The Bridge

I hadn't really planned to write a blog during the bridge but I wrote one for the bridge which never got published so here goes.

Each year I look forward to finding out where the next World Bridge Championships are to be held. Bridge has been very rewarding for me, in my role as Team Captain for Australian Bridge Teams or more recently VuGraph Commentator and/or Bridge Journalist the game has taken me to some amazing places around the world. Some of these I would no doubt have visited but it’s very different when you spend 10-14 days in a city like Monte Carlo, Shanghai, Santiago and others.

So I was very excited to hear that the 2014 World Youth Championships would be held in Istanbul, Turkey. I captained a team here in 2004 and instantly fell in love with this great and welcoming city. For those who aren’t familiar with Istanbul the population is north of fifteen million and it is actually possible to stand on a bridge with one foot in Asia and one in Europe.

The people here are of course Muslim but don’t regard themselves as Arabs. They don’t speak Arabic and their language, Turkish, is written using Latin letters.

I arrived here on Monday night with the general timetable being:

17:00 and 18:00        Wednesday Captain’s Meeting

19:00                         Wednesday Opening Ceremony

10:00  

13:00              

15:20  

17:40                          Thursday to Wednesday  

Finals                         Thursday to Saturday

Closing Ceremony     Saturday

There are three divisions

Under 26      22 Teams           Hereinafter J25      (Juniors)

Under 21      16 Teams           Hereinafter Y20     (Youngsters)

Under 15      7 Teams             Hereinafter K15     (Kids)

Girls              13 Teams           Hereinafter G26

So with seven players and officials per team and a staff of maybe 50 people there are around 500 people involved in the tournament. Fifty Staff (!!) you say, it would be hard to organise a tournament such as this with much less:-

12       Organising Committee

6         Directors

1         System Appeals

9         Hospitality/Secretariat/Registration

7         Office and admin

8         VuGraph, Video and Presentation

7         Communications and Technical

3         Daily Bulletin

4         Board Duplications

There are some additional Volunteers such as caddies, Online Broadcast (BBO) Operators and others.

So the venue for the Championship is the non-profit Koç University which is located about an hour from the most central point of Istanbul but with a population of the size of Istanbul it is within the City. The University, which focuses on Social Sciences and Humanities, Administrative Sciences and Economics, Science, Engineering, Law, Nursing and Medicine, started in 1993 but the beautiful new 25 hectare campus opened in 2009 sitting picturesquely on top of a hill in a forest. It is named after Vehbi Koç whose philanthropy led to the establishment of the University.

So how did the Championships find a home here? three years ago, Ata Aydin an academic at Koç  University as well the Chairman of the World Bridge Federation Youth Committee and past President of the Turkish Bridge Federation decided to switch his Academic speciality to head a course in Bridge at the University since which he has been teaching a two semester course in bridge for which students receive full credit – something all bridge administrators would love to achieve. As a result of this association the staging the bridge here made a lot of sense.

Well there is the background to the event and here are some links:

Results Page

http://worldbridge.org/repository/tourn/Istanbul.14/microsite/Results.htm

Home Page

http://worldbridge.org/2014-world-youth-teams.aspx

As with most WBF Youth events, almost all participants and officials are staying on Campus at the University. The accommodation is dormitory style - some shared some singles (thank you WBF) - some with private facilities (thank you WBF) and some with shared facilities.

Regrettably for some the gymnasium and pool are only available to students and not to the bridge participants. That said there is a large grassed area immediately outside the dining room and there seems to be a regular American Football game held there open to all.

The accommodation package includes all meals. These cafeteria meals are held at the central facilities block and to date I have found all of the meals to be perfectly acceptable. The menu changes every day and while there isn’t a huge variety, what they present is tasty and well prepared. I think the concept of everybody eating together is excellent and engenders a very positive atmosphere to the event.

Regrettably for some of the Aussie players, alcohol is totally banned on campus, but I have heard on the grapevine that a simple two or three bus stop ride will get you to a very adequate drinking hole – not a problem for me. 

The actual playing area is in what is known as the sports centre. It is well laid out airy and most importantly well air-conditioned.

I arrived on Monday evening and spent Tuesday in the centre of Istanbul which is an hour by bus then train then bus from the University. You should know that temperatures here are around 30ºC/86ºF which is usually quite pleasant but he humidity is HIGH HIGH HIGH. With walks between rooms, dining and playing areas being not insignificant it is possible to get hot and bothered without much trouble.

Wednesday was team registration day where captains had to show all passports, collect welcome bags and player identification badges.

A captain’s meeting alerted all team captains to important information about the logistics of the tournament, disciplinary matters, taking electronic devices into the playing area, dress codes and much more.

Following that was the opening ceremony. Some welcome (and welcomingly short) speeches and so the battlefield was ready for the start of play at 10:00 the next morning.