Our First Report From St. Louis!

Giorgia, John, and Christopher are all busy at the Nationals in St. Louis, but they wanted to take the time to give you a quick update!

Christopher

Has just taken on a National Director position, so he’s working away enforcing the rules and keeping the peace in some of the biggest National events!

Giorgia and John

Giorgia and her partner Agustin Madala and John and his partner Mitch Towner entered the most difficult and prestigious pairs event on the NABC schedule — the Platinum Pairs.  In order to even qualify to play in this event, you have to have won a certain number of Platinum Points — which are only available by placing in the top ranks of Nationally-rated events.  

114 pairs entered on the first day, and when they cut this number to 52 for the second day, John and Mitch and Giorgia and Agustin, were neck and neck! Unfortunately John ran into some tough opponents on Day 2 and didn’t make the final day, but Giorgia qualified for the last day in 8th place, so let’s all root for her to bring home another title!

Update: Giorgia’s Final Day

A good morning session started the final day of the event (day 3 of 3) and was in third position going into the final session.  This is a grueling three day event where six sessions with 26 boards each are played over 3 days.  

Giorgia didn’t bring home the title, but she and Agustin finished 5th overall out of 114 pairs.   It’s a bit bittersweet  - this field is has the Olympians of bridge and everyone who enters this competition is aiming for the gold medal.  It’s very difficult to qualify to play, even more difficult to make it to Day 2, and even more difficult to get to Day 3.  We are enormously proud of Giorgia for this wildly impressive finish.  

Fun fact!  Many events at Nationals are played behind “screens” - as you can see in the picture - which are meant to minimize the chance for any unauthorized information that could come from seeing your partner’s face/tempo while playing.

Final Standing

This is the final Top 10 of the event.  You might recognize some of these names!   Congratulations to the winners and all of the pairs who placed in the finals.  

28 pairs made to the final out of the 114 pairs that entered the event.