August 2009. We're ready for the World Team Championships in São Paulo, Brazil, starting at the end of the month. This whole year bridge went extremely well. I played well, my partner Bas Drijver played excellently and together we have been winning very often.
In short, our team is going to bring the world title to the Netherlands!

How exactly does a bridge player prepare himself for the world's most important tournament, the World Championship teams? There and then it will have to happen. There we will have to show our Dutch team has entered the absolute world top level.
My preparation was rather odd, really, since it consisted of being away from home mostly.

It was the time of year for the Summer Nationals in the USA (Sjoert's articles have been published earlier on the Dutch Bridgevaria.nl site; on Bridgevaria.com they are not – yet! – topical. Furthermore he still speaks – as many still do – of 'Nationals', but the correct name is and has been for some time 'North American Bridge Chamionships' -Ed.), this time held in Washington D.C.
One of the nice things about the Nationals is they take place in a different North American city every time, so there are always different sights to see.

During the preparation for the San Remo Open European Championship three top ranking Dutch clubs (De Lombard, Het Witte Huis and 't Onstein) participated in an internet championship specially organised for them by Dutch bridgeplay-site Stepbridge in cooperation with the Dutch Bridge Federation.
Bas Drijver and I play for 't Onstein, our team mates are Ton Bakkeren and Huub Bertens.

Earlier this year, in the final of the Dutch Meesterklasse (top league) De Lombard had handsomely beaten us, so this was a good opportunity for revenge. And revenge we got, we outclassed them: 25-2. I have to admit the result paints too rosy a picture, since luck was rather often on our side. But not always, as this example shows.

San Remo (2), the knock-out matches

The nice thing about preliminaries followed by knock-out matches is that all teams start from scratch. No carry-over, nothing. This means equal chances again for everyone. And yes, I liked that.
In the first match one of the opponents was Zaleski, the man who 'bought' Bas (Drijver) and me in the Cavendish (*see footnote). He played on the French Open team, so our job was not going to be easy.

On the plane to Nice, on our way to the Open European Team Championships in San Remo, I sat next to Danny Molenaar. We discussed Dutch bridge and our expectations. He hoped to make it to the knock-out phase. And I? Well, I boasted a little. I said I expected to win the gold in the teams just like that, since I could not think of a stronger team under the participators. After all, in an event like this (Open Championship) almost all strong teams line up a sponsor, weakening themselves.