Forget Pokemon. The Times reports on an uptick of bridge among school kids.
Their efforts to promote bridge among students have helped revive a game that peaked in popularity in the years after World War II, and have redefined it from a leisurely pastime for the elderly to a game fit for interscholastic contests in which young players vie for trophies, scholarships and bragging rights.
In 2009, a 9-year-old Georgia boy, Richard Jeng, became the youngest player to earn the rank of life master from the American Contract Bridge League, the nation’s largest bridge organization; the average age of its 165,000 members is 67. Three hundred top junior players are expected to compete in the fourth annual Youth North American Bridge Championships in Toronto in July, while hundreds more will play in local tournaments this year.
Next up: gin rummy, shuffleboard, and regret.