PRESS RELEASE
SECOND TRANSATLANTIC BRIDGE CHALLENGE MATCH
Twelve of Europe’s top bridge players will start play on September 15th 2008 against a team of twelve top professionals from North America for the prestigious Warren Buffett Cup. The event, first competed for in 2006, is held every two years in the same week as the golfing Ryder Cup, on which the competition has been modeled.
The event consists of a series of head-to head matches, with players in the two teams competing in a variety of different combinations – as teams of four, as pairs, and as individuals. The winners of each head-to-head match will collect points for their team. The team with the highest overall points score will be declared the winner of the trophy.
The Americans will again be led by Bob Hamman, for many years the world’s undisputed No 1 player, this time playing with Zia Mahmood. The European team will also be strong, including several members of the Norwegian team that recently won the European championships in Pau, France, and two of the up and coming stars of junior bridge, Thomas Bessis from France and Marion Michielsen from the Netherlands. Thomas won the Transnationals in Shanghai this year and was crowned the under-25 Champion in Warsaw. Marion got the final of the Wagner Ladies teams on her first visit to an American National.
As in the Ryder Cup, none of the players is being paid to participate in the event, which has quickly established itself as the Blue Riband of the professional bridge world.
The trophy awarded to the winning team is named after Warren Buffett, a keen amateur bridge player, who is widely regarded as the world’s most successful professional investor. An investor who subscribed $10,000 in his original investment partnership in 1957 would today have a shareholding in Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway worth more than $400 million. He said: “This competition is unique and I am delighted to support it”.
The matches will be shown live at the venue on viewgraph, with a team of expert commentators led by Eric Kokish. All the matches will also be shown live online on Bridgebase. Spectators can log in for free to www.bridgebaseonline.com and watch the matches as they take place. An experienced international will write daily bulletins with an Internet edition. These will be sent directly to anyone who registers on the Buffett Cup website www.buffettcup.com. The venue:
The Galt House Hotel & Suites
140 North Fourth Street
Louisville, KY 40202
Phone: (001) 502.589.5200
For further information, please contact the Team Captains:
Teams for the 2008 Buffett Cup
Team America
· Bob Hamman and Zia Mahmood
· Geoff Hampson and Dick Freeman
· Alan Sontag and David Berkowitz
· Tobi Sokolow and Janice Seamon-Molson
· Howard Weinstein and Steve Garner
· Roy Welland and Bjorn Fallenius
Team Europe
· Sabine Auken and Marion Michielsen
· Michel and Thomas Bessis
· Boye Brogeland and Espen Lindqvist
· Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann
· Tor Helness and Jan Peter Svendsen
· Michal Kweicien & Jarek Pszczola ("Pepsi")
