[PeterGill]

I'm on the WBF Youth Committee. WBF = World Bridge Federation.

There are three events for junior bridge players in Beijing in early October 2008,
ref www.worldbridge.org/documents/WMSG_FactSheet1.pdf.

The good news:
- the Under 28 event, called the WMSG National Youth Teams, is open to everyone born on or after 1/1/80.
- full board and accommodation is provided for all participants. For those who speak limited English, this means that ALL meals and accommodation are FREE.
- there is no entry fee.
- the venue is the Convention Centre at the Beijing Olympic Games complex,
a couple of weeks after the Olympic Games have finished.
- I think the free accommodation looks rather good, at the Media Village:
http://en.beijing200...s/accomodation/
- early Octboer 2008 is university and school holidays in many countries.
- for smaller countries who could not afford to send a team otherwise, the WBF is prepared to help pay for the airfares so that the team can get to Beijing. "Smaller" means "small at youth bridge", so countries like Ukraine and Belarus are certainly in the "smaller" category.
- after the Under 28 Teams event in Beijing, there are Under 28 Pairs and Individual events.

The bad news:
- the U26 and U21 events in Beijing are only for the 18 teams who qualify,
so this offer relates only to people who might want to go to the Under 28 event.
The WBF wants to have 30 to 40 countries take part in the Under 28 event.
- many countries, such as Belarus, Monaco, South Africa or Guadeloupe to randomly guess four countries who have never taken part in world junior bridge events before, might be nervous about going to Beijing, because they think the standard of the bridge will be too high.

The solutions to the bad news:

- I have been asked by the WBF to find out if any countries would like to have a group of about 4 to 10 youngsters informally coached on BBO during the next nine months, so that the players can reach a standard where playing oin Beijing would not be too hard for them. I would provide a top international player from America, Europe, Australia or elsewhere to be the coach, one or two coaches per country.

In case any potential coaches are reading this, I already have a few coaches available but might need more. The coaching would be only on BBO, at times that suit you, as arranged by your coach and you. If your country doesn't speak English, we will get a coach for you who speaks your language.

- the format of the Under 28 event in Beijing should be designed so that inexperienced teams of four have a great time and play as much bridge as possible against players of their own level. OK, so you would occasionally play against World Champions such as Joe Grue or Justin Lall and struggle, but the intention is that you will get as many opportunities as possible to win matches.

Please email me if you think you, your friends or your country might be interested in any of this assistance. Or you can post here.

Peter Gill
pgil3747@bigpond.net.au

[PeterGill]

In my post, the WBF worldbridge website needs the full stop after pdf deleted.

Peter Gill, who is not very computer-literate.

[Fluffy]

Spannish team has been in contact with WBF to go to Beijing, and from what I hear we have many chances to be there

I also have a friend on the spannish Go team who is also likelly to go.

[Rossoneri]

PeterGill, on Dec 19 2007, 09:58 PM, said:

- early Octboer 2008 is university and school holidays in many countries.

I don't think so.

[PeterGill]

"in many countries in the Soutern Hemisphere", I should have written.

One problem of World University Bridge is that the two hemispheres operate six months apart from each other. For example, the organisers of the last World University Chmapionships in Tianjin did not realise that the dates chosen were the end of year exams for most Southern Hemisphere countries, hence the event (with the exception of perhaps one country) only had teams from one hemisphere. Australia wanted to send a team to Tianjin, but all our players had exams.

Peter Gill
Southern Hemisphere.

[MomoTheDog]

This is an excellent opportunity for youth players, especially for countries where youth bridge is not fully developed. I'm not sure how I can help, but if you need me for youth BBO teamgames, I'm available.

[Rossoneri]

PeterGill, on Dec 20 2007, 11:52 PM, said:

"in many countries in the Soutern Hemisphere", I should have written.

One problem of World University Bridge is that the two hemispheres operate six months apart from each other. For example, the organisers of the last World University Chmapionships in Tianjin did not realise that the dates chosen were the end of year exams for most Southern Hemisphere countries, hence the event (with the exception of perhaps one country) only had teams from one hemisphere. Australia wanted to send a team to Tianjin, but all our players had exams.

Peter Gill
Southern Hemisphere.

True. I had Singapore, UK and US in mind, but most of Europe are around the same so school starts between early August (Singapore) and end September (UK) with the others in between. Switzerland starts in November according to my friend who's commencing his studies there next year.

That was probably the only reason why a few of us said no when our club manager asked us to join the national trials.