Bulletin Nr. 3 Monday - May 25, 2015 After 62 boards of the qualification, three international pairs and five German pairs reached Final A by collecting 466-840 IMPs. At the same time, you needed at least 128 IMPs to enter the Final B, while all other pairs are playing in Final C now. 10% of all IMPs were taken as carry-over to the finals of another 49 boards.

In Final A, Joris van Lankveld & Berend van den Bos justified the high bet of Vytas Vainikonis on this Dutch pair. In the first both sessions of the final, they won 62.9 and another 63 IMPs, so that they are now in the lead with a total of 217.9 IMPs. Runner-up are Kevin Castner (USA) & David Gold (England), who are 70.4 IMPs behind. Best German pair are Gisela Smykalla & Michael Schneider, currently on third place with 138.1 IMPs. But we all know that things are changing very quickly, when you are playing “IMPs across the field”!

In Final B, Roland Rohowsky and his Greek partner Nikos Delimpaltakis took the lead in the very last board by successfully avoiding a 90% slam against Michael Gromoeller & Udo Kasimir, who are currently second in Final B - only 50.5 IMPs behind

Now we are all looking forward for the last 21 boards in the final session!

Place Player 1 Player 2 Total IMPs IMPs/board 1 Agnes Snellers Wubbo de Boer 842.1 0.905 2 Kevin Castner David Gold 804.9 0.865 3 Waltraud Vogt Loek Fresen 658.6 0.708 4 Joris van Lankveld Berend van den Bos 629.1 0.676 5 Roland Voigt Ulrich Voigt 570.0 0.613 6 Gisela Smykalla Michael Schneider 521.1 0.560 7 Kathryn Herz Eckhard Boehlke 480.9 0.517 8 Flora Boeddeker Robert Boeddeker 466.1 0.501 9 Elke Weber Fried Weber 438.8 0.472 10 Joachim Cappeller Joerg Schinze 384.6 0.414 11 Michael Gromoeller Udo Kasimir 299.0 0.322 12 Roland Rohowsky Nikos Delimpaltakis 274.2 0.295 13 Raffael Wadl Simon Weinberger 226.0 0.243 14 Karl Wartlick Uli Staber 206.1 0.222 15 Niko Forchert Omid Karimi 144.2 0.155 16 Susanne Kriftner Joerg Fritsche 128.2 0.138 17 Daniel Buse Christian Loewenstein 68.9 0.074 18 Gonzalo Goded Federico Goded 50.9 0.055 19 Dr. Claus Guenther Christian Schlicker -19.6 -0.021 20 Paul Gruenke Vemund Vikjord -54.2 -0.058 21 Doris Fischer Bernd Saurer -66.0 -0.071 22 Alfredo Versace Mustafa Cem Tokay -71.7 -0.077 23 Kalle Schmidt Frank Roettger -165.0 -0.177 24 Tobias Polak Tom van Overbeeke -185.0 -0.199 25 Nedju Buchlev Sebastian Reim -227.3 -0.244 26 Frederic Boldt Helmut Horacek -308.6 -0.332 27 Christian Doermer Holger Hoffmann -489.6 -0.526 28 Ralf Schlotmann Uli Trepnau -492.4 -0.529 29 Dima Nikolenkov Alec Fettes -584.9 -0.629 30 Annikki Schoolmann Uwe Schoolmann -912.9 -0.982 31 Wolf Stahl Fred Wrobel -985.0 -1.059 32 Vytas Vainikonis Wojtek Olanski -1076.7 -1.158 33 Georges Keldermans Yankos Papakyriakopolous -1541.0 -1.657

Schedule Monday, May 25 Imprint 11:00 – 14:00 Editor: Peter Bode Final A / B / C (21 boards) v.i.S.d.P.: Michael Gromoeller, Am Sonnenhang 38, D-51381 Leverkusen 14:30 Price giving ceremony

World Champion Alfredo Versace regularly plays with his partner and is one of the intriguing stars of the Italian team. Along with Versace's 2005 win, his staggering bridge resume includes countless victories in the Olympiad, European Championships, , Vanderbilt, Rosenblum, Cavendish teams, , Italian National Titles, Italian Cups, and many others. Usually he is absolutely focused on playing team events, but doing his long years friend Michael Gromoeller a personal favour, he is joining “Gro’s Supercup” 2015 for the very first time. Taking this opportunity, I got the chance to talk to Alfredo for half an hour.

Bulletin (PB): How did you get started playing bridge? Alfredo Versace (AV): When I was about 9 years old, my grandfather owned a bridge club that gave bridge lessons, so I came with my family to visit him and I started watching bridge. Then like a joker I played my first tournament being 10 years old with my mother, afterwards I played for 3 years until I was 13. Then I took off one year and came back at 14, and have played bridge for the rest of my life.

PB: Did you graduate high school? AV: No, I started to play for Lavazza at 15. It was a nice story. In Turin there were 2 big teams: one was Lavazza, and the other did not have a sponsor.

PB: How did you start to play with Lavazza? AV: My father was a friend of the partner of Maria Teresa Lavazza, and I was friendly with her son and daughter. They knew I had a little talent. They asked me and I was very happy. The team was Belladonna-Garozzo, me and Guermani, Santia and another player I can't remember.

PB: So you were 15 playing with the greatest Italian Bridge pair in history. Were you nervous? AV: Very nervous.

BW: Did they teach you a lot? AV: Belladonna taught me more, because he trained the Italian junior team for years.

PB: How good were you when you were 15? AV: I was terrible, but I wanted to get the respect of the other players. Never do something that anybody could say a word about. That is the first rule to play on a team with champions. Now, I can say that is the first rule to play bridge with anybody.

PB: Let's go back to how you got started. Tell us a bit more about your first tournament with the Lavazza team in Turin when you were 15 years old. AV: The other team said I was too young to play in the first division and that I had no experience. They might have been right. But I had Belladonna-Garozzo in the other room, so that was a good start . I received the best things from them. We have some good junior players now, but they don't have the advantage that we had when we were young.

PB: Why don't they have the same advantages? AV: Because they are too busy. When I was 15, I went to the club in Turin and there was a team game with Belladonna-Garozzo, and they discussed bridge until 3:00 A.M. That was everything for us.

PB: What is the best way to become a real good bridge player? AV: The best way is to start as a young person and to get the opportunity to learn from the best teachers. I got the privilege meeting famous experts in bridge when I was a young boy – that was an absolutely fascinating experience for me and since these days I really love this game.

PB: I know that you were invited by Michael Gromoeller joining his “Supercup” already two years ago. But at that time you did not manage to come. What was the reason? AV: My life is terribly busy. I have 3 sons at home and I have the full responsibility for them because my ex-wife is working. Thus, I am spending a lot of time with my boys and being a bridge professional certainly costs time and energy, too.

PB: In the teams of your sponsors Angelini and Cayne, you are mostly playing with Lorenzo Lauria. AV: Lorenzo is a big personality. He used to be like a "father" for me, so he tried to teach me. I have to say that he is the best professional in the world because he works everyday about system and he has done big big things with bridge, in the bidding especially.

PB: But here in Hohenroda you are playing with Cem Tokay as your partner. AV: I got to know Cem many years ago when I was playing at bridge events in Turkey. But now he is living in Italy, and he is much more for me than a bridge partner – he is a real friend who belongs to my daily life taking care for my boys and having a good time with me and my family.

PB: Molto grazie for this very nice interview, we all hope to see you again at “Gro’s Supercup” someday!

Ranking after 28 boards (Finals A-B-C)

Final A Place names Total IMPs IMPs/board 1 Joris van Lankveld - Berend van den Bos (The Netherlands) 217.9 1.231 2 Kevin Castner (USA) - David Gold (England) 147.5 0.833 3 Gisela Smykalla (Germany) - Michael Schneider (Germany) 138.1 0.780 4 Roland Voigt - Ulrich Voigt (Germany) 65.0 0.367 5 Kathryn Herz - Eckhard Boehlke (Germany) 46.1 0.260 6 Flora Boeddeker - Robert Boeddeker (Germany) -27.4 -0.155 7 Agnes Snellers - Wubbo de Boer (The Netherlands) -27.8 -0.157 8 Waltraud Vogt – Loek Fresen (Germany) -62.1 -0.351

Final B 9 Roland Rohowsky (Germany) - Nikos Delimpaltakis (Greece) 145.4 0.821 10 Michael Gromoeller – Udo Kasimir (Germany) 94.9 0.536 11 Karl Wartlick - Uli Staber (Germany) 65.6 0.371 12 Elke Weber - Fried Weber (Germany) 49.9 0.282 13 Susanne Kriftner - Joerg Fritsche (Germany) 42.8 0.242 14 Joachim Cappeller - Joerg Schinze (Germany) 30.5 0.172 15 Niko Forchert - Omid Karimi (Germany) -20.6 -0.116 16 Raffael Wadl - Simon Weinberger (Austria) -198.4 -1.121

Final C 17 Gonzalo Goded – Federico Goded (Spain) 289.1 0.677 18 Alfredo Versace - Mustafa Cem Tokay (Italy) 176.6 0.414 19 Dr. Claus Guenther - Christian Schlicker (Germany) 93.8 0.220 20 Nedju Buchlev - Sebastian Reim (Germany) 45.9 0.107 21 Paul Gruenke - Vemund Vikjord (Germany) 39.3 0.092 22 Doris Fischer - Bernd Saurer (Austria) 35.6 0.083 23 Kalle Schmidt - Frank Roettger (Germany) -28.5 -0.067 24 Tobias Polak - Tom van Overbeeke (The Netherlands) -51.3 -0.120 25 Vitas Vainikonis - Wojtek Olanski (Lithuania) -55.1 -0.129 Georges Keldermans - Yankos Papakyriakopolous 26 (Belgium – Greece) -153.8 -0.360 27 Christian Doermer - Holger Hoffmann (Germany) -180.4 -0.422 28 Dima Nikolenkov - Alec Fettes (Switzerland) -191.5 -0.448 29 Frederic Boldt – Helmut Horacek (Germany) -195.1 -0.457 30 Daniel Buse - Christian Loewenstein (Germany) -261.9 -0.613 31 Fred Wrobel – Wolf Stahl (Germany) -316.0 -0.740 32 Dr. Annikki Schoolmann - Uwe Schoolmann (Germany) -433.5 -1.015 33 Dr. Ralf Schlotmann - Uli Trepnau (Germany) -503.2 -1.178

Alfredo Versace & Cem Tokay non-stop at the BBO table during the qualification – about 750 kibitzers watching them

Lille 1998: Nikos & Gro

High tension in the final session