CONGRATULATIONS TO JUNIOR TEAMS

At the Michael Seamon Junior USBC, which ended on December 31, the USBF selected teams for the 2023 World Youth Bridge Team Championship: 2 teams for the Under 26 event, 2 teams for the Under 21 event, and one team for the Rona (young women under 26) event. The tournament would also have selected one team for the U16 event, but only one team entered in that division, so the Junior Committee has recommended to the USBF Board that they be approved. Several of the teams have fewer than 6 players and will augment to 6 and also choose non-playing captains before the USBF Board approves all of them.

U26 Teams

USA1: (in photo order): Ben Kristensen, Zach Grossack, Finn Kolesnik, Emma Kolesnik, Jacob Freeman, Kevin Rosenberg. Jacob Freeman has been replaced for the WYBTC by Noah Apteker.

2022 JUSBC U26 USA1

USA2 (in photo order): Stella Wan, Cynthia Huang, Brent Xiao, Richard Jeng, Cornelius Duffie, Amber Lin

2022 U26 USA2

U21 Teams

USA1 (In photo order): BoHan (Bruce) Zhu, Harrison Luba, Michael Xu, Olivia Schireson

2022 USA1 u21

USA2 (in photo order): Jonathan Yue, Rory Xiao, Arthur Zhou, Michael Hu

2022 JUSBC U21 USA2 (1)

Rona (women Under 26) team

USA (in photo order): Margot Donnellan, Ava Donnellan, Helena Hsieh, Jessie Cai

2022 JUSBC Rona MD,AD, HH, JC

U16 TEam

USA (in photo order): Brian Zhang, Andrew Chen, Jeff Xiao, Eric Xiao, and Charlie Chen

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU AND GOOD LUCK IN THE 2023 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Details: Created: 01 January 2023; Last Updated: 15 May 2023

MINOR CHANGE TO 2023 MIXED AND SENIOR USBC SCHEDULES

Last year, when we qualified eight teams for the face to face stages of the USBCs, we were unhappy that we needed to have the USA2 Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches be only 1 day long each. Not surprisingly, many of the players were also unhappy with that - we all prefer longer matches. Thinking about next year's Mixed and Senior USBCs and discussing with several very helpful players, we finally came up with a format that adds only one day to each event and extends the USA2 Quarterfinal and Semifinal to 1-1/2 days (90 boards) each. Here's what it looks like:

Days 1 & 2 are the USA1 Quarterfinal KO. The winners advance to the USA1 Semifinal, the losers drop into USA2.
Days 3 & 4 are the USA1 Semifinal and USA2 Stage 1. Both are 4 team KO's.
Day 5 and half of day 6 is the start of the USA1 Final, and all of the USA2 Quarterfinal, which has 4 teams.
The second half of day 6 is the end of the USA1 Final, and the start of the USA2 Semifinal (2 teams).
Day 7 is a rest day for the losing USA1 Finalist, unless both USA1 Finalists choose instead to spread the 8 segments of the Final over 3 days; and the end of the USA2 Semifinal.
Days 8 & 9 are the USA2 Final.

Changing the Mixed and Senior USBCs to this format means that the Mixed will end one day later than was previously scheduled, and the Seniors will start one day later and end 2 days later than previously scheduled. The dates and format of the Open and Women's are unchanged. Here's the revised calendar for all 4 events:

New 2023 Calendar

Details: Created: 12 October 2022; Last Updated: 12 October 2022

CONGRATULATIONS TO JLALL7 WINNERS - LALL & SPRUNG

bracket 1 winners - lall

This JLall was essentially a double elimination event and Lall never lost a match on their way to winning Bracket 1. The team was 5-handed, with Venkatrao Koneru and Jim Krekorian playing as a pair throughout and Hemant Lall playing half with Reese Milner and half with Michael Penick. Playing every board for five long days was a real test of stamina. In the final, Lall beat Levine (Passell, Berkowitz-Meckstroth, Rodwell-Wold, NPC Morris) 129-91; the second quarter was an amazing 74-2 for Lall.

hlall Milner Michael Penick

Hemant Lall Reese Milner Michael Penick

koneru2 Jim Krekorian

Venkatrao Koneru Jim Krekorian

bracket 2 winners - sprung

The Sprung team (Sprung-Clayton, Baseggio-Freeman, Bramley-Hessel) lost a close Bracket 1 Semifinal match to Lall, finished second in the 3-way USA2 Semifinal to advance to the Final, and closely defeated Lo (Lo-Chechelashvili, Chorush-Alex Kolesnik, Milgrim-Rigal, with substitutes Jiang Gu and Rick Zucker when only 3 team members were able to play) 65-64 in a shortened USA2 Final in which the Lo team picked up 14 IMPs on the penultimate board to come within 1.

Details: Created: 25 September 2022; Last Updated: 19 November 2022

USBF MEDALISTS IN WORLD BRIDGE SERIES

Another World Championship for Nickell Team!

Congratulations to the Nickell team on winning the 2022 Rosenblum Teams in Wroclaw, Poland. Nickell (for anyone who doesn't know them: Nick Nickell-Ralph Katz, Eric Greco-Geoff Hampson, and Bobby Levin-Steve Weinstein, NPC Jill Levin) won a hard-fought final over Ventin (Ventin-Wrang-Palma-Pacareu, Mendes de Leon-Sprinkhuizen) 186-164 with a blazing 51-19 final segment, after defeating Team Black (Black-Bertheau, Hallberg-Hult, McIntosh-Paske) 118-115 in the Semifinals.

2022 Nickell team

Ralph Katz, Nick Nickell, Bobby Levin, Jill Levin, Eric Greco, Geoff Hampson, Steve Weinstein.
Photo by Stan Subeck.

Congratulations also to the mostly USBF Robinson team (Robinson-Korbel, Berkowitz-Meckstroth, Gold-Zia) who lost to Ventin in the Semifinals to finish tied for third and a bronze medal.

McConnell Medals for USBF players:

In the McConnell Cup (women's teams), with a small but very strong field, Baker (Baker-McCallum, Brock-Brown, Meyers-Sanborn) tied for third, and five other USBF members won medals: Joan Brody & Sandra Rimstedt, Gold; Disa Eythorsdottir & Janice Molson, Silver; Jodi Edmonds & Irina Levitina, Bronze.

USBF Gold & Bronze in the Women's Pairs

Jill Meyers and Kerri Sanborn took home the second USBF Gold Medal from Wroclaw in the Women's Pairs, adding to both players' amazing collection of gold medals - if I counted correctly, this was Jill's eighth and Kerri's eleventh World gold medal.

Disa Eythorsdottir and Janice Molson won Bronze.

Rand Silver Medal & Senior Pairs Bronze:

In the Rand Senior Bowl, the all-USBF Goodman team (Goodman-Lair-Passell, Berkowitz-Meckstroth) lost a close final to the mostly Polish Vytas team, to win Silver, after defeating the Zimmermann team in the Semifinals.

David Berkowitz and Jeff Meckstroth won Bronze in the Senior Pairs.

USBF Medals in Mixed teams & Pairs:

In the Mixed Teams, Barbara Ferm won Gold, Joe Grue and Gillian Miniter won Silver, and Kevin Dwyer and Sandra Rimstedt won Bronze.

Chris Willenken won Bronze in the Mixed Pairs.

Details: Created: 27 August 2022; Last Updated: 21 October 2022

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