Picking up speed

Players are crammed into the break area outside where play is taking place at the bridge competition of the World Sports Mind Games in Lille, France.

We put our foot to the gas pedal today and won all five matches. Cindy and I played a slow pair the last round and we were the last players to leave the playing area. A director was on the Internet with his phone, and he told us the good news: "You qualified sixth." What a world we live in. Somebody on a phone knew more about what was happening than we, the players, did.

There were 87 teams (four more entered today - players who were knocked out of the Open or Womens teams) and now there are eight. Tomorrow, we are playing the Milner team. It includes Hemant Lall, Meike Wortel and Jacek Pszczola, so we have our work cut out for us. It will be 48 boards divided into three 16-board segments, and the winner advances to the semifinals. It's interesting that we are the only all-American team left. Canada (Daniel Korbel captain) qualfied first. GL to us and GL to Canada.

You can see all the results here. (We are the Sprung team.) You can read the Daily Bulletin if you click here.

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They are using four-color decks, sort of. The hearts are red, the diamonds are orange, and the clubs and spades are black with the spades being a bolder black.

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I heard the playing site, the Lille Grand Palais, does have air conditioning, but it cost extra and the World Bridge Federation didn't want to pay for it.

Above: They have flat panels for players to check the standings and their match-ups.

Photos taken with my P&S.