Success!

William Zhu and Edmund Wu did it. With teammates Jimmy Wang (Captain) and Erli Zhou, they won the right to represent the USA at the 15th World Youth Team Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, in August 2014.

The competition began on BBO in October. The Wang team finished second earning the right to go to Atlanta to compete with three other teams.

Atlanta began with coaching from various experts including SiVY’s Debbie Rosenberg. In the competition to be USA1, Wang lost to Kaplan 97-74.

A hand that swung Wang’s way was:

Both tables started the auction 1C by East (Edmund), 1S overcall (Zach Brescoll), and 2D by west (William). At this point, the auction took a turn with East's next rebid. Marius Agica with East's hand bid 3C, eliciting a 3D response from Owen Lien, and there they played 3D making 3. Edmund took a different view and bid a non forcing 2NT with his spade stoppers despite the singleton diamond. With his beautiful 7 card diamond suit and side entry of the heart ace, William immediately raised to 3NT on his 10 count.

Zach led the Ace of spades, followed by the King of spades. In desperation, he switched to a heart. Edmund won it in his hand and played a diamond, discovering the favorable diamond position. He paused for a few seconds, then said "I can claim". 3NT making 5 for an 8 imp swing.

At this point, the Wang team was in the lead. Two boards later, Edmund and William missed a very thin slam that was bid and made at the other table. They never caught up.

Debbie Rosenberg reported, “William and Edmund impressed both the other mentors and me in Atlanta tremendously with their interest in learning. They were present for every optional learning opportunity, and were usually the last to leave if there were any experts left to discuss bridge with. They brought questions of their own, answered those asked, and generally participated in every activity and discussion. They were also clearly well-liked by the other juniors.”

William and Edmund are now being coached by Bart Bramley. The team is being coached by Debbie Rosenberg and Fred Gitelman. We wish them a great deal of success in Istanbul.