Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY Bridge), run by Debbie Rosenberg, is one of the most successful youth bridge programs in the US right now. Recently, SiVY Bridge held two week-long Summer Camps and the SiVY Youth NABC Sponsorship program is helping 14 Bay Area kids attend the Youth NABC in Chicago. For more information, check out their website: http://siliconvalleyyouthbridge.org/
The other night I had the pleasure of playing a team match on BBO against two camp participants, brothers Brent (14) and Rory (11) Xiao. They've clearly been excelling in SiVY Bridge (as well as the USBF Junior training program), because they played very well throughout the match. My table had already finished playing when this board hit the table, so I got to see Rory in action firsthand (click NEXT to advance the play):
Against Rory's 3NT, West led the ♣9. East won the ♣A and switched to a low heart to West's ♥Q, and West returned a heart to East's ♥K, Rory ducking again. East persisted with a third heart, which Rory won perforce as he discarded a diamond from dummy.
OK so far? How do you continue?
Rory cashed the ♣KJ (all following). Although East's third-seat opening could be suspect, she has only shown up with 7 HCP so far and seems like a favorite to hold the ♦K, especially since she has only three clubs. Accordingly, Rory played a diamond to the ace and cashed the ♣Q. East, down to:
was triple-squeezed. Discarding the ♦K is obviously fatal, and releasing the ♥5 lets declarer set up the diamonds safely (discarding a spade from hand and unblocking the ♦Q under the king), so East threw a spade. Not good enough—Rory discarded a diamond from hand and a spade finesse gave him four tricks there: +600. The full deal and play:
Brent and Rory are two of the SiVY Bridge scholarship recipients, so they will be playing in the Youth NABC this weekend. If this deal is any indication, I'm sure they'll do great.
Benefits include:
Plus... it's free!