Gold medals in bridge

The Philippine Tournament Bridge Association (PTBA) hosted the 29th ASEAN Bridge Club Championships in Makati last month. Our women’s team and one of our individual players won.

Bridge is a competitive card game, just as intellectually demanding and popular as chess. Countries send teams to international bridge tournaments, the way they do for the Olympics.

Here is an account contributed by Gemma Tan, one of the winning players:

“At the same time that the region’s athletes were vying for gold in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, bridge players were competing likewise at the 29th ASEAN Bridge Club Championships held in Makati last 7 to 11 December at the Renaissance Hotel. A total of 36 teams competed in the major team events — the Open, the Women’s, and the Youth Series. Visiting participants in these and other scheduled contests (the Mixed Teams, the Swiss Teams, and the Open Pairs) came mostly from the other founding ASEAN countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

“As with our athletes in the SEAG, Philippine bridge players also copped a share of gold. A Philippine women’s team won first place, for the first time in the 28 years since the inception of the women’s series. The team of Viksi Egan, Faith Mayer, Gemma Tan, and Jackie Thompson overcame a third-place finish in the qualifying round, first defeating second-place Indonesia in the semi-finals, then wresting first place from Singapore in the finals. Egan, Mayer, and Tan were members of the team that recently represented the Philippines at the 38th World Team Championships in Shanghai.

“In the Open Pairs event, Philippine player George Soo, with Thailand-based Norwegian top-ranked player Kaare Beyer Kristiansen, decisively edged out 48 other pairs. Soo has won the Open Pairs in the Pacific Asia Bridge Federation Championships and has been a member of many open teams representing the Philippines internationally.

“Bhinneka Bridge Club of Indonesia won the Open Teams Series, defeating Contract Bridge League of Thailand by 36 IMPs in a 36-board finals playoff. Two of Bhinneka’s players, Henky Lasut and Eddy Manoppo, are two-time silver medalists in the Senior Bowl, the 37th, and the 38th World Team Championships.

“Sawasdee of Thailand won the seven-team Youth Series by defeating Mokymouse of Singapore. Sawasdee was first in the qualifying round-robin and faced 4th ranked Forza of Singapore in the semi-finals, while Mokymouse was up against 3rd placer GG, also of Singapore.

“Contract Bridge League of Thailand won the Mixed Teams with Pusekatter of Singapore and SCBA Team of Singapore coming in 2nd and 3rd. The Thailand team was often at Table 1 during the seven-round Swiss team event with 21 teams participating.

“In the play-offs for third place, SCBA had a narrow 4.33 IMP win over Bangkok Bridge Club in the Open Series. In the women’s series, Geologi PTBA of Indonesia defeated Capricorn Plus of the Philippines. In the Youth Series playoff of two Singapore teams, GG emerged victorious over Forza.

“The ASEAN Bridge Club Championships were first held in Indonesia in 1980 with just an Open Series. The other events were added over the years, as each of the five founding countries took turns playing host to the Championships. The Philippines played host for the fifth time this year and welcomed the participation of non-ASEAN players who came from China, Hong Kong, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and USA.

“The Championships will be held in Indonesia next year.”

Congratulations, Philippine bridge players!

NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS: This is the citation for the 2006 National Book Award for Best Editing, given to Great Scott!: The New Day William Henry Scott Reader, edited by Bezalie Bautista Uc-Kung (New Day Publishers): “Here is history, fable, biography, and more appropriately, in the contemporary light, historiography ‑ interpretative, viewing history from the point of view of the colonized, historical facts placed in the Philippine context. This great Reader of the great Scott re-establishes historic connections, providing a much needed invitation to further research and probing into deeper history, a reconstructing, redirecting, reassessing of important details for a better and more intelligent reaffirming of our identity. In the words of dear, dear Franz Arcellana, ‘The writing is tender enough for beauty and tough enough for truth, with much love thrown in.’ Great Scott, indeed!” (written by Ophelia A. Dimalanta)

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/ Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: Jan. 14 Monday: 1. time/ deretso, 2. thin/desk, 3. voice/dial, 4. music/delikado, 5. servant/delegado, 6. military/dehado; Jan. 15 Tuesday: 1. soft/excuse, 2. thing/eskrima, 3. with/eskinita, 4. open/ensayo, 5. metal/experiment, 6. society/eskandalo; Jan. 16 Wednesday: 1. week/estero, 2. take/exercise, 3. false/eskaparate, 4. enough/eskultor, 5. profit/emerald, 6. complicated/expert. The numbers after the dates indicate grade level. The dates refer to the official calendar for public elementary schools. For definitions of the words in Filipino, consult UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.