A competition that attracted a lot of attention at the European Universities Games kicked off yesterday. When the participants and volunteers heard that bridge will be one of the sports at the Games, everyone wanted to see what the sport looked like and what exactly happened during a game of bridge. Not a lot of people can participate in a game of bridge. We decided to talk to technical delegate for bridge Tihana Brkljačić, and Croatian bridge player Ivan Brajković, who explained to us the rules of this unusual sport.
‘Bridge applied to become an Olympic sport. It has the same status as karate, chess, judo and other sports. It is much more demanding compared to other card games, but also compered to chess. It requires analysing the situation from multiple angles; it’s much more than math. First of all, bridge is played in pairs and there must be coordination between the partners. Math is not that important, learning is crucial. There is much to learn and read and it is important to watch others play. It requires a lot of effort to start playing.’
Ivan thinks that mathematics is very important, but that the relationship between partners is the most important aspect of bridge.
‘How much the pairs are coordinated and the way they communicate are crucial. It is important to constantly think logically and draw conclusions from information transmitted during the game. It takes at least a month to understand just the basics, this is a complicated card game,’ says Ivan, adding that it’s important to play for probability and play consistently.
At these Games, there are about fifty players and it’s a team sport.
Tihana says: ‘Team game is serious. When bridge is played at important events then it is played as a team sport.’
Tihana also explained what happens at a tournament.
‘There are four players at each table and they play in pairs. Each pair has its own team at another table, and the opponents at the other table have the same cards as the pair. The players communicate in a way that is specified by the rules of bridge, through cards at the table. The boards are there to prevent eye contact.’
In Croatia, bridge is not a very popular game, only about 500 people play it, but in Europe there are many more players.
‘The tournaments are broadcast live. At any moment there are between five hundred and a thousand people watching. In Zagreb we have bridge as a course at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I teach it and it is a one-semester course. It is also an elective subject at the XV.Gymnasium. We try to include it as much as possible.’
‘We have European and world championships. Bridge is treated as an equal here, but that is not frequent,’ she added, not hiding her satisfaction that the organizers included bridge at the Games, because that would help promote their sport.
Volunteers work hard. It wasn’t hard to explain what their task is during the tournament.
‘It is demanding, but we had no problems. Three volunteers play bridge, they helped explain it to others. ‘
