Asian Games card players bridge yawning generation gap

AGE is just a number for bridge competitors engaged in a battle of wits at the Asian Games. Those gunning for a medal range from players in their 70s to those young enough to be their grandchildren.

Masood Mazhar was born in the final months of the Second World War, before the partition of India and Pakistan. “My father used to play, so I’ve been playing all my life,” said the 78-year-old, who is competing for Pakistan in Hangzhou.

People have enjoyed variations of bridge for centuries, but the tactical card game is a relatively new discipline at the Asian Games, becoming a medal event only in 2018.

Players sit in fours at square tables, working in pairs to win as many “tricks” as they can in each round.

After all these decades, the game has never become old for Mazhar, who said he began entering competitions in the mid-1980s.

“You learn every day. Every board, you learn, you never get the same thing again, ever,” he said, referring to the hands of cards players get dealt each game.

“Everything is new every time – it’s an adventure.”

Bridge is usually associated with older generations and the majority of players at the Games are over 40.

Taiwan’s Chen Kuan-hsuan wants to change all that.

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The 23-year-old played with her university’s bridge club and at youth tournaments before graduating into the World Team Championships, and now, the Asian Games.

“I seek self-fulfillment through bridge competitions,” she said.

She said in bridge, players must “maintain good relations with their teammates and partner... and use logic and inference to complete each move and each calculation” – a challenge she loves.

“I hope that by competing I can draw the attention of more young people, not just the ones who already play bridge,” she said.

Mazhar believes the problem is that young people simply do not have time to get into bridge these days.

“If you really want to play good bridge, you have to give a lot of time, and that means you have to practise at least three to four hours a day,” he said.

“And when they’re in school, all their parents want is good grades, and going to university to get better grades, and so they’re not encouraged, and it may become very difficult,” he said.

He admits that younger opponents have “more energy, more stamina”, but that won’t stop him from playing as long as he can.

“It’s an addiction,” he said.

“You want more and more all the time.” AFP