Congratulations . . .

To our Central Illinois Unit members who had impressive finishes in national events at the North American Bridge Championships in Chicago in July.  

Grand National Teams (GNT):

Representing District 8 in the Flight A GNT were Madhu Viswanathan (Champaign), Kris Maillacheruvu, Chuck Young and Rich Pestien (Peoria). They qualified first out of the original 24 teams and placed 5/8 in the national finals, winning 19.13 masterpoints.

In the Flight B GNT, the Champaign-area team of Pete Ashbrook, Lisa Bievenue, Tony Curtis, Kyle Blocher and Lee Blocher (age 12) qualified first out of the original 24 teams and placed 3/4 in the national finals, winning 35.00 masterpoints. 

In the photos at left, Lisa and Lee are at the table and Lee is posing with the bracket sheet.
 

In the Flight C GNT, Phil Reeser, Vern Knapp, Ryan Fu, Han-mo Ou and Danny Schuck (Champaign-Urbana area) qualified fourth out of the original 23 teams. They placed 3/4 in the national finals, winning 22.50 masterpoints.
 

Intercollegiate Championships:

Our University of Illinois team -- Danny Schuck, Ryan Fu, Han-mo Ou and Nick Koskelo -- competed in the national semifinals in Chicago. They played in a qualifying event earlier this year and were one of eight teams to win expense-paid trips to Chicago to play in the finals. 

The team and their trip to Chicago were featured in this report in the Daily Illini newspaper.

Schuck and Fu are in the photo at left.
 

Steve Babin and Cindy Moore posted a 67.83% game to earn the gold medal in the 2023 Illinois Senior Olympics Bridge Tournament. Richard Brummer and Ron Diehl took the silver medal, and the bronze went to Mary Allen and Marilyn Stickel.

This annual contest drew 18.5 tables of players ages 55 and over. Congratulations to the winners and runners-up:

Regional events (red & gold points) open to non-Life Masters with 0-750 points.
Sectional events (silver points) open to all players.

Schedule and more details are here.

Info & partners: 
 Lori Moore       whisperpines@me.com    309-838-8085
 Larry Ziegler    lzgoblue54@gmail.com   309-336-8568

 ♣  Club Appreciation Month -- October 1-31

ACBL designates October as Club Appreciation Month and offers all clubs the opportunity to host extra club championships, with no added fees. Each sanctioned session can can host two championships during October, in addition to its regular quarterly club championship. The games offer extra masterpoints (black points, 85 percent of sectional rating). Team games also pay 5-percent gold points. Ask your club manager for the dates of the games in your area.

 ♣  Silver Point Sectional-Tournament-at-Clubs (STaC) -- October 23-29

Loads of silver points will be available for a full week beginning Monday, October 23, when all clubs in District 8 can award sectional-rated silver points at all sessions. The event also offers District-wide overall awards. See the ACBL website for updated results during and after STaC week.

District 8 will host another STaC week for local clubs on December 11-17.