Monday, July 19

ScheduleSee full schedule at acbl.org/naobc.

Premier KO Open/Limited

Two-Day Pairs All flights

Three-Day Pairs All flights

Monday, July 19 Opening Round

Tuesday, July 20 Round of 32/Quarterfinals IMP PairsWednesday, July 21 Round of 16/Semifinals Qualifying sessions

Thursday, July 22 Quarterfinals/Final Final sessions

Friday, July 23 Semifinals Two-Day Pairs Qualifying sessions

Saturday, July 24 Finals Qualifying sessions Semifinal sessions

Sunday, July 25 Final sessions Final sessions

FLORIDA TAKES GNT CHAMPIONSHIP TITLEThe Florida-based District 9 team captained

by Jeff Wolfson won the Grand National Teams Championship Flight when they defeated the District 2

DISTRICT 16 WINS GNT FLIGHT ATeam Yang (Hua Yang, Yan Song, Danny Feng,

Lunhui Lin) of District 16, representing Texas and Mexico, are this year’s Grand National Teams Flight

BIG APPLE, BIG WINThe District 24 team representing New York

captained by Hengrui Xing are this year’s Grand National Teams Flight C winners. Xing, playing with

GNT winners

editor@acbl.orgChip Dombrowski, editor

Jeff Wolfson, Jeff Meckstroth, David Berkowitz, Gary Cohler, Kevin Dwyer, Shan Huang

Rick Bingham, Ryan Connors, Tom Peters, Ernie Schuler, Adam Kind, Will Colmer

Hua Yang, Yan Song, Danny Feng, Lunhui Lin

Hengrui Xing, Tingran Wang, Jiaheng Hu, Yang Xu

See Champs, page 2 See Flight A, page 4

See Flight C, page 4

DISTRICT 6 WINS GNT FLIGHT B FINALIn the final of the Grand National Teams Flight B,

the District 6 team (Virginia/Maryland/DC) led by Richard Bingham topped their District 24 opponents

See Flight B, page 4

GNT Championship Flight 1 D2 Freeman 28 61 86 90 2 D9 (11) Wolfson 48 69 112 149

1 D9 Castillo 30 53 78 117 2 D16 (3) Yang 45 93 125 149

GNT Flight A final scores

1 D6 (9) Bingham 24 57 81 122 2 D24 (14) Merlo 15 27 73 103

GNT Flight B final scores

1 D24 (5) Xing 32 72 106 124 2 D13 (6) Shi 27 35 53 93

GNT Flight C final scores

Stefano Merlo, Robert Forster, Christopher Moh, Jordan Lampe

Li Miao, Zhiqiang Hu, Henry Shi, Zhijing Tang

Juan Castillo, Luisana Madueo, Maris Zilant, Linda Epstein, Susan Fuller

Jacob Freeman, Daniel Lavee, Bruce Zhu, Darren Wolpert, John Carruthers, Marty Kirr

GNT runners-up(Ontario) squad led by Jacob Freeman in Sunday’s final, 149–90.

Playing for District 9 were Wolfson, David Berkowitz, Kevin Dwyer, Shan Huang, Gary Cohler and Jeff Meckstroth. District 9 is regularly a favorite in the contest, and several members of this year’s winning team have multiple victories in the event. This is the 15th GNT Championship win for Meckstroth, the ninth for Berkowitz, the eighth for Cohler, and the second each for Wolfson and Dwyer. This is the first open NABC win for Huang, who previously had wins in the Canadian National Teams Championship (he moved to the U.S. in 2020).

Playing for District 2 were Freeman, Daniel Lavee, Bruce Zhu, Darren Wolpert, John Carruthers and Martin Kirr.

In the final, Florida jumped out to a 20-IMP lead in the first quarter, but the Canadians trimmed their opponents’ lead to just 8 IMPs by halftime. Florida remained in control the rest of the match, however, increasing their lead to 26 IMPs in the third set. In the stretch, District 9 held the Canadians to just 4 IMPs, to win the match by 59.

Champs continued from page 1

Geoff Hampson of Las Vegas NV and Haig Tchamitch of Paradise Valley AZ won the Two-Day Open Pairs. Having qualified in tenth place with a carryover of 37.20, the pair, who are both full-time professional players, scored 57.30% in the first final session, which moved them into sixth place. They scored an impressive 65.38% in the second final session, propelling them into first place by two boards. They finished with a combined score of 833.38.

Maximo Crusizio of Fort Lauderdale FL and Judy Fox of Virginia Beach VA finished second. They qualified in second place and were leading the event after the first final session, thanks to a 61.47% first final score. Their final session score of 50.64% was still good enough to secure second place by a little more than half a board.

Trisha and Gerardo Malazdrewicz of Dartmouth NS have won the 0–5000 Two-Day Pair event. Qualifying for the second day in 11th place, the pair scored 66.10% in the first final session and 63.02% in the second final session. Their combined matchpoint score of 333.81 was three boards better than second place, Christina Parker and Stewart Rubenstein of Chestnut Hill MA. They qualified in fourth place and scored 56.63% and 54.75% on the second day for a combined score of 300.43.

Trish Malazdrewicz is an ACBL tournament director and the TD manager for BBO. She has worked for BBO for 11 years and met Gerardo there. “We just celebrated our eighth anniversary,” said Malazdrewicz. “Gerardo has worked for BBO as a system admin for about 15 years. Bridge is our lives.

“We were both very shocked with our win as tonight’s session seemed atrocious, the hands were torture with bad splits. I did a double-take when I saw our score.”

Hampson, Tchamitch win Open Pairs

BBO couple win 5K pairsHaig Tchamitch, Geoff Hampson Gerardo Malazdrewicz, Trish Malazdrewicz

Maximo Crusizio, Judy Fox

Christina Parker, Stewart Rubinstein

(New York City/Long Island) captained by Stefano Merlo, 122–103.

Bingham played with Mid-Atlantic teammates Ryan Connors, Thomas Peters, Ernie Schuler, Adam Kind and Will Colmer.

In addition to Merlo, the NYC lineup was Robert Forster, Christopher Moh and Jordan Lampe.

District 6 led throughout the match, but District 24 was never far behind. D6 posted a narrow 9-IMP lead in the first quarter which they expanded to 30 IMPs at the half. The New Yorkers made up ground in the third quarter, pulling to within 8 IMPs, but the D6 crew did not falter in the last set, winning the contest by 19 IMPs.

Flight B continued from page 1

A winners. They defeated Team Castillo (Juan Castillo, Luisana Madueo, Maris Zilant, Linda Epstein, Susan Fuller) from Florida’s District 9.

Yang won each quarter by double-digits, finishing the match 149–117.

Juan Castillo won the Flight A GNTs in 2019 with a different team lineup.

Flight A continued from page 1

Flight C continued from page 1

Xin Ge and son Brandon Ge won the Two-Day 0–1500 Pairs Sunday, scoring 60.12% in the first final session and 63.61% in the second. The Ges’ margin of victory in the final was more than three boards. Their four-session total with carryover was 207.54.

The winners, of Cupertino CA, qualified fifth in Saturday’s opening round.

Brandon, 14, was previously second in the GNT Flight C in 2019, and he won the Online Pairs of the Youth NABC in 2020. He was slated to represent the U.S. on its Under-16 team at the World Youth Championships in Italy in 2020, but the event was canceled due to COVID.

In second with 184.38 was Gregory Gauthier of Mountain View CA and John Stremel of San Jose CA.

Third place went to first-day leaders Gilbert Deleeuw of Douglassville PA and Craig Bailey of Macungie PA who scored 181.96 (top = 7).

Father-son duo wins 0-1500 pairs

Brandon Ge, Xin Ge

Tingran Wang, Jiaheng Hu and Yang Xu, survived a fourth-quarter surge by District 13’s Henry Shi, Zhijing Tang, Li Miao and Zhiqiang Hu.

After a close first quarter, Xing took a 37-IMP lead at the half. After three quarters, Xing led by 53. Shi outscored Xing 40–18 in the fourth quarter, but Xing held on to win with a final score of 124–93.

Gregory Gauthier, John Stremel

The NAOBC Premier Knockout starts today. There are 36 teams entered in the open flight. Twenty-two teams have byes today, with the others playing in one head-to-head and three four-way matches.

There are 16 teams playing in the 0–5000 KO, making for an even bracket of head-to-head matches.

In the 0–1500 KO, there are 12 teams. Two have byes; there are three head-to-head matches and one four-way.

Premier KO starts today

Click here for Premier KO Bracket

Click here for 0-5000 Bracket

Click here for 0-1500 Bracket

1 Mike Levine, Eddie Wold, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness 2 Nick Nickell, Steve Weinstein, Robert Levin, Ralph Katz, Eric Greco, Geoff Hampson 3 Roger Lee, Sylvia Moss, Michal Nowosadzki, Jacek Kalita, Sjoert Brink, Sebastiaan Drijver 4 Andrew Rosenthal, Aaron Silverstein, Chris Willenken, Jan Jansma, Boye Brogeland, Espen Lindqvist 5 Adam Grossack, Laurence Lebowitz, Agustin Madala, Michael Rosenberg, Dennis Bilde, Zachary Grossack 6 Warren Spector, Gavin Wolpert, John Hurd, Kevin M Bathurst, John Kranyak, Vincent Demuy 7 Louk Verhees Jr., Stan B Tulin, David Bakhshi, Alon Birman, Dror Padon, Cornelis Van Prooijen 8 Naren Gupta, Zia Mahmood, Simon De Wijs, Daniel Korbel, David Gold, Bauke Muller 9 Gary Donner, Cecilia Rimstedt, Per-Ola Cullin, Marion Michielsen, Brad Moss, Joe Grue 10 Jenny Wolpert, Phyllis Fireman, Joel Wooldridge, David Grainger, Joshua Donn, Greg Hinze 11 Paul Lewis, Linda Lewis, Ron Smith, Billy Cohen, Bart Bramley, Kit Woolsey 12 Kevin Dwyer, Joyce Hill, Shan Huang, Mikael Rimstedt, Ola Rimstedt 13 Mike Rippey, Kamil Nowak, Tarek Sadek, Walid Elahmady, Piotr Nawrocki, Piotr Wiankowski 14 Andy Goodman, Chris Compton, Steve Garner, Gary Cohler 15 Aldo Giovanni Gerli, Marcelo Branco, Diego Brenner, Miguel Villas-Boas, Andrea Boldrini, John Overdeck 16 Ishmael Del’Monte, Finn Kolesnik, Daniel Lavee, Jacob Freeman, Tom Hanlon, Leslie Amoils 17 Leo Bell, Crispin Barrere, Mark Moss, Robert Thomson, Bruce Tuttle, Robert Munson 18 Allen Kahn, Jeffrey Rothstein, Michael Lipkin, David Gurvich, Michael Radin, Ira Herman 19 Bruce Ferguson, Brenda Keller, Julie Nadel, Joris van Lankveld, Berend Van Den Bos 20 James Fox, Carlos Pellegrini, Neil Chambers, Allan Graves, Maximo Crusizio, Rodrigo Garcia Da Rosa 21 Jonathan Fleischmann, Morrie Kleinplatz, Kelley Hwang, Stephen Cooper, Stephen Mackay 22 David Sokolow, Tobi Sokolow, Louis Sachar, Stephen Wood 23 Alexander Kolesnik, Bob Etter, Gary Soules, Michael Xu, Richard Zeckhauser 24 Anne Brenner, David Caprera, Robert Cappelli, Robert Bitterman, Louis Glasthal, Michael Massimilla 25 W.F. Reynolds, Lance Kerr, William Hall, Joseph Viola III, Hank Youngerman, Alan Douglas 26 Franco Baseggio, Andrew Stark, David Chechelashvili, Ai-Tai Lo, Phil Clayton, Andrew Gumperz 27 Ming Sheng, Winston Huang, Yanong Han, Wanfeng Mou, Fu Zhong 28 Jack Smith, Juan Carlos Ventin, Joaquin Pacareu, Marcos Thoma, Gonzalo Rubio, Juan Pablo Valdes Delamaza 29 Omer Ekinci, Nikolaos Delimpaltadakis, Emre Ultav, Safak Uras, Tamer Cokgor, Emre Yazici 30 Leonardo Cima, Ettore Bianchi, Alessandro Gandoglia, Federico Primavera 31 Sherman Gao, Andrew Collins, Somers Collins, Bo Liu 32 Sathya Bettadapura, Stephen Tu, Don Liu, Robert Virgile 33 Sam Dinkin, Kalyan Venkat, Kyle Rockoff, Doug Couchman, Ethan Derman, Levi Katriel 34 Shigang Liang, Michael Wang, Mike Xiao-Fang Xue, Peter Wong 35 Michael Botwin, Barry Plotkin, William Campbell, Suzanne Campbell 36 Jason Ji, Huailin Chen, Weizhong Bao, Shihong You, Frank Feng

Premier KO rosters

1 Charles Nemes, Edward Maier, Rick Schoenfield, David Bogolub 2 David Walker, Dara Dinner, William Bauer III, Stephen Becker 3 Bill Dinner, Bart Cirker, Dina Schechter, David Joseph 4 Edward Helpert, Ron Vickery , William Lindgren, Henry Nelson 5 Mark Henderson, Bernard Rehberg, A. Schmidt, Philip Geibel 6 Beverly Hartin , Don Freeland, John Kohler, Jean Wilkinson, Martha Freeland 7 Mike Peng, Ted Boyd, Robert Griffiths, Adrian Record 8 William Neumann, Michael Schrage, Brian Sutton, Edward Rothenheber 9 Ethan Wood, Jane McLaughlin, Bart Bussink, Harrison Luba, Robin Hillyard, Dan Morgenstern 10 Adam Weisz-Margules, Peter Peng, Linda Lord, Howard Arcand 11 Shelley Burns, Kelvin Raywood, Lisa Mita, Edward Alcoff 12 Ernest Levinson, Abraham Pallas, Sherrie Goodman, James Thornton 13 Herbert Nakagawa, Barbara Durkin, Mitsuko Kodama, Iris Chung 14 Ali Selehdar, Lynne Castoldi, Rasha Saad, Keith Thompson 15 Eric Gettelman, Paul Holmes, David Venetianer, Richard Franklin, AJ Stephani, Isaac Stephani 16 Ping Chen, Paul Jepson, Cabot Jafee, Robert Spick, Lance Marrou

0–5000 KO rosters

1 Komal Kamat, Arvind Sharma, Ashok Agarwala, Bhartkumar Shah, Lynnie Sharma 2 James Dahlberg, Alan Munro, Colin Schloss, Nick Migliacci 3 Francis Gupta, Ken Trock, Charles Dvorkin, Edward Fisher, Jean Lyons, Ed Lyons 4 Shelley Johnson, Joseph Lepscier, Richard Gunderson, Robert Lee Jr. 5 Yan Drabek, Barry Laflam, Bob Leitch, James Kronholm 6 Thomas Paul, William Whitehouse, Gayle Booth, Brenda Kelly, Janet Johnson 7 Charlie Chen, Andrew Chen, Kayden Ge, Brandon Ge, Jianming Zhang 8 Brian Zhang, Eric Xiao, Renjun Guo, Ren Wanwan, Guanghao Xiao, Jeff Xiao 9 Dick Bryant, Kathleen Feeney, Arlo McDowell, Suzanne Greenwood 10 Mary Ann Fazio, Kenneth Waskom, Mary Costantino, Ernest Costantino 11 Kai Eckert, Allie Clark, Kent Taylor, Jake Stricoff, Seth Wallerstein, Trent Neutgens 12 Debbie Ayars, David Ouyang, Gary Haynie, William Stevenson, Sharon Sandell

0–1500 KO rosters

See results from all of Sunday’s events, including the regional pairs events

Keep it CleanMost of us are honest and want to play the game properly. When you play against an opponent you suspect is not playing in accordance with the Laws, or violating the Code of Disciplinary Regulations, please file a Player Memo. There is a version streamlined for online play reports available at www.acbl.org/bbomemo/. You may privately text your director as well, but making a public accusation is itself a violation of the CDR, so please report suspicious conduct in an actively ethical way!

“I’ve volunteered to be one of the investigators when there is suspicion of Unauthorized Information during online play. There are a lot of factors to consider, not least of which is the suspected player’s experience level.

Accusations of cheating are a serious matter. Anyone can do something strange on one deal; but when a pattern emerges, there is smoke. Where there is smoke, there is often fire. For charges to be filed, more than one investigator has to come to the same conclusion.

The game will be better and more popular if we all behave ethically.

Big Brother is watching you.” – Larry Cohen

Online Bridge: Different Mechanics, Same LawsBy Robb Gordon, ACBL National Recorder

When we play online, we are still playing bridge. The Laws of Duplicate Bridge and ACBL Regulations still apply. But facing facts, some things are different. Here are a few:

1. Revoking and leading out of turn are impossible.

2. You must self-Alert.

3. Because you are Alerting only the opponents, and asking questions only of one or both opponents, partner does not “hear” your explanations or questions and that avenue of Unauthorized Information has been eliminated. This saves a lot of arguments and bad feelings.

4. Breaks in tempo are awkward. At the table, if somebody takes a lot of time, you can see that they (presumably) are thinking. In online bridge, it could mean that their tea kettle started whistling and they went to turn off the burner. Law 73E2:

If the Director determines that an innocent player has drawn a false inference from a question, remark, manner, tempo or the like, of an opponent who has no demonstrable bridge reason for the action, and who could have been aware, at the time of the action, that it could work to his benefit, the Director shall award an adjusted score.

This rule applies. When you spill coffee or are distracted by a phone call, it is incumbent on you to make sure the opponents know so they are not deceived by your inattention.

5. The ACBL has long had a rule that partnerships have

two identical convention cards with their names on them. The convention card rules apply to BBO as well, except you need have only one card. To make a convention card, log in. Click Account on the right tabbed menu and select the Convention Cards heading. It is pretty easy to recall a saved card or to complete and save a new one. Remember to load your card by completing the Use With Partner blank with your partner’s BBO name.

6. The ACBL Convention Charts apply here. Make sure your convention is permitted in the game you are playing. For example, a 2♦ opening that shows a weak hand with length in one of the majors is an Open+ Chart convention and is not permitted in any event in the online regional.

7. It has come to our attention that some players have more than one BBO user ID. Please only use one ID when playing in ACBL games with human opponents. We are screening for this.

8. Because you are playing in an ACBL game against human opponents, we encourage you to make sure your profile displays your real name.

Entry FeesPer player per session:GNTs: FreeNAOBC+ events: $20NAOBC events: $17Regional events: $15

BBO Help Desk – Convention Cards Convention cards disclose your partnership’s agreements to the opponents in accordance with the rules of bridge. The

ACBL requires that you and your partner make a completed convention card available. Your full names – first and last – should appear at the top. When you sit down to play or register for a tournament with a partner, BBO will see if your partnership has a convention card on file by looking at your list of Personal Cards for your partner’s username. If it is there, you will be notified and the appropriate card is loaded once play starts. If your opponents follow this procedure, you’ll be able to view their cards as well.

After logging in, click on the Account tab along the right edge. Your profile will open as shown at right.

Click on Convention cards. The Convention cards section will open.

To fill out a new card, click on New ACBL Convention Card. If you don’t want to start from a blank card, you can also select one of the Stock Cards.

A blank convention card will appear. Widen the window by dragging the divider to the left. Click each blank line to place your cursor, then enter the appropriate information.

Continue filling in the card until it is complete. When the card is complete, click the “Save changes” button at top left.

To view or edit a card after it is filled out, select it from the list of Personal Cards at the bottom of the Convention cards section.

A prompt will ask you what you want to do with the card. Select view or edit as appropriate. In order for the card to be visible to your opponents, you must designate a partner. Enter your partner’s BBO name as shown and click “Use with partner.”

When you want to view an opponent’s convention card during a game, start by clicking on the three bars.

If the opponents have loaded their convention card, it will appear as a choice in this menu. Select NS Convention Card or EW Convention Card. The card will pop up in another window.

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9