SiVY Players Qualify for World Youth Championships in China

More than 20 young players from the Bay Area competed in Atlanta last December in the Junior US Bridge Championship (aka "Junior Trials"). Because of their dedication, preparation, and talent, 12 of the Bay Area participants have gone on to qualify for the 2018 World Youth Championships, to be held in August in China. Another two were augmented to teams, so that 14 of the 30 total youth players representing the U.S. are from the Bay Area!

Debbie Rosenberg is the SiVY Founding President and driving force behind the USBF training program. She had this to say about the accomplishment: “I'm terribly proud of all the SiVY kids who qualified to represent the U.S. this summer at the World Youth Bridge Championships in China!! At least one member of each of the five qualifying teams attended practice at the Palo Alto Bridge Center in preparation for the trials. Thanks to all the mentors who have worked with these kids…We are fortunate to know such a great group of kids who love bridge, and are eager to learn.”

The USA U21 team: SiVY members Brent Xiao Kevin Huang Sarah Youngquist, Cornelius Duffie, along with Richard Jeng of Atlanta Junior Bridge. Each team must have six players for the World Championship, and SiVY player Stella Wan was added to this team.

The USA U16 team: SiVY members Rory Xiao, Jonathan Yue, Michael Hu and Arthur Zhou, along with Harrison Luba of Massachusetts. SiVY player Michael Xu was added as the sixth on this team.

The U26 USAI team includes Kevin Rosenberg, who has coached most of the kids on the U21 and U16 teams. In a sense it was a triple win for him. Stanford student Adam Kaplan is one of his teammates.

The USA Rona Cup team includes SiVY volunteer  Isha Thapa, the daughter of one of our co-founders Mukund N. Thapa.

The U26 USA2 team includes William Zhu of San Francisco, who learned bridge through the Center for Bridge Education. William is currently teaching youth players regularly in SF, and has attended several SiVY events.

Debbie went on to say, “I'm also proud of other SiVY members who competed in Atlanta... Even if they didn't qualify this time, I'm confident that they gained from the experience, and represented us well.”

The other Bay Area players were:

• Stella Wan (now added to the U21 team) and David Zheng, who were on a team which dominated the U21 round robin, winning all of their matches to qualify for the semi-finals, where they were eliminated in a close match;
• Aman Desai, Calix Tang, Olivia Schireson, Michael Xu (added to the U16 team) and Miranda Schuyler, who all competed in the U16 event;
• Michael M Zheng, who played in the U21 event and did a thorough analysis of his results in order to do better next time;
• Ninad More, Daniel Sonner, Yewen Fan, and Nian Si, who competed in the U26, and certainly will participate in future national and international championships.