There were no losers in the three competitions for school children held alongside the World Championships. Each of the 228 competitors had a great time. They collected their championship bag and baseball cap, watched the players in the Rosenblum Teams, and then took their seats for one of three competitions, depending on their experience. They saw the World Junior Champions from Denmark, and later met the World Champions from France. They all had free meals and accommodations in their two-day contest, and after it finished went off to watch a Premier League football match being played locally.

The least experienced (the youngest was a boy, Aurelien Gerard, aged 8) were in the Minibridge section where the level of contract is determined by your total number of points. In Minibridge players announce their points, with the side holding the most points becoming declarer. The declarer then chooses trumps after seeing dummy. The winners were Capucine Mouret, 15, and Amelie Imbenotte, 16, from St. Odile's School in Lambersart near Lille.

The more experienced competed in Minibridge Competitif, similar to real bridge without conventions. The Minibridge sections were all French. The winners were Michael and Marc Soussand.

Those able to play full bridge competed in the first Schools Championship held at a World Championship. There were 22 pairs from France, Poland and Belgium. The youngest players, Elke, 12, and Ine, 13, Ydens, sisters from Belgium, led at halftime and eventually finished in sixth place. The winners were Piotr Madry & Lukasz Piworowicz of Poland.

Today's Louis Vuitton McConnell Cup will be an all European affair. The team from Austria led by Maria Erhart faces the one from Germany led by Sabine Auken. As both players would be on everyone's list of the World's top women players it promises to be quite a match.

Both finalists defeated American opponents in hard fought semi-finals so we already know that the bronze medals will go to the United States in the guise of either Wood or Truscott.

Both fialists are playing four-handed so it remains to be seen if fatigue will play any part in deciding who will emerge with the title and the Gold medals.

The Vivendi Rosenblum is down to just four teams, all from different countries. Chagas v Lindkvist and Bramley v Angelini is how they line up for today's semi-finals. Brazil v Sweden and USA v Italy.

The closest of the quarter-finals was the match involving the team from Sweden and the Hackett team from Great Britain. Everything hinged on the very last board and the Swedish declarer was left with an awkward guess in a two-card ending. A place in the last four depended on his decision and after what doubtless seemed to be an eternity he got it right to end British hopes.

The Open and Women's Pairs events have now reached the Semi-final stage.

Leading the way in the Open were a pair from the United States, the redoubtable Jeff Meckstroth this time playing with Perry Johnson whilst the Women were headed by Germany's Pony Nehmert and Wiesa Miroslaw.

The team captained by Karl Rohan of Austria won a convincing 62-0 victory in the final of the Elf Senior Teams. As a matter of fact, that was the score after the first 14 boards of the 28-board match. The Polish team captained by Mr. Szenberg conceded the match at the halfway mark.

Playing with Rohan were Nissan Rand and Moshe Katz of Israel, Franz Baratta of Austria and Christo Drumev of Bulgaria. Rohan, Rand, Katz and Baratta were winning this event for the second straight time - they also were the victors in Albuquerque in 1994. The other two players on the 1994 team joined a different team this time around.

Rand and Katz played throughout. Baratta played half the time with Rohan and half with Drumov. Drumov, president of the Bulgarian Bridge Federation, spent many years as a diplomat in Vienna where he formed a partnership with Baratta.

Baratta, as captain, and Rohan, as a player, just missed winning the Bermuda Bowl in 1985 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, losing to the United States in the final. Earlier in that year they won the European Team Championship in the same capacities.

Rohan was a member of the WBF Executive for six years and he also was treasurer of the European Bridge League for 11 years. Now retired, he plans to spend nine months a year in Austria and three in Boca Raton, Florida.

Rand is chairman of the WBF Senior Committee. He and Katz just recently won the Senior Pairs and placed second in the Open Pairs in Israel.

Rohan told of the very first hand of the tournament - a hand that dealt by people, not by a computer. He picked up:

His right-hand opponent opened 1§. Rohan decided this called for heroic measures so he bid 7©. He felt that scientific measures would never enable him to learn whether his partner had third-round control of diamonds. He was also fearful that his opponents might have a good save in spades. The next player doubled, and after the opening lead, this is what Rohan saw in dummy:

Grand slam bid and made - doubled! At the other table they stopped in 6©.

"When this happened on the very first hand, I felt that this was going to be our tournament," said Rohan. How right he was!