Some years ago, I met Curt Kristensen and his son, Ben, at the Gopher Regional. I recall my team winning a Swiss Team - yet Curt and Ben's team being the only team to beat ours. From that time on, I felt that this young boy was headed for the top.
All Minnesotans are proud of how Ben has succeeded in junior bridge - here in the ACBL and with a World Youth Silver Medal in 2014.
Now - Curt himself has won an NABC title, 0-1500 Mini Spingold, and Ben is playing in major events with the Big Boys. After 3 days of play, Ben and his partner, Kevin Rosenberg, along with illustrious teammates Steve Robinson, Peter Boyd, Kit Woolsey and Fred Stewart, were 16th in the prestigious Roth Open Swiss.
When I first heard of Ben's team (also for the Spingold), I told Kit, "So nice of you guys to play with Ben and Kevin." I loved Kit's response. "We are fortunate that Ben and Kevin are willing to play with us!"
Now, while we await Ben achieving his first win on the national stage, we will let his dad report on the huge success Curt himself secured in DC.
Congratulations to a wonderful father and son from our great state!
And now, some thoughts from Champion Curt Kristensen about his adventure and win!
I met Greg Sellgren at the partnership desk of the 2014 Summer Las Vegas NABC. We played on a Swiss team there with different partners, and then one session together. Ti Davis and Brian Rink were added to our Spingold team using the ACBL partnership desk. They had played 3 sessions previously in the last year or so.
In our quarterfinal match, we led by 39 IMPS with 14 boards to play. We felt confident, setting the opponents' contracts on 6 of the boards. But we ended up tied - ultimately winning 20-0 in 6 boards, with each team bidding to the same contract.
During the event, I learned that my sister-in-law had been hospitalized with metastatic cancer. Thus, we decided to devote our team effort as a dedication to her and her family.
Each round, our team play improved as we faced better opponents. In our final match, we beat the Chang team 160-131. Their team had placed 2nd in the GNT C-Flight; for the Mini Spingold, they added Frank Lin. Their entire team showed class throughout. Playing against them was just great!
Curt Kristensen
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