Bridge | 12 December 2020

It’s surprising how quickly we adapt to things: nine months ago, most of us had never played bridge online before, yet it feels almost normal now. One slightly surreal side-effect is the way an older generation of players have begun using text-acronyms with the gusto of teenagers: TY, SY, NP and, if anything remotely funny happens, it’s LOL every time.

Actually, some acronyms took me a while to get used to. In my very first online game, my partner typed ‘GLP’ as I was about to play a doubled contract; puzzled, I concluded it was short for gulp. I was slightly insulted that he kept typing ‘gulp’ whenever I was about to play — until the penny dropped; he was wishing me luck. I’d been thrown by the quaint formality of adding P for partner. As the weeks went by, other bits of text-slang completely defeated me. When one man — in his seventies, mind — typed ‘BRB’, I had to ask what he meant. Of course, he didn’t answer: it stands for ‘be right back’. I like to think I’ve got the hang it now — although I was flummoxed last week when someone typed ‘SY I was AFK’. Silly me: ‘away from the keyboard’.

While I was kibitzing the great Brazilian player Gabriel Chagas and his partner Melih Ozdil on BBO recently, Ozdil (East) earned a great big WDP from Chagas on this deal.

Chagas led the ◆5. Dummy played the ◆4 — and Ozdil played the ◆2! Had he played the ◆10 declarer would have 4 diamonds, 4 clubs and a trick in the majors. But declarer could no longer finesse the ◆9. Having won with the ◆6, he cashed the ◆A and played a spade to the ♠Q.