August 2020 - In This Issue

The Newsletter of Silicon Valley Youth Bridge

SiVY Youth Success in Virtual Youth NABC

With the cancellation of the 2020 Summer Nationals, the Youth NABC was also cancelled. A virtual event was held in its stead on the July Saturday that was to have been the YNABC.

Each year since the founding of Silicon Valley Youth Bridge, the organization has sponsored players to attend the YNABC, providing coaching and cash stipends. In 2015 SiVY sponsored 14 players and each year thereafter it sponsored 20-30 youth.

The SiVY players have enjoyed tremendous success at the YNABC. In 3 of the 5 year of the sponsorship program, a SiVY pair has taken home first place in the Open Pairs event. At this year’s first ever Virtual YNABC Open Pairs, again a SiVY pair claimed first place: 15-year-old Olivia Schireson and 13-year-old Brandon Ge put together two solid sessions to win.

Also scoring well in the event were the duo of Michael Xu and Brent Xiao. Both of these players have enjoyed many successes in prior YNABCs – Michael was runner-up in last year's pairs and team games and Brent was half of the duo who won the 2016 Open Pairs..

In the Cardrook event for newer players, a recently formed partnership of 11-year-old Aldwyn Lin and 8-year-old Jeremy Zhang teamed up and played both sessions. They enjoyed the experience and also took home over 1 full masterpoint by placing in both games. Aldwyn is a seasoned tournament player, having played 10+ sessions at the November NABC in San Francisco. This was Jeremy’s first tournament, but it’s certain we will be seeing him in many more!

The Bay Area was well represented in the event, with over 25% of the participants coming from either the San Francisco Center for Bridge Education or SiVY Bridge. The first ever virtual YNABC had 11 tables in each of the two Cardrook sessions and 24 tables in the Open Pairs.

Although the players were all pleased to have an online version of the YNABC, Brandon Ge summed it up well when he said afterward, “it was fun to play online, but it would be more fun to play in person.” He looks forward to the next real YNABC.