North American Pairs
The North American Pairs (NAP) is a set of annual North American championships for pairs contested over two days at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships (NABC). The events are restricted to pairs that have qualified through local, regional and district levels within their ACBL Districts.
Three fields or "Flights" compete on the same schedule:
- Flight A, open to all players, is formally the Baldwin North American Pairs.
- Flight B, restricted to players with 0 to 2500 masterpoints, is formally the Golder North American Pairs.
- Flight C, restricted to players who have not yet become Life Masters and have fewer than 500 masterpoints, is formally the President's Cup North American Pairs.
Each competition is a four-session matchpoint pairs tournament with two qualifying sessions on the first day and two final sessions on the second.
History
[edit]Flight A
[edit]Play for the Baldwin North American Pairs (Flight A) begins each summer at the local level and concludes at the North American Bridge Championships in the following Spring. Qualifiers at the club level advance to unit competition and those qualifiers advance to district finals. Three pairs from each district – more, depending upon attendance – qualify for the North American final.
At inauguration, the open pairs contest was named the Grand National Pairs with 61,000 starting pairs participating in the initial local stage in August 1978[1] - the ultimate winners arising from the 1979 Spring NABC. The contest was renamed the North American Pairs in deference to the participation of all country members of the ACBL.
Winners have their names inscribed on the Baldwin Trophy and also receive certificates of recognition. The trophy is presented in memory of Col. Russell J. Baldwin (1889–1969), a U.S. Army officer and expert on tournament procedure who was ACBL Honorary Member of the Year in 1943. Baldwin was active as an organizer from the earliest days of contract bridge. He became a director of the American Bridge League and its treasurer shortly after its founding in 1927. He was a member of the ACBL Laws Commission and was primarily responsible for the first Duplicate Code (Laws specifically for duplicate bridge) issued in 1935. Baldwin was active as a tournament director from 1927 until 1941. After service in World War II, he was ACBL business manager from 1946 until 1951. He was recalled to military service at the outbreak of the Korean War and retired from the U.S. Army in 1957. He rejoined ACBL in 1958 and was in charge of tournament scheduling until his retirement in 1963.
Flight B
[edit]Known as the Golder North American Pairs - Flight B, the first stage of the event is also conducted at the local club level with qualifiers advancing to unit competition. Those qualifiers then advance to the district finals where three pairs – more, depending upon attendance – qualify for the North American final. The inaugural event was held at the 1992 Spring NABC.[2]
Winners have their names inscribed on the Golder Cup and will also receive a certificate of recognition. The trophy is presented in memory of Benjamin M. Golder (1894–1946) of Philadelphia, who died the day before the close of his term as 1946 ACBL president. He was named ACBL Honorary Member of the Year for 1947. His widow Peggy Golder, later Solomon, was an ACBL Hall of Fame player.
Flight C
[edit]Players in the North American Pairs - Flight C, compete for the President's Cup. The inaugural event was held at the 1987 Spring NABC.[2]
The trophy was presented in 1942 by Morgan Howard, ACBL president that year. For many years it was awarded to the winners of the President's Pairs, a standalone event at the Summer NABC. As in the other two flights, Flight C competition begins each summer at the local club level and qualifiers advance to unit and district competitions with three pairs from each district – more, depending upon attendance – qualifying for the North American final.
Winners
[edit]| Year | District | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 25 | Arthur Moore, Eric Robinson | Steve Landen, Larry Mori |
| 1980 | Bob Feller, Jeffrey Hall | Larry N. Cohen, Ron Gerard | |
| 1981 | Helen Blakey, Robert Blakey | Mark Feldman, Chip Martel | |
| 1982 | Bill Nutting, Ivan Scope | Richard Pavlicek, Cliff Russell | |
| 1983 | Jim Felts, John Griscom | Ron Gerard, Stephen Sanborn | |
| 1984 | 25 | Steve Sion, Harold Stengel | Marty Bergen, Larry N. Cohen |
| 1985 | 6 | Peter Boyd, Steve Robinson | Peter Pender, Hugh Ross |
| 1986 | Drew Cannell, Ganesan Sekhar | Craig Cordes, Tom Daniel | |
| 1987 | Jan Janitschke, Dick Reed | Judi Cody, Ron Sukoneck | |
| 1988 | 21 | Chip Martel, Jan Martel | Mark Cohen, Stasha Cohen |
| 1989 | 11 | David Caslan, Dennis Clerkin | Dan Morse, Bobby Nail |
| 1990 | Sidney Lazard, Jack LaNoue | Mark Stein, Boris Baran | |
| 1991 | 1 | Boris Baran, Mark Stein, | Steve Landen, Pratap Rajadhyaksha |
| 1992 | Jim Krekorian, Rick Zucker | 2/3. Robert Crafton, Howard Weiner 2/3. Joe Jabon, Harry Steiner | |
| 1993 | James Griffin, Kenneth Schutze | Iftikhar Baqai, Mitch Dunitz | |
| 1994 | James Griffin, Kenneth Schutze | Ralph Cohen, Reece Rogers | |
| 1995 | David Berkowitz, Lisa Berkowitz | Gary Cohler, Jerry Goldfein | |
| 1996 | Marshall Tuly, James Cunningham | Gary Cohler, Jerry Goldfein | |
| 1997 | Aidan Ballantyne, Gordon McOrmond | JoAnna Stansby, Lew Stansby | |
| 1998 | 6 | Bill Cole, Ron Sukoneck | James Cunningham, Marshall Tuly |
| 1999 | James Griffin, Kenneth Schutze | Tom Kniest, Karen Walker | |
| 2000 | Kevin Collins, Patty Tucker | Victor King, John Stiefel | |
| 2001 | 25 | Doug Doub, Frank Merblum | Ed Davis, Jill Meyers |
| 2002 | 21 | JoAnna Stansby, Lew Stansby | Joseph Godefrin, Ed Schulte |
| 2003 | Steve Landen, Michael Zerbini | Doug Doub, Franklin Merblum | |
| 2004 | Henry Lortz, Wayne Ohlrich | Glenn Milgrim, Chris Willenken | |
| 2005 | 13 | Nikolay Demirev, David Yang | Dan Jacob, Bryan Maksymetz |
| 2006 | Gordon Campbell, Piotr Klimowicz | Henry Lortz, Wayne Ohlrich | |
| 2007 | 6 | Dave Abelow, Dick Wegman | Glenn Milgrim, Chris Willenken |
| 2008 | 13 | Xiaodong Shi, David Yang | Chuck Said, David Siebert |
| 2009 | Jim Krekorian, John Rengstorff | Bob Heitzman, Jonathan Weinstein | |
| 2010 | 25 | Doug Doub, Frank Merblum | Michael Polowan, Jared Lilienstein |
| 2011 | 24 | Shane Blanchard, Joe Grue | Kevin Bathurst, Joel Wooldridge |
| 2012 | 2 | Jordan Cohen, Barry Senensky | Bill Pollack, Rozanne Pollack |
| 2013 | 9 | Kevin Dwyer, Gavin Wolpert | Jim Munday, Richard Oshlag |
| 2014 | 10 | Bryan Howard, Terry Spector | Doug Doub, Frank Merblum |
| 2015 | 25 | Mark Aquino, Shome Mukherjee[4] | Jim Munday, Richard Oshlag |
| 2016 | 6 | Peter Boyd, Steve Robinson | Bart Bramley, Ira Hessel |
| 2017 | 6 | Peter Boyd, Steve Robinson | Michael Gill, Noble Shore |
| 2018 | 25 | Adam Grossack, Zachary Grossack | Joel Wooldridge, Kent Mignocchi |
| 2019 | 9 | Matthew Weingarten, Jeff Edelstein | Jim Munday, Larry Sealy |
| 2020 | Cancelled | ||
| 2021 | 2 | Bob Todd, Douglas Fisher | Chris Compton, Venkatrao Koneru |
| 2022 | 24 | Joel Wooldridge, Kent Mignocchi | Alan Schwartz, Annie Schwartz |
| 2023 | 25 | Zachary Grossack, Linda Robinson | Louis Glasthal, Jay Apfelbaum |
| 2024 | 3 | Alex Allen, Abe Pineles | Joshua Donn, Sheri Winestock |
| Year | District | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Peter Worley, Kevin Young | Kathie Blumenthal, Patricia Goldfein | |
| 1993 | Robert Sewell, Paul Janicki | Lawrence Gibbons, Gregory Jecker | |
| 1994 | Brendan Dempsey, Ian Crowe | Jack Kilby, Ernest Lambertsen | |
| 1995 | Jay Levy, William Rushmore | Bill Archambo, Richard Bender | |
| 1996 | Robert Johnson, David Rosenstein | Daniel Levi, Samuel Ehrlichman | |
| 1997 | Bill Drewett, Kirk Twiss | David Green, Donald Tofte | |
| 1998 | Adam Beneschan, Brian Gilbert | Mark Burkhammer, Brian Zajac | |
| 1999 | Andy Kaufman, Greg Burch | Patricia Griffin, Stephen Wood | |
| 2000 | 6 | Hal Hindman, Mark Chen | Tien-Chun Yang, Fang Wu |
| 2001 | 25 | Walter Lee, Jonathan Weinstein | Mike Ralston, Mahesh Rathi |
| 2002 | Wieslaw Kalita, Marian Krasowski | Robert Stayman, Frank Sensoli | |
| 2003 | 23 | Jordan Chodorow, Harvey Katz | Frank Sensoli, Michael Alioto |
| 2004 | Jim Alison, Dayn Beam | Jacqueline DeRouin, Jan Garthe | |
| 2005 | Pete Whipple, Jamie Radcliffe | Joon Pahk, Samuel Ieong | |
| 2006 | 6 | Fletcher Thompson, Bruce Todd | B. J. Trelford, Chris Buchanan |
| 2007 | Mark Golding, Rob Kitchen | Bijoy Anand, Earl Brown Jr. | |
| 2008 | 3 | Sidney Kanter, Ron Nelken | Ron Fertig, Dayou Zhou |
| 2009 | 25 | Robert McCaw, Lewis Gamerman | Jon Brandon, Harley Bress |
| 2010 | Dian Petrov, Fred Schenker | John Kozero, Gary Robinson | |
| 2011 | Philippe Galaski, Roger Webb | Brad Bartol, Matt Cory | |
| 2012 | 14 | Joseph Rice, Bjorgvin Kristinsson | Jay Anderson, Michael Moulding |
| 2013 | 16 | Daniel Jackson, Bill McCarty | Weishu Wu, Xiao-Yan Gong |
| 2014 | 2 | Aleksandar Vujic, Miroslav Kovacevic | Wieslaw Kalita, Romuald Mindak |
| 2015 | 7 | Andrew Jeng, Richard Jeng[4] | Kamal Gupta, Malik Magdon-Ismail |
| 2016 | 11 | Ryan Schultz, A.J. Stephani | Mike Ma, Steve Moese |
| 2017 | 23 | Murat Veysoglu, Kevin Lane | Bob Enenstein, Alan Wood |
| 2018 | 16 | Jeff Dater, Scott Nason | |
| 2019 | 25 | Yin Yichen, Chang Liu | Mark Golding, Robert Kitchen |
| 2020 | Cancelled | ||
| 2021 | 19 | John Lai, Morris Chen | Matthew Morse, Howard Huynh |
| 2022 | 6 | Rick Bingham, Ryan Connors | Marc Franklin, Harvey Jaffe |
| 2023 | 16 | James Zhan, Ying Peng | Jean La Traverse, Stephane Turcotte |
| 2024 | 6 | Alan Munro, Colin Schloss | Weican Xiao, Haihong Li |
| Year | District | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | 1/2. Leo Austern, Bernard Pollack 1/2. David Deaderick, Bill Thomas | ||
| 1988 | Brad Moss, Aaron Silverstein | Geoffrey O'Connor, Charles Bilick | |
| 1989 | Warren King, Jeffrey Brown | Sylvian Descoteauz, Guy Belisle | |
| 1990 | Philip Leung, Moske Harel | Deborah Hart, Nate Ward | |
| 1991 | Eric Greco, Philip Greco | Bruce Graff, Steve Castellino | |
| 1992 | Gail Joelson, Alan Kasner | J. Greg Fowler, Don Herring | |
| 1993 | 21 | Mark Michele, Everett Boyer | Gabrida Rabiega, Leszek Rabiega |
| 1994 | Weizhong Bao, Jingdong Guo | Duane Tilden, Grace Jeklin | |
| 1995 | 21 | Edward Lee, Brett Roby | Philip Feng Lu, Xiaodong Zhang |
| 1996 | Yue Zuo, Ruoyu Fan | Carlos Bichara, Rita Bichara | |
| 1997 | 21 | Thomas Franklin, Michael Corker | Weiming Hu, Alex Lo |
| 1998 | 21 | Tien-Chun Yang, Fang Wu | Matt Just, Paul Coulter |
| 1999 | James Gunn, Harry Shaffer | Norman Cannon, Judith Hallowell | |
| 2000 | Meredith Beck, John Johnson | Rachel Chittaro, Edward Nield | |
| 2001 | 6 | Hailong Ao, Jian-Jian Wang | David Pettit, Doris Suojanen |
| 2002 | Jacek Leznicki, Jerry Owczarek | Kevin Jones, Daniel Kenney | |
| 2003 | 6 | John Christensen, Robert Wissman | Lester Gottlieb, Richard Avazian |
| 2004 | 24 | Daniel Wilderman, Ryan Connors | Jacek Leznicki, Jerry Owczarek |
| 2005 | 21 | Jiang Chen, Nongyu Li | Inger Lise Blount, Jeanette Hughes |
| 2006 | 13 | Stanislaw Kolesnik, Vladimir Reznik | Mike Develin, John Barth |
| 2007 | 22 | Jon King, Dayou Zhou | Chong Zhao, Narayanan Ramabhadran |
| 2008 | 9 | Abraham Pallas, Dimitri Bourilkov | Kaiyu Qian, Jiawei Luo |
| 2009 | 21 | Michael Bodell, Elenalani Lam | Alex Lovejoy, Argenta Price |
| 2010 | Vladimir Oudalov, Stanley Weiss | Lisa Kuo, Murat Veysoglu | |
| 2011 | 15 | Rajeev Bansal, Michael Hughes | Guillaume de Decker, Ajit Thyagarajan |
| 2012 | 5 | Jeffrey Tsang, Chase Bonnette | Reid Barton, Emily Shen |
| 2013 | 12 | Julie Arbit, Jordan Kaye | Reid Barton, Emily Shen |
| 2014 | 9 | Sharlene Tyler, Donald Richards | Luen-Jyh Luo, Tsao-Tung Tsai |
| 2015 | 6 | Adam Gann, Blake Schwartzbach | Xiyuan Ge, Benjamin Kompa |
| 2016 | 7 | Benjamin Kompa, Robert Thorstad | James Herchenroeder, Laurie Herchenroeder |
| 2017 | 12 | Yanping Zhang, Henry Zhang | John Hindle, Jeff Gosman |
| 2018 | 12 | Yanping Zhang, Henry Zhang | |
| 2019 | 9 | Sheila Cesarano, Terry Jonas | Ilgaz Ciftci, Arda Kabaca |
| 2020 | Cancelled | ||
| 2021 | 16 | Arvind Sharma, Lynnie Sharma | Olivia Schireson, Brian Zhang |
| 2022 | 22 | Danning Lu, Andrew Rowberg | James Yi, Tengyun Tony Cao |
| 2023 | 22 | Bill Shane, Hongsa Situ | James Yi, Tengyun Tony Cao |
| 2024 | 24 | Yuchen Xu, Music Li | Ryan Fu, Kyle Blocher |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Grand National Pairs". Francis, Henry G.; Truscott, Alan F.; Frey, Richard L.; Hayward, Diane, eds. (1984). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (4th ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. p. 164. ISBN 0-517-55272-8. LCCN 84001791.
- ^ a b Francis, Henry G.; Truscott, Alan F.; Francis, Dorthy A., eds. (1994). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (5th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. p. 779. ISBN 0-943855-48-9. LCCN 96188639.
- ^ List of previous winners and history for Flight A, Page 4. Daily Bulletin (PDF), vol. 52–1, March 13, 2009
- ^ a b ACBL Daily Bulletin, 2015
- ^ a b List of previous winners and history for Flights B and C, Pages 9, 10. Daily Bulletin (PDF), vol. 52–9, March 21, 2009
External links
[edit]- NAP – North American Pairs at ACBL.org (May 23, 2014)
- NABC Winners: Baldwin NAP Flight A at ACBL.org
- NABC Winners Golder NAP Flight B at ACBL.org
- NABC Winners: Presidents Cup NAP Flight C at ACBL.org