USA SWEEPS THE WORLD CHAMPIONSIPS

Five of the 9 top teams from this year's World Championships are made up of North American luminaries as teams from the USA won Gold medals in the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Senior Bowl, and Bronze medals in the Bermuda Bowl and the Senior Bowl.

BERMUDA BOWL
USA1 :: ITALY :: USA2

VENICE CUP
USA1 :: CHINA :: NETHERLANDS

SENIOR BOWL
USA1 :: FRANCE :: USA2

Although the final situation in the Bermuda Bowl was really unfortunate, everybody has to accept that the Championship is decided by the players themselves over so many hands and not just on one board and one appeal.

Thank you all for your perfect ethics and fair play – you responded so well to my requests made at the opening ceremony, and the Championship has progressed very smoothly to its exciting conclusion..   José Damiani, President of the WBF

From The NYC Bridge Mailing List and Adam Wildavsky::

USA 1 won in a squeaker that went down to the wire and then past the wire. Down by 21 IMPs with two deals to go the Nickel team picked up 22 IMPs, apparently winning by 1 IMP. But wait! There was a director call on the final hand. Declarer in 5DX claimed he had not intended to play dummy's low spade, but instead a high one. The difference between -100 and -300? One IMP!

The TD ruled declarer was down two, and in due course the Italian captain lodged an appeal. An AC was convened and confirmed the TD's ruling.

Congratulations once again to Nick Nickell, Dick Freeman, Jeff Meckstroth, Erik Rodwell, Bob Hamman, Paul Soloway, and NPC Sidney Lazard. This is Nickell's third Bermuda Bowl win. Changing sports for a moment that makes this win his hat trick. I haven't checked, but I think each of his teammates already has a hat, so to speak.

Congratulations also to the Italians Alfredo Versace, Lorenzo Lauria, Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Maria Teresa Lavazza (NPC) and Massimo Ortensi (coach) for a hard fought match, the most exciting in years, or perhaps ever.

Click Here to see the last 16 hands, and what happened. ::>

Mont Monte Carlo Press Room: The Press Room in Monte Carlo will be managed by Elly Ducheyne (great news!). It will be in l’Hotel Hermitage. Click Here to read Press Room and Registration notes.

BRIDGE BASE ONLINE PRESENTS FREE LIVE VUGRAPH
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Championships will be broadcast LIVE from Monte Carlo from November 2 to 15 on Bridge Base Online, a FREE online bridge service. Every session of these champsionships will be broadcast live. Commentary and analysis will be provided by a panel of world class players.

VUGRAPH HANDS from the BBO Vugraph can be viewed offline on Yvan Calame's excellent site by clicking here

Internet Transmission from e-bridge free access to all. Starting November 3 and onward bridge lovers from all over the world will be able to watch free most interesting matches of the day, as played in a real time by the best world players. All the boards transmitted will be later free available for the offline view.

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