RealBridge Bidding Contest - Experts

Christian is a true legend of French bridge. He was a member of the great French team that won the World Team Olympiad in 1980 and 1996, and the Bermuda Bowl in 1997. That team also won seven European Championship medals, including gold in 1974. Christian also finished second in the 1994 Generali World Open Individual and won the European Senior Teams in 2002.

Jacek won the World Pairs in 1998 (playing with Michal Kwiecien), where he first earned the nickname "Pepsi". In 2017 he won the Bermuda Bowl as part of the USA team.

In between, he has had many successes in international bridge, including winning the Transnational Teams at the 2011 and 2012 World Championships and the Open Teams at the 2011 European Transnational Championships. He finished second in the World Mixed Pairs in 2014 (with Meike Wortel). He has also been the official coach of three teams that have won Seniors World Championship titles, in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Representing his native Poland, he collected three silver and four bronze medals in European and World championship events between 1997 and 2002.

Recent medals

Ola is a member of the Swedish Bridge Royal Family, with ten World and seven European Championship titles between them. Ola first represented his country in the Youngsters Teams at the 2009 European Championships. His first victory came in the Schools Teams at the 2013 European Youth Championships in Wroclaw, and this was quickly followed by winning the Youngsters Teams at the 2014 World Youth Championships. Further wins soon followed, in the Youngsters Pairs at the 2014 Europeans and the Junior Pairs at the 2015 World Championships, followed by the 2017 European Junior Teams and the 2018 World Junior Teams titles. In their first major foray after losing their junior status, Ola and his brother Mikael won the Open Pairs at 2018 World Bridge Series in Orlando. They are now regular members of the Swedish Open team.

Recent medals

A winner of numerous events both at home in the UK and in the USA, Andrew finished second in the Open event at the 2004 World Masters Individual. Representing Great Britain, he won the Junior Teams at the 1989 World Youth Championships and the Open Teams at the 1991 European Championships. He also finished second in the 2014 European Championships and the 2019 Europeans Champions Cup.

Photo: AR

Hanoi Rondón learnt bridge from a '50s Goren book after getting curious by watching bridge articles on newspapers. He eventually got to the Venezuelan NBO where they put him up to date; he became tournament director, teacher and fast forward now he's part of the Chilean NBO. You can find some of his content on YouTube.

Photo: From Hanoi Rondon

Erik won the Mixed Teams at the 2009 European Transnational Championships and the Lyon Trophy for Transnational Teams playing four-handed as part of the GILLIS team at the 2017 World Team Championships in France. Erik first represented Norway at the 1996 Olympiad and a year later collected bronze medals from both the European Championships and the Bermuda Bowl. Silver medals followed from the same two events in 2001 and he climbed to the top of the podium with victory in the 2007 Bermuda Bowl in Shanghai.

Photo: Jonathan Steinberg

Nevena Senior playing bridge during her final year at University, in Bulgaria, where she is originally from.

She considers her highest achievements to be winning the European Ladies Pairs in 1987 in Brighton for Bulgaria (when she had only been playing bridge for four years) and the gold medal for England in the Women’s Teams at the World Mind Sports Games in Beijing in 2008

For some time now, she has lived in Nottingham, England.

Source:  www.ebu.co.uk

Recent medals

Joanna and Pierre are partners at the bridge table as well as in life. Joanna was born in Poland and came to France at the age of 35 to start her career as a bridge professional. She started to play with the French teams in 2008, once naturalized French. 

Although he fell in love with bridge more than 50 years ago, Pierre has been able to play internationally since 2016 only, when his professional career (as managing director of industrials companies) absorbed less of his time.

Recent medals

Barnet first played in the European for Great Britain in 1977 with Michael Rosenberg, with whom he won the Sunday Times Invitational and came second in the Cavendish Invitational in New York.

An author, his recent book Playing with the Bridge Legends combines stories about the greatest players with remarkable events in Bridge. 

Recent medals

Joey announced his arrival on the North American bridge scene by winning the 1974 Vanderbilt Knockout Teams. He also finished second in two other NABC events that year. Twenty years after that first victory, Joey was a member of the most successful Canadian team ever, reaching the final of the 1995 Bermuda Bowl in Beijing.

For a quarter of a century, Joey was a force to be reckoned with in Canadian bridge, winning the National Teams Championship five times and the Seniors Teams title five times between 1994 and 2018. More than forty years after that first dramatic victory, Joey served up a reminder that he was still around, collecting a silver medal at the 2016 World Senior Pairs in Poland.

Photo: ACBL