With some players in their 70s and opponents young enough to be their grandchildren, age is just a number for bridge competitors engaged in a battle of wits at the Asian Games.
Masood Mazhar was born in the final months of World War II and before the partition of India and Pakistan, while Taiwan’s Chen Kuan-hsuan is just 23.
“My father used to play so I’ve been playing all my life,” said the 78-year-old Mazhar, competing for Pakistan.
Photo: AFP
People have enjoyed variations of bridge for centuries, but the tactical card game is a relatively new discipline at the Asian Games, only becoming a medal event in 2018.
Players sit in fours at square tables, working in pairs to win as many “tricks” as they can in each round.
After all these decades, the game never gets old for Mazhar, who said he began entering competitions in the mid-1980s.
“You learn every day. Every board, you learn, you never get the same thing again ever,” he said, referring to the hands of cards players get dealt each game. “Everything is new every time — it’s an adventure.”
Bridge is usually associated with older generations and the majority of players at the Games are older than 40.
Chen wants to change all that.
She played with her university’s bridge club and at youth tournaments before graduating into the World Team Championships and now the Asian Games.
“I seek self-fulfillment through bridge competitions,” she said.
She said that bridge players must “maintain good relations with your teammates and partner ... and use logic and inference to complete each move and each calculation” — a challenge she loves.
“I hope that by competing I can draw the attention of more young people, not just the ones who already play bridge,” she said.
Mazhar said the problem is that young people simply do not have time to get into bridge these days.
“If you really want to play good bridge, you have to give a lot of time, and that means you have to practice at least three to four hours a day,” he said.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
RSS