Another Truly Great Championship!

by José Damiani

Our delightful Chinese hosts have welcomed us with open arms and have provided us with two superb venues, warm hospitality and an event that we will always remember.

You will, I know, wish to join me in thanking the Chinese Contract Bridge Association under the leadership of their President, Mr. Xiang Huaicheng, and with the able assistance of my dear friends, Chen Zelan and Fan Guang Sheng, for all they have done to ensure the undoubted success of these Championships. I would also like to thank Mr Liu Peng, Minister of the General Administration of Sport of China, Mr Guo Jinlong, the Mayor of Beijing, as well as Mr Liu Siming, Director General of the Board and Card Games Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, and, too, all their respective teams without whose support we would not have been able to organize these World Bridge Championships within 1st World Mind Sports Games.

We have been fortunate indeed to have had the wonderful sponsorship offered by Air China, Shanghai GM and not forgetting Generali, which has been a most generous sponsor of bridge for many years. Our sincere appreciation goes, too, to all our other sponsors for their support.

You will all, I am sure, recognise the enormous amount of work involved in the organisation of our Bridge Championships; the technology involved, the hospitality – there are so many aspects, many of them unseen by you, the players. There are many staff who have worked long and hard throughout this fortnight, in every field and I am very pleased to have the chance to thank them all personally through the medium of this Bulletin.

The Hospitality Team – Odile Beineix, Michèle Meyer and Livia Saibante at CNCC and Barbara Nudelman and Venetia Georganta at BICC.

The Bulletin Team, with its co-ordinator Jean-Paul Meyer and Editor Brent Manley, Mark Horton, Barry Rigal, Phillip Alder, photographer Ron Tacchi, Layout Editor George Hatzidakis, and Web Editor Akis Kanaris, while Brian Senior was Chief Editor of the Youth Organization ably assisted by editors Micke Melander and Jan van Cleeff, Layout Editor Panagiotis Papadopoulos and photographer Wattanai Chanakot. Jos Jacobs was Chief Editor of the 1st WMSG.

Our line-up team were Irena and Janek Chodorowski while Chris Diment manned the Systems Desk.

Scoring and Results – Tomas Brenning, Carl Ragnarsson, Gianluca Barrese, and Andreas Winge.

The Internet vu-graph broadcasts were provided by Bridge Base OnLine.

The Press Room was ably overseen by Jan Swaan. Antoine Auer was responsible for contact with the media.

Behind the scenes on the technical side, Harvey Fox co-ordinated the IT, keeping the computers linked and the Internet alive. Aggelos Mallios and Yannis Issaris ran the technical side at the BICC. Christine Francin, Anna Gudge and Carol von Linstow worked within the WBF with the assistance of Laurene Wolff.

In the Vu-Graph, there was the Bridge Vision Team headed by Hervé Lustman, with Quentin Robert and Lea Robert and the Vu-Graph team, led by Bernard Delange, with Bernadette Pasquier and Isabelle Barrière. Vu Graph at the BICC was provided by Gianni Baldi assisted by Chicco Battistone.

Fulvio Colizzi organized the equipment, while the duplication team of Monica Gorreri, Vanessa Allodi, David Chu, Franco Costa and Hélène Vivier dealt the many thousands of boards needed for the event. A big thank you to Per and Britt Jannersten for lending us some of the machines. The team of caddies who distributed the boards amongst you so efficiently, was led by Albert and Yvette Ohana. Terry and Lesley Collier together with Bo-Lennart Grahs were responsible for the duplication of boards for all the Youth events at the BICC.

The TMS at the BICC was run by Fotis Skoularikis, assisted by Yankos Papakyriakopoulos and Marc van Beijsterveldt.

The excellent Vu-Graph Commentators, who kept you so well entertained were Barry Rigal, David Stern, Julien Gaviard, PO Sundelin and Patrick Huang, with their co-ordinator Jean-Paul Meyer at the CNCC. The commentators at the BICC were Guido Ferraro and Hans Werge.

The World Bridge Federation is fortunate to have a very experienced team of Tournament Directors, led by its Chief, Max Bavin, Assistant Chief TDs, Antonio Riccardi and Sol Weinstein together with Rick Beye, Christian Bordonneau, Gustavo Chekiak, Anthony Ching, Sanda Enciu, Bernard Gignoux, Ishan Qadir, Laurie Kelso, Jeanne van den Meiracker, Magdy Mesdary, Sean Mullamphy, Jean-Louis Pennec and Matt Smith at the CNCC, while the BICC team was lead by Richard Grenside, Assistant Chiefs Pierre Collaros, Eitan Levy and Guillermo Poplawsky, together with Rahmi Iyilikci, Mathew McManus and Matthias Schuller.

We also have to thank the Appeals Committee, under the able Chairmanship of Joan Gerard: Jens Auken, Richard Colker, Ernesto d’Orsi, Ton Kooijman, Jean-Paul Meyer, Dan Morse, Jeffrey Polisner, George Retek, William Schoder, Brian Senior and John Wignall, for their work. A special mention, too, for Grattan Endicott, the co-ordinator, and to Patrick Jourdain, who was Chairman of the Youth Appeals Committee.

Maurizio Di Sacco did an excellent job of overseeing the entire operation with care and skill, working tirelessly throughout the event ably assisted by Duccio Geronimi and Manolo Eminenti. We are fortunate indeed to have such a professional and dedicated team. Dimitri Ballas was in charge of the operations at the BICC while the main office at the BICC was under the management of Gianni Bertotto and Thomas Schøenveldt.

A big thank you, also, to Jean-Claude Beineix who was always on hand wherever he was needed and facilitated many aspects of the event. One other person who deserves a special mention is Panos Gerontopoulos, to whom the success of the Youth events is mostly due. Panos has worked for many years on the WBF Youth programmes and I believe that these 1st World Mind Sports Games with the special participation of all the young players is the culmination of all his efforts.

The bridge at the Championships has been – as we have come to expect from all of you – of a very high standard, with many close matches giving us plenty of excitement as we have watched in the excellent auditorium; I have been impressed as always with your ethics, deportment and sportsmanships and the spirit that you bring to our great sport.

It is with great pleasure that I congratulate the winners and the medallists.

But I do not forget those amongst you who do not come up to the podium – you too are winners for taking part in a great Championship, and I thank you all for joining us here in Beijing.

For the future, we have what I am sure will be a fantastic championship in São Paulo to look forward to and I hope that those of you who do not qualify for the Bermuda Bowl or Venice Cup will come to play in the Transnational Open Teams, which is sure to be well attended and great fun, so that you can be with us.