6th CENTRAL AMERICAN PAIRS & TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Asociacion Deportiva de Bridge de Guatemala

GUATEMALA
NOVEMBER 17-19, 2000

RESURRECTION!! After a three-year hiatus, Guatemala revived the always-friendly Central American Championships. This event began when they suggested extending their matches with El Salvador to include Costa Rica and the rest of Central America. Over the years we have had participants from those three plus Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. I was in Guyana when the news reached me and could hardly wait to get back to Costa Rica to join a team.

There are a lot of memories, some good and some not so good. How about the time in El Salvador with the tables in the hotel's garden because the meeting rooms were still occupied by El Salvador's election commission. I pitied the pair that had to follow SS in that event. FC & CCC had their table in BR's room for some extra comfort and when BJ & I played them, the infamous Jack of Clubs story was hatched. We had reached yet another touchy contract and CCC led the club Jack. When dummy showered down, I realized there were only two chances. One, that CCC had led the Jack from KJxx (we had the T9) or two, a specific distribution of the cards. After a long time at trick one (during which BJ became aware of my problem), I decided that a down-the-middle player like CCC would never lead the Jack from KJxx and went up with dummy's Ace. I am still reminded of the laughter from BJ & CCC later in the hand when I discovered that I had been hoodwinked.

Another year in Guatemala, our large contingent from Costa Rica arrived a few days early to visit their ancient capital city of Antigua and it's beautiful tourist attractions. We played the events in luxurious facilities at a country club outside of Guatemala City and I will always remember going down in seven hearts versus the Mexicans in the team final with a trump suit of AQ7 facing J86532. It was a heartbreaker as making the successful choice meant victory.

Well, I could go on and on with this but you visited here to see results and not my ramblings. We arrived from Costa Rica on Friday morning and checked into the hotel with a couple of hours before gametime. The special deal with United Airlines was amazing - $270 return-airfare PLUS three nights in a top quality hotel with breakfast included.

In the Open Pairs - 1st Session, the Douma's (Bill & Louise) from Costa Rica shot out of the gate with a fine 66.67% to lead the field. Steve Allen & I were in second with 62.50% while Lee Riggs & Marvin Sossin from Costa Rica held third with 60.12%. The top Guatemalan pair was Coralia Spinola & Rafaello Cassani who were fourth with 58.33% and Costa Ricans Rati Mellado & Isabel Salas del Solar rounded out the top five at 57.14%.

After a great dinner of traditional Guatemalan food, we played the Open Pairs - 2nd Session. Despite allowing the opponents to make 6NT on the last board for a cold zero, Steve & I still managed to score 65.18% to win the session and grab first place in the Open Pairs - Final Overall with 63.84%. Meanwhile, Coralia & Rafaello grabbed second place in the 2nd session with 56.55% and finished 2nd overall with 57.44%. In the 2nd session, the other top 5 finishers were Guatemalans Perla Berkowitz & Jorge Zuniga tied for 3rd/4th with Barry Wilson & Norman Sklar from Costa Rica at 54.76% while Bela Russ & Daniel Sanche from Guatemala took fifth with 53.87%. Overall, the Bill & Louise hung on for 3rd place with 56.85% and Rati & Isabel tied for 4th/5th with Lee & Marvin at 54.91%.

After a late night, everyone showed early Saturday morning to start the two session Round Robin Teams. This event was run so that each team would play an eight-board match versus every other team, scored at IMPs and then converted to Victory Points. The top two teams would play in the final on Sunday morning. However, due to the odd number of teams, final results in each match were not available until the end of the second session. When all was said and done, the WILSON team from Costa Rica (Barry, Norman, Steve, John) led the pack with 101 VPs out of a maximum of 120. The RIGGS team from Costa Rica (Lee, Marvin, Bill, Louise) had a solid second session to ensure their place in the final with 70 VPs, just edging out two Guatemalan teams. SPINOLA (Sergio Spinola, Joyce Bailey, Bela, Daniel) ended up third with 67 while CASSANI (Rafaello, Jorge Pina, Lily Guirola, Carmen Luengo) took fourth with 66 VPs.

With Saturday night free, everyone took advantage of the opportunity to sample the many fine restaurants available in Guatemala City. Then, bright and early Sunday morning, we were back at the tables. In the Round Robin Team Final, WILSON carried over a 9.5 IMP lead from their round-robin match versus RIGGS. The first half of 12 boards was high scoring and WILSON got the best of things, 48 to 16. Better bridge was played in the second half, but RIGGS could just not overcome the deficit. WILSON was declared the winner by 85.5 to 27 IMPs.

While the final of the teams was being played, the other participants played in the Consolation Pairs event. The Guatemalans dominated the top three, with Stella Cruz & Yolanda Chan leading the way with 64.50%. Bela & Daniel were a very close second at 64.00% while Lily & Carmen ended up third at 57.50%.

The Guatemalans then concluded their fine hospitality with a splendid barbecue lunch, featuring many local delicacies. A few Pisco Sours and lots of wine loosened everyone up for the awards ceremonies, which were run by our Tournament Director - Gonzalo Correa. All of the bridge and the between-session meals were held at the Asociacion's new facilities in the outskirts of Guatemala City.