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Day One has come and gone and the horses are out of the gates.  Strategy wise, all of the teams want to have a good first day to build confidence but in reality Day One is all about the draws (for most teams).  It is amazing the wide-span of talent in the field even at this level.  There are the countries who are proven favorites and have already gone through a difficult qualifying process to arrive at the World Championships.  And then there are those teams that are here because their zone needed a representative. Therefore, if your Day One draw is “soft” then you will most likely be near the top of the field.  On the other hand, if you draw the well-seasoned teams…well you can figure out how your Day One will go.

USA II has gotten off to a fine start.  Our goal for the day was 55 Victory Points and we achieved that goal.  We are currently sixth in the field.  At the end of the seven day round robin, eight teams will qualify to go into the KO stage of the Bermuda Bowl. Ultimately, our goal is to win the round robin because all sorts of strategic perks come with winning.  However, qualifying for the KO stage is a very close second!  Obviously if you don’t qualify, you can’t win the event!

As for the other USA teams:  Unfortunately, in the Bermuda Bowl, USA I did not have a good day and are currently 18th.  In the Venice Cup (Women) USA I is leading the field and USA II is sitting in tenth position.  In order to qualify for the KO round, you have to be in the top 8.  In the Senior Bowl, USA II is in second while USA I is in sixth place.  To look at all of the standings and see the team rosters go to

 http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/SaoPaulo.09/Results.hA

To get up-to-date scores as the match unfolds, click on “Running Scores”.  There are three columns for Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Senior Bowl. 

For overall rankings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Cross Table by Rank.”  You can then click on the team name and view the rosters.

USA II plays Brazil, Morroco and Norway today.  You can watch on BBO for matches one and three.  For match two, click on the running scores and follow along!

Have a great day of bridge!

The Captains meeting was uneventful for the most part.  The newbys asked a lot of questions and the oldies rolled their eyes…I did ask for a clarification of the conditions of contest as to whether a particular clause would be enforced and to further define the word “convention.”  At the World Championship level, it is much more important that the convention card clearly disclose all partnership conventions.  The convention card itself is two pages with very tiny print and then the partnership can add supplemental pages.  Our team realized that several of the pairs were not fully disclosing their system.  According to the conditions of contest, violators are subject to a 2 Victory Point penalty.  My question was sort of answered but I was left with a lot of ambiguity.  So when we play these pairs and the convention comes up – we will call the director and see if they enforce the conditions of contest.

The Opening Ceremony was held in the Teatro Apha.  The ceremony (although extremely long) was very well presented.  They started with opening remarks by the various organization presidents followed by the introduction of the teams.  After the World Championship was officialy “Opened” the local talent groups entertained us for 2 1/2 hours!  Music, song, dance – all of Brazilian heritage.

Enough about the side show – DAY 1 has begun! There are three 16-board matches a day.  Today, USA II plays Mexico, Chile and USA I.  Nick Nickell-Ralph Katz and Bob Hamman-Zia Mahmood are in the first match against Mexico.  The line ups are posted 15 minutes prior to each match so I can’t let you in on who will be playing the second or third match as that is TOP SECRET!  Once the match begins, you will see the line up for the last two matches today.

Occassionally you can watch USA II on Bridge Base Online which will carry 9 different matches each session. If USA II is not live on BBO, you can follow their running scores at www.swangames.com.  On this site, you can follow ALL of the teams on a board by board bases.  Personally, it is too nerve racking for me to watch this way…but very exciting none the less.

If you prefer to see just the end results of each match, go to

 http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/SaoPaulo.09/Results.htm.

If you want to read about the players and actual hands played, go to

 http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/SaoPaulo.09/Bulletins.htm.

Enjoy your day of bridge!

USA II’s dinner last night was delicious.  We went to Figueira Rubayat which I highly recommend.  The menu had an assortment of seafood and steak but the bread was the highlight of the meal.  They used a wood-burning oven to bake the bread and it really makes a difference in the taste and texture of the bread.  USA II now has the carbohydrates it needs to keep up their stamena the next two weeks! Thanks to Cynthia Kung and Lara Coser (Sharon Shapiro’s friends) for recommending Rubayat!

Enough about food … Today’s agenda for USA II has a practice match at 1pm against the German team.  Interestingly, the USA is the only country that has two teams in each event.  This is determined by the bridge-population base of the Zones.  Our Zone (Zone 2) has enough members to grant us two teams.  Thus USA I and USA II.  The other Zones include several countries; and, therefore you might notice that among the 22 teams there are a lot of countries missing!  Every other Zone only sends one country.  This doesn’t make us very popular amongst the other countries…

This evening USA II will attend the Opening Ceremony and musical show at 7:30pm.  During the opening Ceremony, all of the teams walk across a stage dressed in their team uniforms led by someone carrying their country flag.  It is quite a scene.  Our uniform is tan pants, blue shirt, blue jacket and red tie (scarf for me).

Meanwhile, check out the Brazilian home page for the tournament.  There are lots of interesting facts about Sao Paulo and the history of Brazilian Bridge.  http://www.brazilbridge2009.com.br/index-i.php

Wow!  What a trip…most of our team (and other USA Team members) were scheduled to land in Sao Paulo between 5am and 8am this (Friday) morning.  Due to bad weather (fog) in Sao Paulo, ALL of the planes were diverted to different cities around Brazil.  Six hours later…our last team member landed at the International airport. 

We all stuffed our bags and ourselves into our respective ground transportation and the race was on to see who could reach the hotel in less than 1 1/2 hours!  Our car (Bob Hamman, Betty Ann Kennedy (USA Womens) and me) won the race with a time of 1 hour and 20 minutes!

The afternoon was spent unpacking, finding our way around the hotel and generally settling in for our two week adventure. 

Tonight is the night for all BIG Team dinners.  Once play starts – big dinners are a big no-no!  Our team is scheduled for a 9pm dinner which will last through mid-night if I know my team (which I do!).  Tomorrow morning I will tell you all about our meal and how long it took us to get from our hotel to the restaurant.  All I know is that the restaurant is 15 miles away and we are leaving the hotel at 8:20 for a 9pm reservation.  Looks like another long car ride is in our near future…

In the mean time…check out the rosters for the 2009 World Championships at the following link:    

 http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/SaoPaulo.09/Participants.htm.