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Gianarrigo
Rona |
What is the future of bridge?
Today we are in very complex position. Some years ago, when we
were young, playing cards was favorite pastime of many of us.
Now young generation practically stopped to play cards. They
have much more temptations… Internet, online games, more serious
approach to the studies and jobs, and so on. Now card games are
mainly for older people.
We try to do as much as possible to change this trend – we are
helping to introduce the bridge to schools, we support
competitions for young people on many levels, and so on… But it
is a long and winding road…
This problem is not far from my next question – bridge and TV –
we can observe how TV broadcasting helped to the development of
poker in last few years.
Can bridge
follow the same way?
This is not so simply.
First – rules of bridge are much
more complicated than those of poker. So, the spectator must be
the player of certain level to enjoy watching the game. As far
as I know, about 60 milion people in the world play bridge. How
much of the will watch? 10.000? Maximum.
Second – bridge matches, or
tournaments are long. Which TV station will give 4-5 hours to
show bridge? And, for example, the final of Bermuda Bowl is
three days long, and the whole championships are more or less
two weeks. And the costs of broadcast – TV is very expensive.
And the third – how long can you
watch the bridge? People prefer to play. I remember, from 70-ties
and 80-ties, when in my club in Pavia we organized the matches
of the local team against Blue Team, Chinese Taipei team, and
some Polish teams, at the beginning the crowd of people was
looking. But after 2-3 boards, 15-20 minutes, most spectators
came to play.
The future of bridge broadcasts is Internet. I think that this
is not a long time, when the media development will bring some
fusion of the Internet and TV, where the Internet broadcast will
be very TV-like. We can observe this progress also now. The more
and more bridge events are online shown on BBO, and the
broadcast is more and more attractive. Also technological
broadcast enable watching at any place, for example on mobile
phone.
What about the development of bridge in
new countries and the small federations?
Problem is always the same. People… You must find right people
at the right places. We are ready to support bridge in new
countries. We can send the team of bridge organizer, of
tournament director and bridge teacher for a week or two
anywhere. They will show to the people how to work, how to carry
the bridge event, how to manage the bridge life. But there must
be people who want to do it, who want to be taught.
Those people should go further –
when coming back to their communities, they should develop
bridge in their cities, in schools, and so on. We are not able
to engage full time professionals to keep them in some country
for the year or two to start bridge there. It must be done by
the local community. Here in Lithuania bridge players are lucky.
There are persons, interested not only in developing themselves
in a bridge, but also to develop the bridge all over the
country.
The recognizing the bridge as the sport by International Olympic
Committee helps it as in almost countries bridge federations can
get some support from government, and it is easier in many
aspects, for example to introduce the bridge into schools.
Bridge and Olympics – what can we
expect?
Mind games in Beijing were a spectacular success. Our goal is to
compete for olympic medals. I think that the future is four
olympic events – summer, winter, paraolympic and mind games. It
will be one of the subjects of the nearest meeting of
International Olympic Committee where World Mind Games
Organizations is strongly lobbing for it. If we achieve it,
everything will become easier for all national bridge
organizations.
And my last question – ethics in
bridge.
Ethics in bridge is crucial. Bridge is the game of the rules,
and who breaks the rules, must be out of the play. It is beyond
any doubt. But it is not so easy. During my life with bridge I
have heard many rumors, but strong evidence we could observe in
only a few cases. Cheating in bridge is like doping in physical
sport. But antidoping control is relatively easy. To prove the
cheating is difficult. What can I say… No even one case of
cheating will be put under the carpet, but also no rumors can be
accepted.