WBF WOMEN’S BRIDGE
NEWSLETTERMARCH 2024
Editor: Mary Kelly Rogers

SEABASSUSA
WINS

INAUGURAL
WBF ONLINEWOMEN’STEAMS 2024
Top Left to Right: Susan Zhang (PC), Jill Meyers
Bottom Left to Right: Kerri Sanborn, Sylvia Shi

64 teams from 31 countries competed for the titleonWBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Dear All
We promised in our last edition that we on the WBF Women’s
Committee would work to enhance Women’s Bridge and steer some
support and development for women across the globe. Our WBF
Women’s Teams Online which has taken place on RealBridge was amajor step towards this promise.
USA Seabass captained by Susan Zhang was first, USA WIMPs
captained by Amy Casonova second and Hungary captained by
Orsolya Hegedus was third.
Regular contributor to our newsletters, Mark Horton, sets the scene
with his piece ‘When the last card had been played’.
Mark also invites you to make contact with him if you have aninteresting deal.
Other regular contributors Lone Bilde and Liz McGowan write of theirexperience for our WBF Women’s Online teams and we have many
new contributors making it possible to have a view from across theglobe.
Hand of the event was Board 3, Session 3 and it’s analysed here threetimes. Can you spot the three?!
Samantha Punch gives us a BAMSA update and along with Liz
McGowan highlights another RealBridge event on April 17 which is afundraiser to encourage Youth Bridge. See Poster on page 27.
Monika Kümmel tells her story of being a player and journalist andhas an invitation for you.
Gilly Clench writes about the Home series Lady Milne Women’s
Teams, its history and how such an event can be fun while very
competetive.
Sophia Baldysz, another regular contributor this time is looking
through the glass of a coach.
The online for women is making the world a smaller place and EBL
women have an exciting Women’s Online Teams to look forward to
on June 7 to 9 organised by the EBL Women’s Committee. See page
28.
Chair of WBf Women’s Committee, Suzi Subeck writes from Chess to
Bridge and more.
Our next women’s event is the WBF Women’s Spring Festival BBO
Online taking place April 8-14, 2024. Courtesy of WBF President Jan
Kamras, the winner will receive free entry to the National Women’s
Pairs Championship in Buenos Aires with their partner of choicefrom the same nation. BBO and WBF are sponsoring BB$ prizes.
Games are every two hours to facilitate the global interest, somegames are free but still count for awards and prizes and new is the
daylong so that players can hop in and out and play their 10 boards attheir own pace. A new and exciting revamp of the Festival by BBO.
The Festival, brainchild of the late Anna Maria Torlontano, has beenrunning on BBO since 2008. It was grounbreaking for online at thattime. It’s an opportunity to network, meet players across the world
while enjoying good competition. For Posters and Information pleasesee pages 27 to 29. Enjoy Women’s Bridge!
Mary Kelly Rogers
Editor2

Top:
Aaida Abu-Jaber
Esther Sophonapanich
Wang Yannan
MiddleAnna Gudge, Suzi Subeck (Chair)
BottomSevinc Atay, Helen Kruger
Mary Kelly Rogers (Deputy Chair)Contents
2
3
4-6
7-9
10
11
12-13
14-15
16
17
18
19-20
21
22
23
24-25
26
27
28
29-31

Contributors – Thank You
Editorial, Committee and Contents
WBF Online Women’s Teams - MKRMark Horton –When the last card was played
Sylvia Shi – Winners –WBF Online Women’s Teams
Amy Casanova – Runners Up
Lone Bilde –Bridge Over Global Waters
Sophia Baldysz
Through the looking glass of a coach
Liz McGowan –The WBF Women’s Teams
Samantha Punch – BAMSA Update
Monika Kümmel – Her Story
Priya Balasubramanian – The Teams
Laurence Duc – A Big Thank You
Taufik Asbi – TBC at TEAMS
Gilly Clench – Lady Milne Trophy
Patricia Herrera-Most Beautiful Game
Suzi Subeck – From Chess to Bridge
Tuna Elmas & Roz Bernstein Reflect
BAMSA Poster
EBL Online Women’s Teams
WBF Women’s Festival BBO Online
Posters, History & Tribute toAnna Maria Torlontano

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Organising Team on left
Top: Shireen
Bottom: Mary and Anna
TDs on right
Top: Andy, Shireen
Centre:Ryszard, Marc, Vigfús
Bottom: Gary, Sarah

Sixty four teams from thirty one countries took
part in this three day event.
It was a mega undertaking for RealBridge to stage
the event and they executed it in a mostprofessional manner with clear and concise
direction to all players. The schedule waschallenging when players from seven out of eight
WBF World Zones participated no earlier than 9am or later than 11pm in their country.
It was also a challenge for our WBF
Communications Manager Anna Gudge who dealt
with WBF Registrations, Commitment forms,
System cards and kept our WBF Online Women’sWorld Bridge Club updated with instructions andinformation. Dirk de Clercq of WBF Accounts,
worked in the background for Entry fees which
was not as straight forward as we thought itwould be.
https://www.wbfwomensbridgeclub.org/
Promotion of our event was also challenging
when we tried very hard to let women know
about our event. Hopefully, this will be easier inthe future as this first step has been made. We
rely though on women to ask their NBOs toadvertise our events. Many women did ask but ingeneral our event was publicised on very few
NBO websites.
Networking has started and steps can now betaken so that women around the world can easilyfind out about events that are taking place,
regardless of the format and location. You canhelp with this.

Participants were circulated by Shireen Mohandes
with these links and they are here for your interest if
you did not play.
A video postcard from the organisers - made by
Shireen. Please click here and watch the top video(only 2 minutes long)https://realbridge.online/wbf-womens-teams-2024info.html#video_postcard
Looking at all the session results
Please click here (same as above, please scroll down alittle bit)https://realbridge.online/wbf-womens-teams-2024info.html#session_links
See the XIMP winners for every session
Please click here:
https://realbridge.online/wbf-womens-teams-2024ranking-list.html#session_ximp
Then click on a link for a session.
After you have clicked the session link, choose“Country” to see the country of the partners.
Finally, a mega thank you to Shireen Mohandes andAndy Bowles of RealBridge, Chief TD Marc van
Beijsterveldt (Netherlands) and his TD team of Sarah
Amos (Wales), Gary Barwick (Australia), Vigfús Palsson(Iceland) and Ryszard Sliwinski (Sweden). Thanks also
goes to WBF Dirk de Clercq, WBF Anna Gudge and to‘unseen’ Gordon Rainsford and Fearghal O’Boyle who
were helpful when their advice was sought. Thank you
to WBF President Jan Kamras, WBF Treasurer Marc de
Pau and the WBF Women’s Committee for supporting
this event.

Mary Kelly Rogers
3WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Mark Horton

When the last card had been playedMark writes: …the podium looked like this:Mark Horton is perhaps the best-known
bridge journalist in the world.
He is also a regular contributor to our
Women’s newsletters.
Long time editor of Bridge Magazine and
A New Bridge Magazine he now edits
Bridgerama US for 52 Entertainment andis Chief Editor to the WBF and the EBL.

1st

Seabass(209.65)

Susan Zhang (PC), Jill Meyers
Kerri Sanborn, Sylvia Shi
He is always on the lookout for new
deals involving good bidding, play anddefence, along with anyone who isinterested in working as a writer for
World and European Championship
Bulletins.
You can contact him at:
markhorton007@hotmail.com

4

2nd

WIMPs

(193.19)

Amy Casanova (PC), Margi Peterson
Christine Denny, Fran White
Laura Rowe

3rd

Hungary(190.58)

Villo Szucs, Esther Tichy
Hanka Lajos, Orsolya
Hegedus (PC), Julia Hegedus,
Agnes Zalai, Brigitta Fischer

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Mark continues:
An astonishing 64 teams from around the world took part in the
WBF’s Online event for Women’s Teams, the brainchild of theindefatigable Mary Kelly Rogers. Only she, along with Anna Gudge,
Shireen Mohandes and Andy Bowles knows how it was possible tocoordinate the playing of 13 rounds over 3 days involving 31
countries from 7 WBF Zones.
Updates were posted on Bridge Winners, the main focus being onsome of the slam deals that occurred. Here are four of them:

Denmark Ladies v England
Bd 3

♠ 985
 T86
 A96432♣6♠QJ4
 K9732
–♣AT532EW VulDlr S♠AKT7
 QJ54
 KQJ
♣K9
♠632
A
 T875♣QJ874

Dealer South. E/W Vul.
West
Buss Thomsen

North
Tuus

East
Bilde

1
Pass

3
Pass

Dble
6

South
Sandford
Pass
5
All Pass

South’s jump to 5 left East with a guess of sorts. There was
obviously a reasonable chance that 5 would be expensive, butwould it compensate for a possible +1430?
NS had won the bidding battle, but to make their victory complete
North needed to lead her singleton club. When she went with theA, declarer could ruff and play on trumps.
How would you estimate your chances on this deal were you to bid
a slam? For instance, 6♣ by West.

Serbia v Scotland

Dealer West. None Vul.
Bd 8

♠943
 AJ632
 432
♣52

♠AJ
5
 KQ8
♣AKJ9863

None Vul
Dlr W

♠KQT5
 KT984
 J9
♣Q4
♠8762
 Q7
 AT765♣T7

At another table the bidding went >>
5

West
Punch
1♣
3NT*
6♣

North
Simic
Pass
Pass
All Pass

East
South
Symons Eric
1
Pass
4NT
Pass

*3NT Long clubs and natural

The ♣Q is a great card, but the lack of any first round controls is aworry.North led the A for the eight, seven and five. It’s hard toblame North for continuing with the 2, hoping partner started
with a singleton.
.

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

South led the A for the eight, four andnine. If the clubs are good for seven
tricks, there are now ten tricks indummy, so if declarer has the ♠AK there
is no defence. That indicates that you
must switch to a heart, just in case, butwhen South selected a spade declarer
could claim the rest.
Castells v Australia Five Aces
Bd 8

♠K
 7653
 J652♣K873♠AT62
 AKQT9
7
♣J64

♠QJ74
 842
 AQ8
♣AT2

♠Q62
 AJ9 6
 A9
♣ KQ 6 2

6None Vul
Dlr N♠7
 K7 5 4 2
 K1 0 8♣ A5 4 3♠ 1 0 8 5 3 3
Q7542♣ J9 8

East
2NT*
3♠
6NT

South
Pass
Pass
All Pass

2NT 5+ 8+

2♣ Strong
Dealer West. None Vul

Open Room. Dealer West. None Vul.

West
A Castells
1
3♠
4*
4NT*
6♠

North
Bashar
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
All Pass

East
South
M Castells Moses
1♠
Pass
4♣*
Pass
4♠
Pass
5♠ *
Pass

When South led the J declarer won in dummy. One possibility was
to come to hand and take the spade finesse. However, were it to
fail, South might be able to ruff a second round of hearts.
Keeping the diamond finesse in reserve, declarer decided to cash
dummy’s ♠ A at trick two and when his majesty appeared she could
play to ruff a diamond in dummy to get up to 12 tricks. In the
Closed Room, EW stopped in 4.
Dealer North. None Vul.

Seabass v Roudi♠ AKJ9 4
Q108
 J6 3
♣107

North
Pass
Pass
Pass

None Vul
Dlr W

♠9853
J
 KT943
♣Q95

Bd 1

West
2♣*
3♣
3NT

West
North
East
Gutierrez Shi
Rózpide
1♠
Pass
Pass
2NT
Pass
Pass
3NT
Pass
Pass
5*
Pass
All Pass
4NT
RKCB
5
2 keycards

South
Zhang
2♣
3♠
4NT*
6♠

With a nasty hand to lead from East went with the 2 and declarer
won with the 8 and drew trumps, East discarding two clubs and aheart. When a club to dummy’s king held declarer exited with aclub, which, along with the heart finesse, was enough to get her up
to 12 tricks. Once East has not found the killing move of leading a
diamond at trick one, the strongest defence is to hold on to all her
clubs. Declarer can play a club to the king, but will then need to findthe play of continuing with the ♣Q, the subsequent club ruff
establishing dummy’s ♣6.
Mark Horton

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Sylvia Shi writes

WINNERS OF WBF ONLINE WOMEN’S TEAMSJill Meyers
An outstanding Women’s Champion, iscurrently second on the all-time Women’s
ranking list, and holds a record four times
winner of the Venice Cup with a fifth that‘got away’! When Jill won her 4th World
Teams Championship in Bali in 2013, it was a
result never achieved in the history of the Venice Cup and it is arecord that still stands. Jill was inducted in to the ACBL Hall of Famein 2014. Read more Here

Kerri Sanborn
Usually to win in an event, you have tobid well, play well, defend well, and be
lucky! Our team, Seabass certainly had
our share of all of the above.

Kerri needs no introduction, with 9 world
championships and 20 national
championships. Kerri is also a Hall of Famer(2007) and she is one of the best to have everplayed.

Sylvia Shi:

THANK YOU to all thetournament organizers for
putting on this amazing
event and for helping
generate such an amazing
turnout– it was so
wonderful to meet all the
lovely ladies from aroundthe world! Heres to more in
the future!

7

Not so decorated as the first two but still has
had a share of success including a world
championship and 4 national championships,
and multiple high finishes. She currently
works in consulting.

Susan Zhang (PC)
Susan began seriously playing bridge a few
years ago and has seen great success, with afourth and seventh place finish in national
events. This is her first WBF event and firstmajor international win.

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Bid well - Play well - Defend well and Be Lucky!
Bidding
In the third match against Australia’s Five Aces, Kerri and Jill madenice judgment calls in the bidding.
With a balanced hand, responding to 1♠, many would rebid 1NT (Iknow I certainly would!). Kerri decided with her small doubleton
heart and pure point structure that 2♠ would fare better. Jill asked
with 2NT, and when Kerri showed only 3 spades, it was easy for Jill
to choose the game in 3NT.
Kinga led the Jack of clubs (a heart would have given an additional
overtrick) and Jill took her 11 top winners. 3NT played from theother side, as it was at many tables, goes down quickly on thenatural heart lead from North.
Play
Against Team Nawar, I opened 1♣ with my 11-point hand. (Wetypically only open 11 hcp balanced nonvulnerable , but I liked myhonor structure and holding both majors). After raising to 2, mypartner, Susan, had a clear 4 bid. Now she just had to make it.
Hanan led the Jack of hearts, and Susan had to decide whether toplay for restricted choice or not. Note that restricted choicesuggests that from QJ doubleton, they could play either the Queenor the Jack, making the Jack more likely to be a singleton when you
see it. For me, I always get nervous that opponents may be trying tobe sneaky with QJ doubleton and hate those guesses!
Susan decided the Jack of hearts was an honest card and crossed indiamonds to take the heart finesse. When that worked, she wasable to take the double spade finesse to make her contract. Well
done!
DefenseWe played Viking Girls in the final round. Though this was the only
match we lost, strong defense at both tables on this board helped
keep the margin small.
Gunn and Ingunn took the sacrifice against 4♠. If you guess hearts,
it looks like you can be down 1 only, losing 2 diamonds and one
club. Kerri led a heart, and Jill deceptively played the Queen. Gunn
started on diamonds, leading the nine, and Jill, holding AQ, ducked!
Now, she thought Kerri must hold the diamond Queen and she hada realistic chance to make the contract if hearts were 2-2. She
8

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

cashed the King of hearts, receiving the bad news, and then playeda diamond, receiving more bad news when Jill won the Queen. Jilldrew dummy’s trump and tapped away the other with a spade –now Gunn was able to ruff out the diamond but was still short on
tricks and had to go down three.
At the other table, 4♠ was touch and go and went down a trick
when declarer lost a heart, a club, and two spades.
Luck
Have you ever been in a not so great slam? You just have to grityour teeth and try to make it. In the third to last match against
Roudi, my partner and I had a bidding misunderstanding which led
us to a suboptimal contract. My 3NT was intended as an offer toplay while Susan thought it showed extra values. If I had extras, her
16 HCP should be plenty good enough to make slam, so she bid
keycard and there we were.
What a lead problem for Carmen! She must have thought she had
far too many points for this auction. Eventually she decided to leadfrom her longer suit, hearts.
Having avoided the fatal diamond lead, I knew that I had to take theheart finesse on opening lead since it was the only way to possibly
make the contract. When that worked, but Amparo played the 3 ofhearts, it looked like Carmen might have led from a five card suit.
Now I had a possibility to make. I needed to take heart finesses
again, as well as lead up clubs potentially multiple times. The goal
would be to set up a club and the fourth heart to discard both mydiamonds. However, to do all that, I would need to get to my hand
multiple times and I only had trump entries. And when Carmen
showed out of spades, I was forced to draw four rounds of trumps –I suspected that if I left any trumps outstanding, Amparo might beable to get a heart ruff.
After this, I started to work on clubs. Carmen had difficult discards
and ended up discarding two clubs – she made the smart play of
ducking on the club lead to the dummy. Being on the dummy, I had
no choice to play a low club – and when she played the Ace, my
Queen had set up and I was home free. I used the Queen of clubs
to discard one diamond – interestingly, the 6 of clubs also became awinner but if I used it to discard my other diamond, I would havebeen stuck on the dummy and have to lose a heart! So I ruffed mywinning 6 of clubs and took heart finesses for the last three tricks.
Not very often you can make a balanced 27-point slam – as theysay, it’s better to be lucky than good!

Sylvia Shi
9WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

AMY CASANOVAWIMPs – Runners up – WBF Online Women’s Teams

writes:Playing in the inaugural World Bridge
Federation’s Online Women’s Teams
event was a completely enjoyable
experience; the matches started on time
– seamlessly – and the opponents wereinteresting and friendly.
Organizing was challenging – and I
only had one team to handle!
Top Left to Right:
Team WIMPs
Amy Casanova(PC), Margi Peterson
Bottome Left to Right: Christine Denny & Fran White
Laura RoweNone of us had ever played in a WBF event before, so we had toregister and fill out a few forms. It wasn’t difficult at all, thanks to
the very clear and helpful instructions provided by theadministrators.
There were several practice sessions scheduled for people who
were not familiar with the platform, RealBridge. No one seemed tohave any trouble as it’s very intuitive with many extra features thatmy team appreciated.
The match schedule was announced promptly with plenty of time
to coordinate. Although I didn’t experience any director calls,
occasionally they popped in to make an announcement and werevery friendly.
I look forward to participating in more events like this in the future.
Many thanks to Mary Kelly Rogers, Anna Gudge and Shireen
Mohandes for their patience, knowledge and professionalism.

10

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Lone Bilde writes

Bridge over Global Waters
I started to learn to play bridge back in 1990. Had anyone told meback then that in 34 years, you will be playing a global tournament
involving bridge teams consisting only of women from countries
from all over the globe. And all of this while sitting at a desk in yourhouse, using a computer with a camera and a microphone, I would
certainly have shaken my head a couple of times, saying “you must
be crazy”. Crazy or not, nevertheless, it did actually happen during
the three days of 16,17, and 18 February 2024. We were 64 teams
consisting of 4-8 players from 31 different countries playing indifferent time zones against each other, at the World Bridge
Federation Women’s Online Tournament. This was a great show
and event organized entirely to promote women’s bridge.

Congratulations to the winners from the
Seabass team from USA, as well as to all
the runner ups, and big thumbs up andkudos and kisses to the organizers forsuch a great event.
I was playing for the Danish Ladies
Team, consisting of three pairs – theusual Danish national team suspects (3xBilde plus Koch-Palmund, Rasmussen
and Buus Thomsen) and a fourth pair of
two young women players and sisters,
Sophie and Amalie Bune. We ended in
6th position only 0.01 VP after the
French Girls in 5th position.
Lone Bilde, Helle Hofstedt Rasmussen,
Trine Bilde, Charlotte Koch-Palmund,
Dorte Cilleborg Bilde, Anita Buus
Thomsen, Amalie Rosa Bune, Sophie
Laura Bune
Two other Danish teams also
participated and ended among the firsthalf in the teams’ ranking.

Lone Bilde
11

Had anyone told me back in 1990 that bridge would change a lot in
the future, and you will no longer need 25-HCP to bid a game, myhead would still be shaking. However, I think our young sisters
demonstrated very
well what that is allabout. “Bid and playwell” is the newmotto:The board is from oneof our first matches
on Friday 16 Feb.
Amalie and Sophie sit
West -East
Bidding:
W
1♠
X
3♥!
p

N
p
p
p
p

E
1nt
3♣
3nt

S
2♥
p
p

The tendency today is to bid like crazy when you are vulnerable,
because the potential win is big compared to the potential loss ofgoing down. And also, defense in bridge can sometimes be difficult.
Here our sisters ended in 3nt with only 21 HCP. South led theQueen of hearts which Sophie in East ducked. Now that we all can
see the card, it is easy to see that a continuation in hearts would
have beat the contract. However, this may have been difficult tosee, “while the music was playing” (a Danish saying). So, south took
the ace of clubs and the queen of clubs trying to get Sophie to takethe trick by the king of clubs. However, Sophie ducked again, andnow it was over for the defense. Sophie got 5 spade tricks 2diamond tricks and 2 club tricks. A big win for us, as our opponents
at the other table played 3 clubs making (-110 as opposed to +600).

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Sophia Baldysz

Through the looking glass of a coach
For over 4 years I’ve been coaching bridge players, mostly junior girls
or college teams. In this day and age with the number of bridge
players in decline I find it essential to improve upon the situation. Yetwith coaching, especially young players, comes a certain
responsibility. Their young minds are shaped, they can further taketheir experiences from the bridge table and apply it to other areas of
their life.

Sophia Baldysz started playing bridge at 8
years old, but got really addicted to thegame at the age of 16. A member of thePolish Junior Girls team between 20142019, with whom she won the silver(2017) and gold (2019) in the European
Youth Teams Championships and thesilver in the World Youth Teams
Championships 2018.

It’s often said that bridge is a gentleman’s game. But I believe there’s
also something more – as a coach one has a great opportunity andresponsibility to share their passion for this amazing game, throughwhich their students will get more involved and fill the bridge
community.

Sophia and her Mom Cathy

Starting in 2017 and up till now she has
been playing with her Mom, Cathy
Baldysz, for the Polish National Women’s
team with whom in her first year on theteam reached a record semi-final for
Poland in the World Championships.

Sophia’s students
Anthony, Katie, Sophia, Cade and Alan
Bridge team - University of Virginia

12

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Five years later she won the first
Women’s World Championship medal(the bronze) for Poland.
Double European Champion in the
Women’s European Teams
Championships in 2018 and 2022 andsilver medalist of the Open European
Championships in 2018.
In pairs competitions she won the silverin 2018 in the European Youth Pairs andthe silver in the European Women’s
event in Strasbourg 2023.
Her tally of medals for national junior
events comes up to a total of 17 (8 golds,
5 silvers and 4 bronzes) in both open andgirls categories.

I would be going against tradition if I didn’t share a bridge hand in
my article. As part of my coaching sessions I send out declarer play
problems to my students. I count a number of these problems as acycle, the person who solves the most and in the shortest amountof time wins the cycle.
I will share one of these declarer play problems with you. I was
inspired by the detailed analysis that one of my students, Alan, sent
to me. He took what seemed to be the initial breakdown of the
problem a step further:
Hand 2
2♠ 85

AKJ9854
AK7♣3

NS Vul
Dlr E

♠A9
732
652
♣KQ1074

In the open categories she has a gold
medal for Polish National Women’s pairs
and 4 medals in the mixed categories.
She also won two Polish Grand National
Pairs events in 2018 and 2023 with her
Mom.
Early 2022 she started teaching some
Polish junior girls, two of which have won
a gold medal at a national junior girls
event. Currently Sophia is coaching the
University of Virginia bridge team.
A professional bridge player and coach,she is also doing her PhD in
biotechnology and in her free time, if
there is any, she enjoys singing.

You’re in 4 hearts in West, King of spades lead. Seems pretty
straightforward? Win the Ace and heart to the Jack, if North wins
they can cash the spade, but you have tempo to set up the club topitch a diamond. If North shows out you just lose a club, diamond,spade. But what if North has 3 hearts, can you still make it?
Alan sends me the solution I was looking for: “Let North have ♠ KQJ10

 Q106  XX ♣ AXXX or ♠ KQJ10X  Q106  XX ♣ AXX, North canhave at most 2 diamonds. With South showing out in hearts, take theAce, play AK of diamonds and then exit a club. North is forced to takethe ace and is endplayed. He can cash the spade, but has to either letme throw my diamond on a club or play into my hearts or play aspade, allowing me to ruff in dummy while pitching my loosing
diamond from hand.”I can only encourage my fellow coaches to share their passion forbridge with their students and wish them equally interestingquestions that I am asked by my students class after class. I am very
grateful for the opportunity to teach and find it always a pleasure toengage in bridge conversations with my students.

Sophia Baldysz
13

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

The WBF Women’s Teams

Liz Mc Gowan

The WBF Women’s Bridge Club are to be congratulated onorganising a terrific event on RealBridge on the weekend of 16-18
February.
64 teams took part, from 31 countries, a total of 412 players.

Liz , Scottish International, Medallist,
Journalist, mega worker for Yourth
Bridge and All Bridge was inducted into
the EBL Hall of Fame in Strasbourg last
June.
See:
http://www.eurobridge.org/people/distinctions/hall-of-fame/liz-mcgowan/

Liz writes:
23♠ KQ T 6 2
T98
8
♣T652

♠ J9 4
 AJ5 4 3
 K6 4♣94

All VulDlr S♠ A8 7
K
 AQ J9 2♣ AKJ8
♠53
Q762
T753
♣Q73

Bd 3

♠985
 T86
 A96432♣6♠QJ4
 K9732
–♣AT532♠AKT7
 QJ54
 KQJ
♣K9
♠632
A
 T875♣QJ874

14

EW Vul
Dlr S

The logistics were staggering. Starting on Friday 16 February, 15
sessions were run at different times with varying numbers of teams
in different time zones. Eash session comprised 2 or 3 sets of 8boards. Each team played 13 8-board matches. There were 3
Scottish teams, and not only did we not play each other, but we all
played different opponents, no duplication at all! It was great toshare a screen with new friends, mostly not yet members ofinternational teams.
There were remarkably few slam boards, but some stood out. The
first came from Session 1, where only 8 teams played.
Team Palmer, from South Africa, were the only pair to reach 6. A
trivial make for our irritating friend, the Double Dummy Solver. He
unblocks the hearts, cashes the top clubs, ruffs down the ♣Q,
draws trump and claims 12 tricks. Sadly, declarer could not see all
the cards. She banked on the club finesse and lost control whentrump broke badly.
DDS was just as annoying on this board from Session 3, with 30
teams.
6 pairs reached 6. DDS points out that the only lead to beat this isa club. 3 Norths did lead a club, but only one was given a ruff at
trick 3. With this horrible club break the winning line is a dummy
reversal, taking 3 diamond ruffs in the West hand, relying on spades
breaking 3-3 so that you have enough entries. Questions might beasked of any player who preferred that line to the more humanapproach of trying to establish clubs and running into a ruff. Anita
Buus Thomsen of Denmark Ladies was the only West to make 6.
She got lucky when North led the A.
We have all experienced hands where it is surprisingly difficult tocash 4 top winners against a Major suit game. How about cashing
two Aces against a freely bid slam?
There were 16 teams in Session 4. 4 pairs bid the East-West cards toslam. No need for DDS to point out the flaws – but all 4 made!

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024
Bd 8

♠943
 AJ6 3 2
432
♣52

♠ AJ
5
 KQ 8♣ AKJ9 8 6 3None Vul
Dlr W♠ KQ T 5
 KT 9 8 4
 J9
♣Q4
♠8762
Q7
 AT 7 6 5
♣T7

Bd 8

♠3
T53
 JT 4 3♣ JT 7 5 2♠ A7
 AK8 7 4
 K8 7 2♣ K3

None Vul
Dlr W♠ KJ5 4 2
 Q J2 AQ 9♣ A6♠ Q T 9 86
96
65
♣Q984

Bd 8

♠K
7653
 J6 5 2♣ K8 7 3♠ AT 6 2
 AKQ T 9
7
♣ J6 4

Scottish players are given advice on how to defend against an ‘Irish’
slam: “cash your Ace, cash partner’s Ace, then wait for your trump
tricks”. Here the defender on lead cashed her Ace then failed to
cash partner’s Ace. Might have been better not to cash an Ace at
all…
There was another nightmare break on this deal from Session 10(16 Only 5 pairs reached the Grand Slam. It seems that it is nolonger fashionable to lead trump against a Grand, and nobody did.
The Irish declarer was faced with the lead of the ♣J. She drew
trump and tried to establish her 13th trick in spades. When spades
broke cruelly it was too late to turn to DDS. He smugly points outthat the winning line is to finesse the 9. This was actually trivial
for my team-mate, Sam Punch, who was favoured with the lead ofthe J. Cathy Baldysz, declaring from the East hand after a Polish
Club sequence, also got a diamond lead. The other two declarers
made when the defenders discarded poorly.
Session 12 (26 teams) produced another cruel layout for EastWest.A thin slam, but certainly not the worst you will ever bid, as
did 6 pairs in the session. Jordan tried 6 by West, which even DDS
cannot make on a diamond lead. The others were in 6♠. Against
Mamidaki (Greece) and Castells (Spain) South led the J, an
obvious singleton. Both declarers tried to avert a ruff by banging

None Vul
Dlr W♠ Q J7 4
842
 AQ 8♣ AT 2♠9853
J
 KT 9 4 3♣Q95

You can register on the SBU website:
https://www.sbu.org.uk/competitions/
events-timeline/nationalevents/bamsa-b-a-m-foundraiser

down the ♠A, the play approved by DDS. The others, on a lesshelpful club lead, followed the odds by finessing in spades. Not
everybody was as familiar with RealBridge as the European teams,
but all seemed to enjoy the experience, being able to see and chatwith an opponent. I hope another su event will appear on thecalendar soon.
I would like to finish with a plug for another event on
RealBridge on Saturday 17 April. See Poster on Page 27.

BAMSA (Bridge – a Mind Sport for All) is running a fun
BAM teams to raise funds to encourage Youth Bridge.
Sam Punch would really appreciate your support. For
more information contact:
tournament@sbu.org.uk.
I hope to see you there!

15

Liz Mc Gowan

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Samantha Punch

BAMSA UPDATE – FUNDRAISE – RealBridge - April 27
Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA) has been fortunate to attract
some media interest for bridge, in relation to our new mindsport
education project and our previous gender and bridge research.
This includes the two news stories below, plus a short slot on BBC
Radio Scotland and a forthcoming interview on BBC Radio 4’s
Women’s Hour.
Radio Link to BBC Radio Scotland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWx9eyjiWVE&t=8s

Samantha( Sam), played on Team
Scotland for our WBF Online Women’s
Teams. Not only is Sam well known as aninternational player (selected for the
Scottish Open team for the European
Championships this year), she is known
for working to establish the Sociology ofBridge as a new research field. This led to
the launch of the global Keep Bridge
Alive crowdfund campaign. She
organised a successful BAMSA
conference in June 2021 and anotherwith RealBridge in October 2023. Moreinfo: www.bridgemindsport.org

The Conversation is an academic online newspaper which published
the below article about why men outperform women atmindsports. It discusses the extent to which women-only events are
beneficial for a mindsport like bridge or chess because of thegendered inequalities and neurosexism present in the game. So far
this article has had over 25,000 views:
https://theconversation.com/from-bridge-to-chess-why-menoutperform-women-at-mindsports-and-what-to-do-about-it223873
The UK national newspaper, The Times, published an article about
Scotland having three 15 year old girls for the first time in the sameU21 team for a UK junior event:
A similar story was delivered by the University of Stirling:https://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2024/february-2024news/schoolgirls-at-the-centre-of-new-university-of-stirling-studyinto-card-game-bridge-are-set-to-make-history/
Both pieces mention BAMSA’s new bridge, youth and schools
project. BAMSA is currently recruiting a post-doctoral researcher
for this study, so if you know of a social science researcher looking
for a job, please tell them about this post:
https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/work-atstirling/list/details/?jobId=3976&jobTitle=Research%20Fellow/Research%20Assistant%20(Social%20Sciences%20%E2%80%93%20Yout
h,%20Schools%20and%20Mindsport)
Follow BAMSA on social media @bridgemindsport and help bridge
to reach wider audiences beyond our community by sharing thenews pieces. Please support this work by playing in the BAMSABAM – a two session board-a-match online event to raise money forthe youth and schools project. The aim is to encourage schools totake mindsport education seriously and to integrate bridge into thecurriculum in many parts of the world.

Margherita Chavarria from Italy (Photographer:
Francesca Canali, WBF)

16

SEE POSTER later in this magazine - For Fundraiser event

Sam PunchWBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Monika Kümmel

Monika – Bridge Journalist – Player - Her Story
When Mary invited me to write an article for the newsletter how
could I resist!
I started bridge as a junior roughly 30 years ago and I believe that a lot
has improved since then for women’s bridge. In my last year as a
junior, our team consisted of 4 girls and a pair of boys, who we
considered the “3rd pair” (at least that’s the way I remember it!). I
believe we missed the qualification to go to the World Championships
by not very much, but the competition was fierce! My teammates thenwent on to win the first U26 Europeans for girls when I was too old
and had to watch others be able to be the first allowed to compete inU26 girls world championships. I guess I will never know how (if?) my
bridge career would have changed, had we already had the same
number of competitions for girls that we have now.

Monika Kümmel started to play bridgewith her parents and then went to a
training camp for juniors and got into
duplicate games. Although she always
had other interests as well and did not
put bridge at the top, she didn’t lose herpassion and never stopped playing. She
now works as a freelancer, whereamongst other things, she is employed
by LeBridgeur where she works on themagazine Bridgerama+ and content
management for BBO and Funbridge. If
you are interested in collaboration, feel
free to contact her at
Monika.Kummel@lebridgeur.com.

Having started in the open category, I believe it is wonderful that there
are separate categories for women and especially girls, not only
because this allows for additional national teams but also because it
provides a safe haven where all that counts is the bridge and there isno place for misogynistic or sexist comments and behaviour. But I alsostrongly admire all our fellow women players who compete at highlevel in the open category and who dispel the doubt that women areable to play as at a high level as men if they put the necessary time andenergy into training and are allowed to do it with and against the best.
After all, when we look at the pioneers of the game, there are someamazingly impressive ladies! I’m also happy to see women directors,
women presidents of federations, while the WBF women’s committee
keep showing us what a determined and coordinated team of strong
women can achieve. I’d like to thank them profoundly for their work(no, they did not pay me to say that!).But what is important in addition
to evolution is to talk about the direction it should take, and what I
miss, are more female journalists and writers, especially young ones!
I’ve recently started to work in the field of content management,
looking for people to write tournament reports or newsletter articles
and even though you find a fair share of women among the teachers,
there are a lot less who would use their pedagogic talents to write.
Also, those who do write are often very witty and tell wonderfulstories around the hands they would talk about, and I’d love to see
more of that, not only at national levels (Christina Lund Madsen is justone wonderful example).

In the same way that I need talented authors to write articles, I
have an opportunity to help new writers be published andbecome better known. And who better than women to write
about women in Bridge?

Monika Kümmel
17

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Priya Balasubramanian

WBF Women’s Team Event [Maharanis]

writesThe WBF women’s team event was arare opportunity to participate in aninternational event from the confinesand comfort of one’s home. Having
taken up bridge since Covid, I looked
forward to this three-day event with
anticipation. This was an opportunity tovirtually interact with women fromliterally all corners of the world.
As a team, we met people from manydifferent cultures. We played throughlanguage barriers as we grappled withunknown styles, systems and level ofplay. The organisers had made sure thatconvention cards of all the participants
were available at the touch of a button a great help- when we couldn’t
communicate. We fangirled over Kerri
Sanborn, Jill Meyers and Cathy Baldysz
to name a few, who had their own
Wikipedia pages! Bridge is that uniquesport that allows relative newcomers toplay against the Federers of the world. In
India, we have a saying, “Vasudaiva
Kutumbakam,” which means, “TheWorld is One family.” This tourney really
embodied this saying.

Maharanis India
Top L to R:
Ratna Tadepalli, Uma Jalapathy, Bindiya Kohli
Bottom L to R:
Manjit Oberai, Sadhana Gupta,
Priya Balasubramanian
We really hope the organisers continue to make this a recurring
event. As human beings we are greedy. Once we have a taste ofsomething good, we want more of it. While the scheduling maybe
intensely complex, it would be great if there could be a round robinof the top eight or twelve teams. It will, to a large extent, mitigate
the chance factor involved in having each team meet thirteen otherrandom teams, without any seeding factored in.
Events such as this are great opportunities to further interest in
women’s bridge and also provide players with role models toemulate and be inspired by. Finally, for a game that only requires apack of cards, tournament bridge is an expensive business when
you factor in travel and hotel costs. This tourney was a platform forserious bridge, while being very pocket friendly. As we say in India,
this event was full “Paisa Vasool” (money well spent).

Priya Balasubramanian18

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Laurence Duc
writesThere are those who say that, at
bridge, there should not be separate
women competitions, because well, it
is a sport that does not requirephysical strength, and that we are all
equals when it comes to brain
performance.

There are others who consider that,since the open competitions are
dominated by men, we womenshould be allowed to play in our own
environment to get the occasion tocompete in the international field.

19

A BIG THANK YOU
Laurence continues…
Of course there are exceptions : I’m thinking of Sabine, Marion,
Sanja, Debbie and all the others I do not know, who prove on a daily
basis that bridge is not a men-only domain! But they are so few thatfirst name is enough… and at the end of the day, the fact is that not
many women are present in the open field. I suppose many reasons
are to be found for that. I can think of a few, but it is not mypurpose here to address them.
For some time now, the EBL and the WBF, and especially the
Women’s Committee, under the unfailing leadership of Mary Kelly
Rogers, are working towards encouraging Women’s bridge with anumber of initiatives.
For four years or more we European women had the monthly Team
Practice matches where national women teams had the occasion toplay against one another. It was certainly excellent training. The
matches were scheduld by Mary but the organization of the actual
match was up to the EBL Women’s Coordinator (WBC). Up to now, I
think only the Danish girls are trying to keep it running on their side.
Also the Women’s online competitions, which take place from time
to time on Real Bridge or BBO. These are great platforms forpromoting women bridge worldwide and we should all participate
as much as we can.
The EBL monthly online training where a number of boards areplayed on RealBridge by women teams and then a top level player
shares her/his views of the hands (both bidding and card play).
Many, many thanks to all those who give time and effort for this. It
is really appreciated.
Switzerland managed to have two teams playing the February 16-18
WBF Women’s Online Teams on RealBridge and I was PC on
Helvetia team.
Let me first thank everyone, the organizers, the RealBridge team,the tournament Directors and anyone who participated in theadministration of the event for a perfect organization. It must havebeen a nightmare to manage the schedule of play for teams
participating from all over the world. Shireen made sure that allteams could play 13 matches at decent times. We received clear,detailed and personalized instructions on when and where to log inwhen we were due to play.
The opportunity to compete against women from all over the world
was very exciting, and doing it from the comfort of your homemakes it so easy. While playing, I could not help thinking that there
is a fine line between success and failure at bridge and that, ofcourse, your decisions impact the results of the overall team, butvery often we fail to consider how much team spirit, and teamtraining are important (maybe the country NBOs which are notmuch involved in that field should think of putting together some
programs for Women’s Bridge development).

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

A hand my team mates struggled with. Did you ?
Finally, here is ‘A’ hand that my team mates struggled with. and I
must say, I would have struggled too !
East decides that the hand is too strong for a pre-empt and opens
1♦, and West bids 1♥.
First question : Do you bid 2 or 3♦ with East hand ?
♠K stiff and ♣ Q 2nd are not really worth anything, so this would
advocate for a 2♦ bid. On the other hand the suit will provide 8
tricks most of the time. Which advocates for 3♦.
In our system, 4♦, means a good suit with a 4-card ♠ fit, so notpossible. And anyway, you do not want to go over 3NT.
Our team mate decided to bid 3♦, definitely considering that this is
too good a suit.
2nd question : what do you do with West hand over 3♦?
2 options :- Either you consider that the misfit is really too bad news and you
pass (in French we say : « misfit, ferme-la vite », which means stop
asap in case of misfit).
- Or you consider that your 9 points are really worth something infront of the 17 promised by partner and you bid 3NT. After all, youare playing imps and you do not want to miss the game !
Our team mate opted for 3NT.
Q♦ does not fall and there are bad communications between thehands so the result was 3NT-2.

I want to thank my team mates, andespecially my partner because I had a
lot of fun during the week-end. The
only regret is to not have been able
to play more matches.

The good news was the same happened at the other table so weended up with a push.However out of 30 tables, only 11 ended up
in 3NT and the rest played ♦ contracts with diverse number oftricks.
13 tables chose to rebid 2♦, and 11 bid 3♦. Out of the 11 that bid 3,
2 passed 3♦ and 9 bid 3NT, always going down. There was also a 4♠
contract (clearly a misunderstanding).
Other openings :1 x 2 ♣ : strong. question of style. A bit of a stretch.
1 x 3NT : Does it mean a running minor and nothing else ? In whichcase I would not pass with West hand with a void in ♦.
1x 3♦ : pessimistic in my view
1 x 5♦ : Certainly a preempt but is it really what you want to dowith this hand in 2nd seat ?

Laurence Duc
20

The Swiss experts we asked are definitely in favor of our teammates sequence. What about you ?

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Taufik Asbi, NPC writes

GBC at WBF Women's Teams Online - Indonesia
Top (left toright):Mr Liliek S,
Mr Benni
Ibradi, Mr
Tonny S
(President
GBC)
Bottom(left toright):
Nur Afi,Fera
Damayanti,
Riantini,
DewitaSonya,
Tracy Polii.

At the end of last year, the female
players at our club were thrilled when
the Club President announced that
“Ganesha Bridge Club” would participate
in the 2024 WBF Women's Teams Online
tournament. Our players enthusiasticallyregistered. Unfortunately, only 4 pairs
could play, so the others could only
watch and be sparring partners.
Out of the 4 pairs chosen to form theteam, some had international
experience, but many were young
players without such experience. This
was a great opportunity for our players
to compete and gain experience fromworld-class players, even if it was justvirtually on a laptop screen.
Preparation began. We were fortunate
because the club immediately facilitated
our training using RB. Many thanks to
Abah Tonny, the President of Ganesha
Bridge Club, and also Pak Benni and
Pakde Liliek. We formed a fairly large
team. In addition to 8 players, there wasan NPC and 4 supporting team members
who helped with technical and nontechnical aspects. The entire clubmanagement also fully supported us,
both during preparation andcompetition.

21

During the competition, all our players enjoyed participating in thistournament. The tournament system was very unique, where wealready knew the schedule of 13 matches and all the opponents wewould face. It was easy for us to prepare the team because thenames and Convention Cards of the opponents were also available.
Thumbs up for the organizing committee who prepared everything
so well.
It was an impressive experience. Being able to compete and directly
communicate with opponents from 12 countries. The atmosphereof the competition was also very conducive; our players greatly
enjoyed it, and spectators could easily watch and enjoy as well.
Although we only ranked 17th, we must be grateful because wewere able to compete with the other teams. It was a bit regrettablebecause some players faced challenges during the competition.
There were players who fell ill, some had to suddenly leave town,
and there were also those whose internet at home went out,
requiring them to move in order to continue competing.
Finally, we would like to thank WBF and RealBridge for organizing
this nice tournament. We look forward to the next tournament. We
greatly appreciate the help from the committee, especially from the
RealBridge Team. Everything was assisted, including detailed
understanding of RealBridge. We hope that next year thistournament will still be held, and of course, we hope that the
management of our club will allow us to participate in the next
WBFWomen's Online.

Taufik Asbi

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Gilly Clench

Gilly is pictured above on the left withher partner Maggie Pierce when Wales
won the Lady Milne in 2015.
Both Gilly and Maggie are to be admired
for their contribution administratively to
Bridge over the years while also playing
internationally. Not easy!
Gilly has in a pratical way promoted andhelped to develop Women’s Bridge inmany ways and in recent times has run
the Celtic Women’s Pairs alternating
monthly between BBO and RealBridge.
Lady Milne profile:‘Gilly has been a regular member of the LMteam for more years than she cares toremember (like most of us) and with morepartners than she can count (a bit like herbridge).
She has more interests than it is possible tocite, however hurdles and kite-surfing are noton the list. Thanks to everyone making surethat women's bridge and friendships continue
to thrive’.

The Lady Milne Trophy 2024
competition will take place in Dublin,
Ireland, over the weekend of 19-21
April 2024. Kibitzing will be available
on RealBridge. Kibitzers can follow theplay via a secure kibitz site, it will bedeferred by 30 minutes.
https://kibitz.realbridge.online

Lady Milne Trophy – the Women’s Home International
Gilly writes:
In the UK we have had since 1950 a unique playing field for women,
giving a great opportunity to compete at a higher level. There are
now five Home Countries (or nations) which, in order of size, areEngland (over 55,000 members), Republic of Ireland, Scotland,
Northern Ireland and - with only 1,350 members - Wales. The
Camrose trophy is the open equivalent, which is played over two
weekends (it used to be three) whereas the Lady Milne has always
been just one weekend of all play all.
In 2000 the British nations devolved in bridge; the republic of
Ireland joined in 1999 after the Good Friday agreement,
consequently, four teams became five, so a sixth team wasintroduced. The event is hosted by each country in turn and thehost can field a second team, which gives a further opportunity for
another six women to compete (sometimes it can be a bit of a
struggle for the smaller nations to find them all!).
The weekend begins by all the teams arriving by air, sea and road toenjoy a meal at the hotel where everyone stays. Play begins at 7
pm and finishes around midnight after three matches – quite atiring day. The host country’s two teams play the first match –which gets it out of the way! When play finishes on the Sunday
evening a Banquet is held with trophies and speeches. By tradition,
it is mandatory for these to be amusing and to contain at least one
joke. There are many, talented women who perform, tell stories orjokes and I have been known to sing (frequently). On one
memorable occasion I taught everyone an hilarious version of Jelly
on a Plate, (a nursery song) which was sung in a round and theScottish hosts were seen “wibbling and wobbling” in their kilts andsporrans on the tables.
The atmosphere is happy and friendly though fiercely competitive,
but, unlike open competitions has that feeling of united support,
always present within the women’s game. It is quite distinctivefrom other bridge events and long may it continue, despite theincreasing difficulty of costs run it and play in it.
Wales Won Lady Milne in 2015
Left to Right: Liz
Commins, NPC Linda
Greenland, Maggie
Pierce, Gilly Clench, Sue
Ingham, Diane Kurbalija
and Aida Aris

Gilly Clench
22

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Patricia Herrera

The Most Beautiful Game in the World ♠Following playing in the WBF Online Women’s Teams, Patricia
offers this advice for her four Mexican teams that played WBF
Online Women’s Teams and shares it with us.
Compete: What is the point of competing at a mind sport if you
don’t measure yourself against your peers? It’s a fascinating neverending story.

Patricia Herrera is a Mexican bridge
teacher and player, and is the Presidentof the Mexican Bridge Federation.
herrerapatricia@gmail.com
When she is not playing bridge, she runs
a nonprofit consulting firm based in
Mexico City.
In 2024 bridge is still the most beautiful
game in the world. This Olympic mind
sport is enjoyed by millions of people
around the world.
Like tennis, soccer, baseball and anyother major sport, it has a federation –in our case the Mexican Bridge
Federation, that helps regulate andadvance the game. The Federation’s
mission is to have more and better
Bridge in Mexico.
Recently, all the female members of theFederation, had the opportunity tocompete in the first WBF Women’s
Online Bridge Teams. We had four
Mexican teams playing in the event and
we all had a blast!

Learn from Better Players: As opposed to football, tennis or almost
any sport, at bridge you can play against the very best at many
online or F2F tournaments. Can you imagine being able to playtennis against Rafael Nadal and then being able to ask for strategy
advice? If you play bridge this could happen.
Improve your game: organized competitions make it easier toanalyze your results and helps you understand the logic andreasoning behind the rules, which leads to better decision
making. Therefore, you will get better results.
Strengthen your partnership: when you compete as a member of afederation it is easier and more common to work closely with apartner and put yourself in a position to win.

Have access to more and better learning tools: being a member ofthe federation provides you with several learning opportunities
such as receiving a bulletin, access to free lectures and classes,
having hand records etc.
Community and Social Interaction: being a member of thefederation will connect you with other bridge players, providing a
supportive community where you can learn and improve your gameand make new friends and maybe even a love interest.
The more, the merrier! We are always better together.

Patricia Herrera
23

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Suzi Subeck“From Chess to Bridge”
This level of participation sent a clear message to the WBF
Women’s Committee that Women’s Bridge is every bit as important
as Samantha Punch’s recent publication, Chess to Bridge“From”
suggests. If you haven’t read Sam’s BAMSA (Bridge: A Mind Sport
for All) research on this, go tohttps://theconversation.com/from-bridge-to-chess-why-men-outperformwomen-at-mindsports-and-what-to-do-about-it223873?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=bylinefacebookbutton&fbclid=Iw
AR1RfgE-ZNsracO0OIo7HLdqSSf-Vsc0xr-11v4zEpLiimBFQseLgpvFNpY

Sam’s comparison of men and women in bridge is insightful. And,
more importantly, for our purposes, she underscores theimportance of continuing to promote and provide Women’s
Games!

North America – Women’s Events
Suzi Subeck is a member of the WBF
Executive and Chair of the WBF Women’s
Committee and writes:
A big thank you to the 64 teams who
registered for and played in the
Inaugural WBF Online Women’s Team
Event.

Please join us for our next event WBF Women’s Festival on BBO.
Please see full notice on pages 27 and28.

For years, North America has lagged Europe in the promotion of
women’s events.
The History: Years ago, ACBL did away with Women’s Games at
Regional Tournaments and the result has been a downward spiralfor the women’s game. The Women’s United States Bridge
Championships have shrunk tremendously. Seeing the writing on
the wall, Amber Lin, with the support of the USBF Junior program, isspearheading a campaign to rebuild enthusiasm and bring back the
fun and friendship these women’s events were known to foster.
Amber is working with teams of girls in the U26 bracket. These girls
are committed to building their skills and dedicated to moving into
international competition. Eventually they will master the women’s
field and advance from women’s to include mixed and open
competition.
I watched much of the play in the online Women’s Teams on the
VuGraph. It was fun to see the teams from across the globe
interacting with one another. I most enjoyed the rounds where I
knew one or more of the participants. Perhaps for our next such
event, we could include some bios of the players to make kibitzers
feel more involved. Acquainting oneself with the players would
make it “more exciting.” It might also give a reason to cheer for one
or another team because of similar interests outside bridge.

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WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

WBF Online Women’s Teams Event
Mary Kelly Rogers did a fabulous job conceiving and creating thisevent. Shireen Mohandes and Andy Bowles at RealBridge made it
all come alive. While time differences were challenging, Shireen andAndy came up with a workable schedule that placated everyone.
Without the work and foresight of these three great minds, thisevent would still be a mirage!
It is notable that at all stages of the event, there were a significant
number of kibitzers: men and women. Frequently, less kibitzers
attend the Women’s Events … perhaps because they are happening
concurrently with the Open Events. Here, it was possible to see thenames of the audience which made it feel more down home andfriendly. Perhaps going forward, we could enhance the experience
with some audio and video commentary as is widely enjoyed duringmuch of the United States Bridge Federation Championships.
Congrats to:• The winning Seabass team (USA): Jill Meyers, Kerri Sanborn,
Sylvia Shi, and Susan Zhang.
• The second-place WIMPs (USA): Amy Cassanova, Laurie Rowe,
Fran White, Christine Denny, Margi Peterson• The third-place team Hungary: Orsolya Hegedus, Agnes Zalai,
Eszter Tichy, Brigitta Fischer, Villo Szucs, Hanka Lajos, Julia
HegedusIn Segment 3 of the Championship, in the match between Denmark
Ladies and England, one table bid slam on Board 3.
Only one lead will defeat 6 : that is the lowly ♣ 6! Hanna Tuus knewthat her partner’s jump to 5 made a diamond void a realpossibility. Still, it was equally reasonable to believe that the
opponents bid slam off one ace rather than two. Collecting one fast
diamond trick and a trick in the wash was certainly possible. Hannaand her partner took up a lot of bidding room with jumps to 3 and
5 , removing their opponents chance to cue bid or initiate any
ace-asking sequences.

This is hand 3 – the muchanalysed hand!
Have you spotted all three?
25

Hanna led the  A. Anita trumped in hand and knocked out the HA.
Debbie dutifully tried a club in case Hanna had started with a club
void. It was her best chance for defeat at this point. Alas, Hanna
followed suit and declarer collected 12 tricks and 13 IMPs.
At the other table, E/W played in 5 and made it easily even afterHelle Rasmussen found the lead of the ♣ 6.

Suzi Subeck

WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

Tuna Elmas
WBF Online Women’s Teams – Tuna – Turkey - Tokcan
We were very happy to take part in this “WBF RealBridge
Tournament for Women”.
Every step was very well prepared by the organizers. First of all, wewere required to load our convention cards to the system prior to
the starting time. All the alerts had to be made on time and fromboth sides. Besides, nothing got complicated for us or disrupted
the competition since the directors were there and were helping us
from the very beginning till the end. Plus, every match usually
started on time.

Tuna is a Venice Cup Silver Medallist.
Team Türkiye, 46th World Bridge Teams
Championships, Marrakech, 2023

There were only a few minutes delay in one or two matches which
was quite normal. We enjoyed the atmosphere of socializing andchatting with women coming from different countries. As a result,thank you so much for this great opportunity and for all yourefforts which brought so many women together from all over theworld. The whole occasion was “excellent” from all aspects.
With my sincere and kind regards to everyone.

Tuna Elmas
Roz Bernstein

WBF Online Women’s Bridge Teams – Roz- South Africa
Over thee weekend of 16 to 18 February we cpmpeted as a team of
8 in the WBF online womens bridge teams 2024.
64 teams from 31 different countries participated….3 teams fromSouth Africa!
Considering the geographical divide and the various time zones theorganization was fantastic ……I still cannot fathom out how it was
all done!!!
It was a great opportunity to play world class opposition from ourhome venues.
The event was professionally run and easy to follow as a spectator.
The bridge was challenging and invigorating.
I look forward to competing again and hope it becomes an annual
event .

Roz played for South Africa in the Venice
Cup World Bridge Teams Championships
Marrakech, 2023 and has been playing
for South Africa internationally on
women’s teams for many years.
26

Roz BernsteinWBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

BAMSA B-A-M
SATURDAY 27 APRIL
2 session Board a Match (2x20 boards)
Fundraising for youth & schools bridge worldwide
Open to all - online on RealBridge
15.00 UK (BST) - 16.00 CET - 10.00 EDT
Entry: £15 per player (£60 per team, concessions U21s)

Register via SBU Competitions
Enquiries to: tournament@sbu.org.uk
Special prizes + hand commentary
Can’t play but would like to support Youth Bridge?
Donations welcomed @ Keep Bridge Alive Crowdfund

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WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

FOR EBL WOMEN

1st European Online Women’s Team Bridge Championship!
Get ready for a thrilling 3-day online bridge showdown at the 1st European Online Women’s TeamChampionship, happening from June 7-9, 2024 .
This event is bringing together Europe’s female bridge players (yes, you too ), and it’s all going down on the
RealBridge platform .
No travel needed – all you need is your computer and a camera .
This championship is a great chance to test your skills, meet other players, and have a blast playing bridge
online .
Whether you’re looking to make a name for yourself or just enjoy a weekend full of Bridge, this event has
something for everyone .
Prizes That Count
Winning here means more than just bragging rights. You get:
• EBL Master Points: Shine on the European Bridge League’s scale.
• Vouchers for Future Events: The top 2 teams win €2,400 each to use at face-to-face EBL events overthe next two years.
• Medals: Show off your victory with medals sent to those who played at least 50% of theboards .
Join In
Anyone with a team of 4-6 female players can jump in .
The entry fee is €120 per team, but if you’re quick and register before 1 st of April 24, you only pay €100 .
Ready to sign up?
Head over to the official website and get your team in the game http://db.eurobridge.org/repository/competitions/24womenonline/microsite/Information.htm
Grab your team, sign up, and let’s make some bridge history together !
Women's Bridge Committee
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WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

WHAT’S NEW
FOR FESTIVAL SPRING 2024?
•

•

•

•

•

12 games per day instead of 7 –there's a game every 2 hours,
guaranteeing players that no matter
at what hour they login, there will
always be a game for them.
There is a "daylong" tournament
every day, which can be played at
any time for 24 hours. This allows
anyone to hop in and play their 10
boards at their own pace
There's a Free Pairs Tournament thatawards points every day, to allow
newcomers to join and anyone who
would like to try but is not fully
convinced of its worth.
More generous BB$ prizes in all
games ("lucky draw" prizes every 10
minutes, fun and trivia questions,and tourney prizes to the top
finishers).
The games are restricted to women
only. We already have a list of
women players from our previous
editions, however, in case someone
has never played in one of ourFestivals on BBO before, or discovers
they are "blocked", all they have to
do is fill in this form, and they'll beable to join the subsequent games:
Click here for the form. The form
simply verifies that the player is awoman, and adds her to the"women's community"; it is not an
event registration form.

Information links:
Women’s Festival Spring 2024
Announcement
Women’s Festival Spring 2024 event page

FESTIVAL -BORN 2008 – 17 YEARS – 28th EDITION

The 2023 Autumn Festival

The Autumn Festival was held from
6 - 12 November and was won by Virginia Chediak from
Norway - our congratulations go to her and she wins
free entry to the National Women's Pairs event in the
WBF Pairs Championship in Buenos Aires for herself anda partner of her choice from the same NBO
Vicky gave a short interview to BBO and you can find it
by clicking here
We hope everyone enjoyed the event - the full results
are here
Here The list of winners - the top 20 overall and the top
3 in each category.

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WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

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WBF Women’s Newsletter – March 2024

History of the Festival 

In 2008, WBF Women's Committee, in collaboration with BBO Italia, inaugurated
the WBF/BBO Women's Bridge Festival, breaking new ground by organizing an
event designed to transcend geographical barriers. This initiative, led by Mrs.
Anna Maria Torlontano, introduced a novel approach to bridge tournaments,
enabling women from all world to connect and compete. Initially it was staged in
April each year and because of its success a second Autumn Festival was
introduced. Anna Gudge from the WBF and Diana Serban from BBO have played
key roles in its organization from the beginning and continue to be involved.
Over the years, the festival has been endorsed and sponsored by the WBF
Women's Committee, making it accessible to participants worldwide. This year
marks the 28th edition, celebrating 17 years of bringing together women bridge
players from around the globe.

Do Play!
‘The late Anna Maria, was appointed first Chair of the World
Women’s Committee, a new Committee created by José
Damiani within the World Bridge Federation’.
We all owe her a great debt.
WBF Tribute to Anna Maria:
http://www.worldbridge.org/2016/11/04/anna-maria-torlontano-1930-2016/31