of Woodland Park and Sharon Heller of Tucson with the second single session going to Margie Schrader and Melvin Levin, both of Colorado Springs, and the third session going to Bruce Cobb of Denver and Kenneth Stuckey of Arvada.
Double session pair winners were Don and Anita Heitler.
