Indonesia wins Asia's Yeh Brothers Cup
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia won the Yeh Brothers Cup bridge tournament with a victory over Chinese Taipei in the final on Sunday.
"We defeated Taipei by 80-59 victory points. It was a tough final match given the opponents were led by their national player Cheng de Ming," Bert Toar Polii, one of the four-strong Indonesian team, told The Jakarta Post here on Monday.
Other playing members included Henky Lasut, Eddy Manoppo and Taufik Hasby. Indonesia won US$11,000.
"The winner takes all. Runner-up was granted a consolation prize," Bert said.
The three-day tournament featured 20 teams from nine countries: Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Indonesia failed to advance past the quarterfinals of last year's inaugural Yeh Brothers Cup, despite fielding two teams.
Bert said the competition was tough given the list of participants. Japan came to the tournament with a Kenji Miyakuni- led team, which won the Pan Asia Bridge Federation Championship in Thailand last June.
"Australia should have been a serious contender with Paul Marsten in the team. He guided an Australian team to third place in Thailand," Bert, the deputy secretary general of the outgoing board of the Indonesian Contract Bridge Association (Gabsi), said.
The 20 teams played a preliminary round with the top eight teams qualifying for the next stage.
In the quarterfinals, where the contestants played 24 boards, Indonesia beat North Taiwan 60-22 points. It carried on with a 52-37 victory points win over the Philippines in the semifinals, also played in 24 boards. The final match was staged in 32 boards.
As the defending champion, Indonesia has been assured a place in the 2003 competition, scheduled to take place in Shanghai in April and Kaohsiung in November.
In a separate development, Bert disclosed that Gabsi would meet this week to discuss naming a new chairperson for the organization.
Gabsi's top post has been vacant since the withdrawal of Hatta Radjasa, who was elected chairman during a congress in Palembang, South Sumatra, in July, from the post. Hatta is State Minister for Research and Technology.
"It's likely that we will leave the matter to a caretaker at the moment to oversee the preparations of an extraordinary congress next July," Bert said, adding that Wiranto, who was Hatta's predecessor, would return to assume the caretaker role.