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  Casually Speaking Interview: Fred Gitelman

July 31, 2008
Casually Speaking: Fred Gitelman

Welcome back to Casually Speaking – the interview series that showcases the fantastic staff who help make MSN^® Games such a great gaming site!

This month, we’re celebrating the return of Bridge to MSN Games by chatting with Fred Gitelman, president of Bridge Base Online (BBO).  As well as being five-time North American champion and one of the top players in the world, Fred has worked to help all players improve their games with his Bridge Master educational software and, of course, BBO. And now he’s helping bring Bridge back to the MSN community.

MSN Games: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. First things first – I know our readers will be excited to hear about the new MSN Games Bridge by Bridge Base Online. What can you tell us about it?

Fred G: Here are some of what I think are some of the nicest features of the new BBO software that will be used for the purposes of accessing our site through MSN: The software is based on Flash - that means that it runs in a web browser, you don't have to download or install anything, your firewall shouldn't cause you any problems, and you won't have to wait long even if you are using a dialup connection.

There are a lot of ways that you can play on our site. We have tried to make the user interface as simple as possible but it may take a little while for new members to become familiar with all the features we offer. Don’t be afraid to experiment! And you can always send an e-mail to support@bridgebase.com or by a chat message to one of our hosts (whose names appear in yellow on the site).

BBO has powerful facilities for taking you (or you and your partner) to a table without having to wade through lists of tables with open seats. However, if you like wading through lists tables with open seats or if you want to start your own table you can do that too!

MSN Games: And visitors can watch live matches too?

Fred G: If you enjoy watching others play then BBO is the place for you! There are often more than 100 world class players logged into our site at once. You can see who these people are through the "stars" tab to the right of the screen. BBO can also present a list of tables with a lot of kibitzers - often there will be hundreds at a single table. When you see that happen you can bet that the table in question is worth watching!

Even more players like to watch what our Vugraph broadcasts. These are live broadcasts of major Bridge tournaments from around the world. During these broadcasts expert players provide commentary and analysis via chat. These broadcasts are not only educational, they can also be extremely dramatic! If you think that Bridge could never be a true spectator sport, you might change your mind after watching Vugraph on BBO.

MSN Games: How did you first get into Bridge?

Fred G: My first exposure was when I was a child in Toronto, Canada. My parents played socially and I liked to watch them play. I started playing myself when I was about sixteen. Three of my friends from school had learned how to play. They needed a fourth and since they knew I liked things like computers and Rubik's Cubes (this was 1981!), they thought I would like Bridge too. They were right! During the next several years I spent much of the time when I should have been studying or working, playing Bridge in clubs and tournaments instead. I started playing competitively almost immediately - by that I mean I became a member of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and spent as much time as I could competing in ACBL-sanctioned Bridge clubs and tournaments.

MSN Games: When did you realize you were a great player??

Fred G: At that time in my Bridge career, my satisfaction came more from the fact that I loved playing the game, talking about interesting hands and studying Bridge. I did realize that I was one of Canada's best young players and that I could compete with most of Canada's very best (and not so young!) players, but I certainly did not see myself as a great player. Despite my subsequent success in later years it is still hard to think of myself as one. True, I am better than almost everyone, but there are still a few players who are definitely better than I will ever be. To me they are the "great players" and (unfortunately!) I am not one of them!

MSN Games: How did BBO come into being?

Fred G: BBO was made available to the general public in May of 2001. During the first few months of service we never had more than a couple of dozen people logged in to our site at once. Nowadays, over 100,000 people from over 100 different countries log in to BBO every day. At peak times (1PM PST) we typically have over 12,000 people logged in. Even when it is the middle of the night in America, there are never less than 2,000 people logged in to BBO. Our live Vugraph broadcasts remain extremely popular. During our recent coverage of the European Championships there were sometimes over 7,000 people watching the action live. Meanwhile thousands of others were logged in to BBO and not watching Vugraph - instead they were playing at any of 1,000+ tables, in any of the hundreds of daily tournaments we run, or just chatting with their Bridge friends.

MSN Games:  We’ve heard rumors that you regularly play Bridge with Bill Gates.

Fred G: The rumors are true. Bill loves Bridge and I have had the pleasure of playing with him many times. I consider playing with him to be an honor, because I consider him to be one of the truly great men of our time. It is not every day that a Bridge player like me gets a chance to spend time with an historic figure like Bill Gates. Playing with Bill is really such a normal experience, despite his accomplishments and wealth. The same is true of Warren Buffett, another larger than life figure who is often part of our games. As players they are just like the rest of us: they appreciate interesting hands, enjoy cooperating with their partner in the bidding and on defense, and really enjoy playing Bridge with their friends.

Bill does have an unusual thirst for knowledge, even for a Bridge player. He genuinely wants to learn as much as he can. If he is playing with a more experienced partner who tells him that he made a mistake, Bill will listen and thereby learn from his mistake. As smart and successful as Bill is, he fully understands how much he still has to learn about Bridge. He does not let his ego get in the way. There are a lot of players out there whose games would benefit by adopting Bill's attitude toward learning! I admire Bill and Warren a lot. It only further reinforces my opinion that Bridge is the greatest game ever invented to observe how much these two men enjoy playing and are stimulated by the great game of Bridge!

Thank you again, Fred, for taking the time out to talk to us!

And don’t forget to check out MSN Games by Bridge Base Online

Be sure to also check out our past interviews in the Casually Speaking archive:

View the entire Casually Speaking archive!