January 2012 - 30

Daily online newspaper covers all things bridge
"Our mission is to be the CNN of
bridge." It is with this purpose that
Jan van Cleeff and Eric Rodwell
launched BridgeTopics.com in September 2010.
BridgeTopics.com is primarily about
two things: first, it is a source of
global bridge news. Visiting the home
page is like reading a daily newspaper except that all of the stories are
bridge-related. The Internet news
agency has attracted an international
array of bridge writers, including John
Carruthers from Canada, Mark Horton
from England and Roland Wald from
Denmark/England (and Bridge Base
Online) among others. "These are professional journalists," emphasizes van
Cleeff, the site's CEO and editor. "We
work hard on the balance, finding interesting stuff fit for publication while
being objective at the same time."
A case in point was Italian correspondent Laura Camponeschi's ex-

Eric Rodwell and Jan van Cleeff

30 Bridge Bulletin January 2012

By Sue Munday

tended coverage of events that rocked
the Italian bridge world in 2010. It
would have been so easy to sensationalize the situation: complaints filed by
one team against another questioning
the appropriateness of three Norwegian players to play in the Italian
Teams Championship, the subsequent
decision of the Italian Tournament
Committee to disqualify the team, the
exclusion of perhaps the top pair in
the country from the national team
and the flurry of appeals, suits and
countersuits filed by involved parties.
No less startling was the announcement on Dec. 14, 2010, that two of
the world's best bridge pairs - Tor
Helness and Geir Helgemo from
Norway and Italians Fulvio Fantoni
and Claudio Nunes - immigrated to
Monaco to team up with Franck
Multon, one of France's strongest
players, and Pierre Zimmermann of
Switzerland to form what they hope

will become a strong international
contender. "Real estate tycoon Zimmermann is considered one of the
world's best playing (and paying)
bridge sponsors," reported the editor of Bridge i Norge (the Norwegian
bridge magazine), Boye Brogeland, on
BridgeTopics.com. These stories and
others filed since the site's inception
are preserved in the news archive,
the link for which is at the bottom of
every page.
In addition to breaking news items,
there are the actual bridge topics
themselves. Each month, BridgeTopics.com publishes an in-depth, electronic tutorial on bridge theory. All of
the "Topics" are edited by Rodwell,
who serves as the site's anchorman.
Most are written by him, as well.
The collection is offered on a paid
subscription basis. The cost to be a
topics-receiving, premium member
is $79.99 for 12 months. Subjects
last year included serious notrump,
Muiderberg two-bids, Gazzilli a la
Lauria and Last Train. Non-subscribers get access to the news stories and
a sample tutorial, "Doubles & Redoubles," and they can sign up to receive
a newsletter.
The "Poll" section of the web site
poses questions and play problems for
users to vote and comment upon. Another feature on BridgeTopics.com is
"The Grand Tour" - an international
listing of bridge tournaments.
Recently, the site branched out to
become a bridge software provider.
On Oct. 31, BridgeTopics.com announced the download availability of
Jack, a computer program. Potential
buyers can demo the program before
committing to buy it.
r

http://www.BridgeTopics.com http://www.BridgeTopics.com http://www.BridgeTopics.com http://www.ics.com http://www.BridgeTopics.com http://www.BridgeTopics.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2012