Wish me luck

Some of you may know that Jean and I are avid players of the card game bridge and really good at it. I have been asked to co-commentate the match Germany vs Austria at the European Open Team Championships tomorrow and feel really honoured. Wish me luck for it!

Edited by BaldFriede - June 14 2008 at 10:11

Oh, and according to Niels Bohr, the truth that x=1 if x^2=1 is a great truth, because the opposite, x=-1 is also true. 

Indeed, that is a great honour indeed.  Good luck with that, Friede.

^
What they said.

Good luck!

Really! Such an honour. Good luck!

Hals- und Beinbruch!

Well, the match Germany-Hungary just ended, and it was great fun commentating it. It was a very close match; Germany finally lost by 43-46. A total of 89 IMPs is a lot for 20 boards, but there were very few pushs and lots of swings. Of course this is all Greek to people who don't play bridge, but for those who do this will be interesting.
A remark for non-bridgeplayers: Tournament bridge is the only card game for which the random factor of card luck plays no role at all, due to the special conditions of the tournaments. It goes like this: Bridge is being played four players at each table, the two facing each other forming a pair. Each team has two pairs (well, actually three; they can exchange a pair, but only two pairs actually play). The teams play in two rooms; one is called the open room, the other the closed room. Now the cards that pair one of Team A gets in the closed room will be the cards that pair two of team B gets in the open room and vice versa. The results of each board (each deal of cards is called a "board" in bridge, due to the manner of transportation of deals in a tournament; the cards each player held are put into four different slots in a specially designed board) are simply compared afterwards. A very simple way to eliminate card luck.
Oh, and if anybody is curious about how I did the first time I commentated: I got a "Well done!" from Roland Wald, a Danish top player who organizes the broadcasts.


Edited by BaldFriede - June 15 2008 at 08:03

Well, the European team championships of Bridge are over. The German men wound up third after Norway and Russia. Italy surprisingly only were fifth (Italy are arguably the leading bridge nation in the world, though the USA are a good competitor for that title). The German ladies disappointed a little in the end; they wound up only fifth after leading for a long time (the German ladies are among the top teams in the world, and their best pair Auken / von Arnim is the leading pair). But you must not forget there were three matches daily, which is very exhausting for all players (and for the commentators too). Towards the end there were a lot of mistakes even from the best players.
We commentated all throughout the tournament; Jean and I swapped duties as commentators, and it was a lot of fun. And we will be asked to commentate again in the future, as Roland Wald, who organizes the broadcasts, told us, so we must have done a good job.


Edited by BaldFriede - June 28 2008 at 08:07

I really dont know how to play Bridge... but if the baldies play it it must be pretty weiird and cooooool...
jejejeje

Much luck!!!