There is a preconception about contract bridge, also known as bridge, as the paling “American Craze” card game that more than 20 million participants took up throughout the 1930s yet is only regularly played on a monthly to weekly basis by around 2 million people throughout today’s generation, aside from iconic outliers such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. With this in mind, it is truly a stirring feat to see UCSB’s student bridge team competing in the 2023 Collegiate Bridge Bowl, the largest competition in the college circuit. They’re imbuing new vitality into a game whose demand for sharp logical skills and comprehensive strategy inspires nothing less.
UCSB’s Overbidders Anonymous team — made up of Kenneth Chan, Michael Hu, Danning Lu, Hanwen Tian, and Michael Zheng — is one of eight teams and 12 pairs to win the competitive travel package to attend the bowl that will assemble in Chicago July 20-22, showcasing years of dedication toward learning the game that, as Chan, team member and PhD student in economics at UCSB, states, “takes lifetimes to master.”
Bronia Jenkins, executive director of the American Contract Bridge League, the bowl’s governing body, notes, “I’m pleased to see a younger generation of bridge players show an appreciation for the game, let alone compete with their peers with the same spirit and grit like any other university sports team.”