The Women's Bridge Committee has decided to use screens during the online practice. This will allow the players to experience a high-level competition, and will serve as a preparation for our next step which is to conduct an official online championship.  We will start using screens as of the next training session in August.  It's actually quite simple but more professional.

Here are the main points one needs to know:

• When joining a table, everyone is visible and can see all other players. 

• Once the cards are dealt, a player can only see her screen-mate. This means that North and East can see each other, but they cannot see South and West and vice versa, South and West can see each other but cannot see North and East (the system hides the audio and video)

• On Trick 13 or when there's a "Claim", the players will be able to see each other once again.

• The bids come over “a pair at a time”,  similar to the use of trays when playing with real screens.  So for example - if North is the Dealer, and opens 1S, then only after East has bid, can South and West see the bids.

• Even though one cannot see the other 2 players, it's  important to keep the video turned on the whole time.

Please make sure the players are aware of these instructions.

As planned, our training program will continue until the end of the year, so please use this opportunity to introduce it to more competitive bridge players who haven't had the chance to  participate yet in one of our training sessions.  Help them get to the next level.

The Next Training Session -  21st of August 2023, 19:30 CEST, (with RealBridge). Our special guest coach will be Ola Rimstedt a professional bridge player from SWEDEN. Checkout Ola's personal VIDEO invitation 

-----------------------

Here are some of the comments we received regarding the last sessions: 

• "Another brilliant session. "

• "Brilliant. Can't wait till the next one"

• "Loved Adi's coaching! Such passion and joy for the game "

• "An excellent session. ADI was inspiring."

• "This was an EXCELLENT class, the best so far and by far, felicitations Mr. Schmidt, un grand merci."

• "It really was great! Interesting boards, informative commentary afterwards. Both of our teams' players enjoyed the experience"

• "Pierre was absolutely great!! One board that he reviewed was brilliant - that not only has declarer got to spot that a suit will be blocked, holding high cards in the short hand and has to plan to dump a card in that suit but that a defender should also realize that and facilitate the blockage - mind blowing"

310 women participated in this European Transnational Championships. 

68 of them (22%) also participate regularly in the EBL's Online Training Program for women. 

We are so proud of all of the women who participated in this event!

Women participation in the Mixed tournaments:

• Mixed Bam - 38

• Mixed pairs - 115

• Mixed teams - 162

• Mixed seniors - 66

Women participation in the Open tournaments:

• Open Bam - 11

• Open pairs - 20

• Open teams - 35

• Senior pairs - 7

Women participation in the Women tournaments:

• Women pairs - 66

• Women teams - 75

Let's make it our goal to increase the number of women's participation in the next event.

Special congratulations go to Katarzyna Dufrat and her team members, for winning the Bronze medal at the Mixed Team Championship and the Gold medal in the Mixed BAM Championship. Many of you met Katarzyna who was the guest coach at the first training session. 

Another great success is awarded to Marion Michielsen, and her team, for winning the Bronze medal at the Mixed BAM Championship. Again, many of you met Marion who was the guest coach at the second training session.

The meetings with the Women's Coordinators have proved to be very productive and important for Women's Bridge, therefore,  we will conduct another Zoom meeting with the Women's Coordinators in November, 2023

The specific date and time will be published soon. 

The network of Women's Coordinators, is a source of great inspiration to us all. 

The coordinators happily volunteer and contribute to promoting Women's Bridge to the best of their ability, because they believe that Women's Bridge Matters! 

It is our pleasure to introduce you to these remarkable people, (not just women by the way), and to be inspired by them.

It is important to us, to give them exposure and a voice, to understand their point of view and to raise awareness and trigger discussions on Women's Bridge issues.

We are happy to start with Angeliki Politou – the amazing Women's Coordinator of Greece – who is not afraid to say what she thinks in the hope of making a difference.  

Contact us if you want to present your agenda in our next spotlight article.