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Letter from a Player
New Grand Life Master.
New Grand Life Master.
By Alex Perlin
I am an immigrant from Russia who came to America to pursue graduate studies in Math. America had the best graduate program in the world then, and it still does. It was during the grad school that I started playing bridge tournaments. These were only local tournaments. I might have never attended a national championship, but it so happened that 1999 Fall NABC was held within walking distance from my dorm! I took advantage of this proximity to play a few secondary games with friends. Then at the end of the tournament I kibitzed Geir Helgemo and Tony Forrester as they defended their Reisinger crown. It was an amazing eye–opening experience which showed national tournaments might be worth time, expense and effort. Now Reisinger is my favorite event to play. You usually would not qualify for the next round, but for a day you rub shoulders with the game's brightest stars.
These days I live with my wife Lydia and two sons, ages 11 and 14, in Central New Jersey. I am very grateful to Lydia for letting me attend NABC as she holds the fort at home. I work full–time as a quantitative analyst in NYC, where I also volunteer teaching Math to talented high–school students.
To be honest, I was pretty sure I would never be a Grand Life Master. The requirement of winning an NABC+ event seemed just impossible. It is now funny to recall a friendly argument we had with my wonderful partner Ljudmila Kamenova just before the final of 2023 NABC+ Fast Pairs. She was convinced we had a chance, and I was stubbornly commenting along the lines of "no way". Eventually, she told me to play for the second place. However, we did win thanks to her great and blazingly fast play. I'd bet dollars to donuts that I was the only contestant of 3–day Life Master Pairs at 2024 Toronto NABC interested in 14th place. It was going to give me 10,000th masterpoint. In the event with so many big champions, it is a hard challenge for me, but my partner David Yang of Chicago was up for it, and we finished 13th. Just high enough! In addition to Ljudmila and David, I want to thank all other great partners who helped me reach 10,000. If I learnt anything from this journey, it is believing in your friends.
Last but not least, thanks for all the great work you do on behalf of our bridge community.
Kind regards,
Alex