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London, England, 28 February 2000 17.30 After a long day working on a new Edition of an old classic, Improve your Bridge, there is just time to check the email before mixing a gin & tonic and selecting a good Bordeaux to go with the steak au poivre I am planning to cook. An assortment of routine messages is interspersed with one from Christine Francin at WBF headquarters in Paris. Would you be able to come to Athens to take care of the Daily Bulletin? Obviously I will need to think about it carefully. It takes several seconds to send back a message indicating I will arrive on Wednesday afternoon. I recall that two years ago Patrick Jourdain had to play and write the Bulletin, so I am hoping everyone turns up, or am I? Near the end of the event, Patrick had to partner the eventual winner, Paul Chemla, on VuGraph. Having been told by Paul to 'play down the middle' he overcalled an opening bid of One Diamond with One Heart on these cards: ª32 ©Q1086 ¨J2 §AQJ97. This somewhat dubious effort led to an over average result - and Paul won by only three matchpoints! No, best not to play. If you do well it will be put down to luck, and the skill of your partners, and if you do badly your boss may have second thoughts about who should be editing the bulletins! We are playing in the Hotel Royal Olympic - how appropriate in the Country that gave birth to the Games that our sport is edging ever nearer to becoming a part of. There is a new event for juniors, and I am worried about how I will manage to be in three places at once. Who is going to win? This is a bit like trying to predict the winner of the recently completed Masters golf tournament. In fields where every player is a champion, how can you possibly say who will finish on top? Still, Andrew Robson was annoyed that at the recently completed Cap Gemini event in Holland I said that he and Zia would finish no higher than ninth, so to redress the balance, and doubtless ruin his chances, I will tip him for the Men's title. The women's event is no easier to call, but I will go for one of the players who are currently at the top of the Women's World Grandmaster Rankings, Sandra Landy. No hint of English bias in either case! The junior event is even harder to call, but I will go for Bernardo Biondo from Italy. Timeo danaos et dona ferentes - I fear the Greeks, even when bearing gifts.
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