Chris
Benson of LeRoy IL has joined the ranks of an elite group. She is the 300th
bridge player to reach the rank of Grand Life Master (GLM) in the history of the
American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), established in 1937.by Linda Goersch, Tolono IL
Chris
Benson of LeRoy IL has joined the ranks of an elite group. She is the 300th
bridge player to reach the rank of Grand Life Master (GLM) in the history of the
American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), established in 1937.
GLM is the highest rank in the ACBL. Benson is the only one in Central Illinois and only the second in District 8 (Bob Carteaux of Fort Wayne IN is the other). Her name is listed just above Marty Bergen, a familiar name in bridge, as are many other GLMs such as Mike Cappeletti, Eddie Kantar and Jim and Oswald Jacoby.
Karen Walker, a director at the Bridge at Ginger Creek club in Champaign, said, “We’re all thrilled for Chris, who, in addition to being an accomplished player, is a good friend and a downright nice person. She’s one of the many members of our bridge family who make us glad we discovered this fascinating game.”
To qualify for GLM status, Benson had to earn 10,000 masterpoints and win a national championship. She and partner Lynne Feldman of Champaign won the Women’s Pairs at the ACBL North American Bridge Championships (NABC) in Detroit in March 2008.
Winning at a national event requires at least two days of exceptional play, so stamina and concentration are big factors. “I know several players who have around 20,000 points but aren’t Grand Life Masters because they haven’t been able to win the big championship,” said Walker.
Earning the 10,000 points took Benson a bit longer. She reached that milestone at Mike’s Bridge Club in Bloomington on November 2. She needed 0.12 points and earned 0.52.
Living in LeRoy, a small town between Bloomington and Champaign IL, makes it a little more difficult to earn points. “Most of the country’s Grand Life Masters live in or near big cities, so they have more big tournaments nearby,” said Walker. Benson drives almost 40 miles to play at the Ginger Creek club.
Winning 10,000 points requires playing and doing well in a large number of events. Winning a 10-table club game, for example, earns about 1 point. Winning an expert-level regional event is around 30 points.
Benson said she was never a natural card player because deductions that seemed to come easily to others were hard for her. “Dozens of times I would come home from a bridge game and swear that I would never play again,” said Benson. “My husband wanted me to share in his passion, however, and he was very reassuring that I would get better at the game.”
Benson met her husband Dick in 1966, and he introduced her to the game that Benson calls the “lifelong roller coaster of agony and ecstasy that is the world of tournament bridge.” Now, 40 years later, she still works to be a better bridge player. “There are still hands that are frustrating to play or defend. I still feel like a beginner at times.”
Benson was a teacher for 30 years at the Rufus King School for the College Bound in Milwaukee WI and could attend the national tournaments (North American Bridge Championships --NABCs), which are held three times a year, only in the summer. Since retiring in 1996 and moving to LeRoy to be near her mother, Benson has been able to attend almost all the NABCs, including the one in Boston held in November.
Benson said she has many good memories of traveling to tournaments. Just this past summer she and her husband traveled with another couple on a “national parks tour” while driving to Las Vegas for the NABC. She has traveled all over the United States, from Hawaii to New York and most states in between.
“In bridge, you rub shoulders with people from all walks of life and the only thing that matters is how well you play bridge. It’s a great social and economic class leveler,” said Benson. She has played against the top bridge players in the world as well as celebrities.
She has played against Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Omar Sharif, and Chief Executive Officers of companies — people, Benson said, who would never cross her path except in the bridge world. She commented that Gates was quiet and Buffet was very friendly, telling her a funny story that involved his daughter and Michael Eisner, then head of the Disney Corporation.
Playing bridge is definitely a family affair for Benson. Besides her husband, their daughter, Martha Katz, and her husband Ralph and son Sam are all tournament bridge players. Martha placed sixth in a world championship and Ralph has placed second twice in world open pairs.
The ACBL has no rank higher than GLM, so Benson’s next goal is to play in a world championship, which is held once every four years. “My hope is that I will be able to play bridge for many, many more years,” said Benson.