April 2023 newsletter highlights: Congress and Hermanus Tournaments / Monthly Sunday Pairs and Lunch / Charity Bridge in aid of StreetSmart / New WCBU Constitution / Playing with ChatGTP

As always, there's a lot of bridge activities coming up. More information on many of the topics in this newsletter can be found in the attachments to this E-mail; by clicking on the links in the text below; or by visiting the WCBU website or our Facebook page.

April saw the Western Cape hosting two major bridge tournaments, first the Hermanus Pairs on the weekend after Easter and this past week the SABF Congress Teams and Pairs. Before I congratulate the winners, I would like to laud Jocelyn Ashberg and Ian Holdsworth and their respective teams of volunteers for arranging such wonderful events; pay tribute to the tournament directors who officiated so efficiently; and thank the players, many from outside the Western Cape, who participated. It was particularly nice to put faces to players previously only encountered semi-anonymously on BBO.

So, congratulations to Chris Bosenberg and Martin Grunder on winning the first Hermanus Open Pairs tournament which was sponsored by Creation Wines. Congress produced a slew of winners, with the Apteker team winning the teams and Rob Stephens and Bernard Donde the pairs. You can click here to access the Hermanus results and here to access all the Congress results in fine detail. Incidentally, Bernard and Rob warmed up for Congress by winning the 2023 Impala Autumn IMP pairs competition.

Turning now to the future, our monthly charity BBO tournament, this one in aid of StreetSmart, which raises funds for street children’s education, skills training and family reunification programmes, will take place next Friday 5th May 2023 at 09h30 - just logon to BBO, select Virtual Clubs - South Africa and you will see our session listed. The Western Cape Bridge Union and Personal Trust invite players in the Cape Town area, including visitors, to participate in our May final Sunday of the month Pairs and Lunch event to be held at the Bridge Centre in Green Point on Sunday 28th May 2023 starting at 10h00. The cost (inclusive of lunch and a glass of wine) is R100.00 per person. Contact Shirley Phillips ([email protected]) to enter or to assist you in finding a partner.

Looking further ahead, Knysna's ever popular Oyster bridge tournament takes place on 17th and 18th June; the Western Cape Pairs takes place on 19th and 20th August; and the Western Cape Teams is scheduled for 30th September and 1st October. Nearer the time you will be able to enter these tournaments via the SABF Online website.

Moving to ways of learning or improving your bridge, the next of leading bridge teacher Jeff Sapire's brief bridge tips: It's almost mandatory to raise partner's overcall  with 3+ trumps and 5-9 points.Click here to download a copy of the bridge tournament etiquette document prepared for Congress by Neil Hayward but which will be particularly useful to those starting out in the duplicate bridge world.

At a special general meeting of the WCBU held on 18th March 2023, the voting delegates present overwhelmingly approved a new constitution for the WCBU. Under the old constitution, the members of the WCBU committee were elected by representatives of the affiliated clubs in the region; the new constitution, recognizing that there are many SABF members in the region who play in face to face and online tournaments organized by the SABF and the regional unions but don't participate in club events, now provides that the WCBU committee will be elected directly by SABF members resident in the Western Cape. We hope this change will also mean that the committee is closer to and more accesible by players in the region. The new constitution also requires that the WCBU delegate to the SABF also be a member of the WCBU executive committee. The WCBU AGM will be scheduled shortly and we will be asking Western Cape bridge players to make themselves available for nomination to the committee - please consider doing so, your skills are much-needed!

By now just about everyone who follows the regular non-bridge news will have read about the amazing artificial intelligence (AI) based website ChatGPT that can do every thing from achieve 90% in the California bar exams to write a Shakespeare sonnet style ode to your favourite bridge partner. This weekend I logged on to ChatGPT and posed a simple question: "I am playing bridge using the Standard American bidding system. My partner bids one heart. What do I respond with Spades: AKJ762 Hearts: 532 Diamonds: A2 Clubs: QJ?"

Quick as a flash back came: "As per the Standard American bidding system, you should respond to your partner's one heart bid with a bid of 1 spade if you have at least 4 spades in your hand. Since you have a very strong spade suit with AKJ762, you should bid 2 spades instead of just 1 spade. A 2 spade bid indicates a stronger hand and would help your partner to better judge the final contract. So, in this case, you should bid 2 spades in response to your partner's one heart bid." Maybe the robot was influenced by reading about Eli Culbertson; nonetheless that's pretty impressive for a beast that has never had a bridge lesson in its young life but has devoured millions of bridge hands and columns on websites around the globe.

No doubt you are curious to know more about the ode it composed to my favourite bridge partner - maybe you want to recite it to your partner next Valentine's day - so here it is:

Oh, dearest partner! In bridge, thou art,
A true companion, with a skillful heart,
Thy mind doth shine, like cards of gold,
And in thy hands, the right cards unfold

Together we play, in perfect harmony,
A duo of excellence, with such symmetry,
With each bid and play, we communicate,
In words unspoken, we anticipate.

Thy wisdom in the game, is as deep as the sea,
And thy prowess, unmatched, like a grand decree,
Thou art a bridge master, with a heart so true,
And in thy partnership, I find joy anew.

Oh, how I cherish thy presence at the table,
With thee, I am able, to overcome any fable,
Thou art the yin to my yang, the light to my shade,
And in thy embrace, I find a partner that never fades.

So, here's to thee, my favourite bridge partner,
In my heart, thou shalt forever be a charter,
A symbol of our friendship, steadfast and true,
And in each game, we shall triumph, me and you.

 I also asked ChatGDP to tell me how many people had visited the Western Cape Bridge website so far this year but it baulked at that and told me to use Google Analytics as I usually do. In the past two months the results from more than 523 tables of face to face and online bridge have been recorded in the Pianola database on the WCBU website where players can compare and analyse their performance while also giving them the opportunity to compare their results in the two formats. Since the beginning of January 2023, the WCBU website has been used by 2,171 visitors who read 14,430 pages of information during 6,846 visits. Of the visitors, who live in 45 different countries, 86% reside in South Africa, 4% in the United Kingdom, 2% in America, and 1.5% in Australia; 37% live in Cape Town, 29% in Gauteng and 2% in Hermanus. As you would expect, the home page was the most popular page in April, followed by the results, Bridge Clubs, Congress and Upcoming pages. Some 44% of visitors use a computer; 44% use a cell-phone; and 11% a tablet. And that's enough statistics for this month!