Team Profiles

Meet USA 1

John Hurd (23) lives in South Carolina and has just graduated from Charleston College as a geology major. He started playing bridge at the age of eleven with his father. It is rumoured that John is the steady one in the group: When he doubles you, expect to go down.

Joel Wooldridge (22) hails from Buffalo, New York and is the most experienced on the team. He is playing in his 4th Youth World Championship. He won a North American IMP Pair Championship title at the age of 19. Joel always hears the beat - even when the music's not playing.

John Kranyak (17) resides in Cleveland, Ohio. His is in his final year of secondary school under a bridge scholarship. John started playing bridge at the age of twelve when his father needed a partner after a last minute cancellation. John was hooked. In addition to bridge he enjoys soccer, wine, women and song.

Kent Mignocchi (22) from New York City, New York started playing bridge with his grandmother at the age of eleven. He is the only bridge professional on the team. He is a true "people" person and a great entertainer, rumour has it. You can check out all "these rumours" with him.

Joe Grue (20) from Minneapolis, Minnesota is a gamesman extraordinaire. He claims that his backgammon is better than his bridge. He loves high stakes poker and baseball. His teammates refer to him affectionately as "Joe Boo".

Brad Campbell (17) lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He began playing bridge at the age of thirteen with his aunt. His other interests include golf, tennis, playing the piano and guitar. It is rumoured that he has been voted most likely to be on the cover of GQ magazine.

Bob Rosen is their npc and he is very proud of his team.

Meet Thailand

Kirawat Limsinsopon (Nickname: Pae) is the playing captain of the team. He is currently studying at Thammasart University, Bangkok, majoring in finance and accounting. At present, he is one of the best young Thai players ever. Besides his excellent playing performance, Pae was also known for his shyness when it comes to girls. Thanks to the Brazilian girls, Pae is now overcoming his shyness and manages to be very friendly without much effort.

Jaturong Sasibut (Nickname: Ae) has graduated from Thammasart University with a degree in mass communication. Even though he had spent four years of communication studies it seems not to have helped to improve his bidding and playing skills at all. Among the team Ae is known as the "Triple B". This name is derived from the his playing style, which is described by his partner as "Bad bid, bad play and bad defence!"

Taweesith Trimankha (Nickname: Muang) attended Chulalongkom University and studied engineering. He is now working as a factory manager. Muang spent hsi years in college playing and winning many titles in University bridge tournaments. In this World Championship Muang has promised himself confidently to at least qualify for the semi-finals.

Terasak Chitngamkusol (Nickname: Bank) is only one semester away from graduation at Chulalongkom University. Bank is known for his nice smile and good mood. His friends say that Bank's favourite place is definitely not the University library. If anyone would like to see him, they have to look for him at several online bridge sites. No matter where you are, day and night, you will always find him there.

Amornpong Vichayapal Bunnag (Nickname: Ur) has a degree in law from Thammasart University. He is currently working as a lawyer for "Deroite Toash" in Thailand. Ur is planning to go abroad for his masters degree this year, but he has not decided yet where to go. He says he would appreciate any suggestion given from friends particularly from North America and Europe.

Noppadol Yaempan (Nickname: Pun) is currently studying at Thai Chamber University majoring in finance and accounting. He is living in the Ayuataya province, which used to be the capital of Siam. He claims for himself to be a very kind person who likes to smile. His dream is to persuade everyone to go to Thailand, the land of smiles, with its beautiful beaches, excellent food and shopping paradises.

Meet Denmark

Danish Dynamite - A presentation of the Danish team by Ib Lundby

In 1992 Denmark won the European Championship in football. Our team didn't qualify, but because of the civil war in Yugoslavia we got the chance…and took it to win the title!
In 2001 we don't know who will win the World Youth Team Championship, but we do know that our team didn't qualify. We got the chance because a team from another zone cancelled their participation…and we will try to take our chance to win the title!
Denmark won bronze in Bali 1995, Gold in Hamilton 1997 and Bronze in Fort Lauderdale 1999.
Here are the members of the Danish team this year:

Gregers Bjarnarson (26) studies mathematics and economy. He has two nicknames: "Hekla" as the Icelandic vulcan, because of his ancestors and his temper, and "The Prime Minister" because he always know what's right, but very often is wrong. In fact it is written on page 1 in his system book, that in case of a different explanation on the two sides of the screen, his partner has always given the right one.

Michael Askgaard (26) - studies mathematics and computer science. Mike is the nice guy of the team and one of the cornerstones when the team plays football. His problem is that he always misses his mother, and therefore we have invited her to join us here in Brazil. She arrived Saturday, and Mike is happy again. J

Andreas Marquardsen (23) - plans to be a school teacher, and according to his partner he practises a lot at the bridge table. "Don Andreas", as we call him, has one hobby besides playing cards - he loves to drink. Very often he combines these two hobbies - with amazing good results. Cheers!

Martin Schaltz (17) - has attended a business school. This year "Benno" (short for Benjamin) won silver together with his mother at the Danish Pairs Championships. He is quite a talent … in football, but recently he gave up to play more bridge. Back in 1970 I captained his father when he became a European Junior Team Champion.

Jonas Houmøller (19) - studies engineering and plans to built a bridge some day. He is the silent guy of the team and became no.2 in this year's Danish Mixed Pairs Championship together with his good-looking sister.

Kåre Gjaldbæk (20) - like Mike studies mathematics and computer Science. His nickname is "Hard-Kåre". Unfortunately he can't sing, but I am sure that anyway he could get a title role in the musical Hair. He is the joker of the team - and he likes to play. You name the game - he is always ready.

Bettina Kalkerup (37) - is a professional bridge teacher. Bettina is coach of the Danish team, known as "Big Mama". She takes care of (almost) everything, and everyone loves and respects her and does exactly what she says. Bettina won Olympic Gold in the Ladies Teams in Venice 1988, silver in Ladies Pairs World Championships in Miami (when she was only 23), and bronze in the Ladies Teams in Bermuda 2000.

Hans Kristian Sørensen (52) - a school teacher, known as HK. He is the captain of our team and a real nice guy and good friend. He won the Danish Teams Championship in 1999 on a historical decision. We used Baldis' Vu-graph program to decide who was to blame for time delay, and because of this a loss of 2 IMPs was changed to a win of ½ IMP. HK is Vice President of Danmarks Bridgeforbund and has a Brazilian son-in-law. His grand children have taught him 47 Brazilian words but unfortunately it sounds like Swahili to a Brazilian waiter, and we never get what he has ordered.

Meet Israel

Asaf Amit (25) is playing here is his 3rd consecutive World Junior Championships. He is considered to be the fastest player of the team. He is about to graduate with a degree in computer science and meanwhile very often offers his computer knowledge to various projects in the Israeli Bridge Federation.

Yaniv Vax (23) is the junior of the team. He is a student of computer science and works in the online bridge company e-bridge. He has been seen to recruite new subscribers to e-bridge here while playing a match. He also runs a bridge club at home together with his father.

Aran Warzawsky (26) is working in a high-tech start-up company. He was in New York on a business trip for two weeks before this tournament and came here directly from there. He is the squeeze expert of the team, but finding all the squeezes makes him hardly ever finish a match on time.

Inon Liran (26) lives in a kibbutz. He used to work as a musician in an orchestra but decided to go with the trend and study computer science. He is known for his ability to fall asleep anywhere and anytime, but especially on long-distance flights. During this tournament he became our expert in defending redoubled contracts.

Ranny Schneider (25) works in a financial company in the marketing department. He also teaches bridge in his parents' club and studies management. He spends the nights making phone calls to his girl friend back in Israel and his days asking his captain for twenty cups of water and ten cups of coffee during each match.

Yossi Roll (26) out "tall guy" was very disappointed to find the Dutch much taller. He works at the security department at the Tel Aviv airport and sometimes tries to add something to his salary by playing money bridge. Here he is spending his time between matches losing at every game on his newly bought play station that he tries out.

Michael Barel, the npc is a software engineer. He was a member of the Israeli Open team which qualified at the Europeans last month for the Bermuda Bowl in Bali, but he likes npc-ing this junior team at least as much as playing himself.

Micha Amit is the head of the Israeli delegation. He is the senior computer analyst in a large company. He is an ex-junior (as far as he remembers...) and won several national titles. Now he is acting as the national captain of the Israeli Bridge Federation.