The time is approaching for our unit holiday party. Sunday, December 9. Dinner will begin at 5:30 p.m. The unit will provide ham and turkey and the players will provide other tasty potluck dishes. Dinner will be followed by a STAC game with silver points available. Please sign up at the club. We have rented a larger room near the San Jose Bridge Center as we expect to overflow our club with good players, good food, and good cheer. If you haven’t attended recently, find out why this event is so popular.

October was a month filled with local sectionals and notable successes by our upcoming newer players. Ray & Maxine Lubow were first overall in the Santa Cruz sectional stratified open pairs. That’s first overall, not just first in their stratification. They added a strat top in the evening game. Irwin & Marion Wentzien were first in their direction in the under-100 game. A team including Tania Moalem, Gigi Spinazze, & Shih-Ming Shih won their knockout bracket. Winning in their respective Swiss team brackets were Ray Yuenger, Tony Staw, Ed Lee, & Mike Roney; also Chin & Melody Chao & David Chang.

At the Diablo Valley sectional, Hiram Shen & Mike Sullivan were first overall in the afternoon pairs (yes another overall first!). Strat tops went to Will Watson & Stephen Tu, Eileen Edwards & Sherry Waki, Irwin & Marion Wentzien, and Vibeke Gilbreath. Winning in their Swiss bracket were Shih-Ming Shih, Melinda Foos, & Stephen Tu.

Gary & Jan Soules made the trip to the Santa Rosa sectional worthwhile with a strat top. Stephen Tu earned a strat top in the Berkeley-El Cerrito-Richmond sectional.

At the international level, Rose Meltzer’s team won the Bermuda Bowl.

My apologies if I overlook the success of a new unit member or recent transfer. I’m trying to obtain more current membership information.

Our recent individual unit game drew eight tables of players. It was a fun way to try out 13 new partners for two boards each.

I’m happy to announce that Will Watson is taking over from me as editor of the Di-rek’tor, our unit newsletter.

I have a little room to get up on my soapbox. How do you feel about the trend to bracketed Swiss teams at sectionals? An advantage is you get to only play others at your point level. Disadvantages are you may not get to play others at your skill level and the lower brackets award fewer points. I think I like them.

I keep questioning how units stratify their tournaments. A recent sectional that divided Swiss teams at 1000 and 300 masterpoints had more A teams than B and C teams combined. Is that a balanced field? Let your unit boards know your feelings.

Corrections, comments, and news are welcome at (408)379-7717 and rayyuenger@starband.net. Old columns appear under “old stuff” at www.sjbridge.org.