Frederick "Fred" Gitelman (born February 6, 1965) [1] is a Canadian-American bridge player, developer of bridge software, and a founder of the online bridge platform Bridge Base Online.
Gitelman has won one world championship, [2] nine North American Bridge Championships, [3] and a gold medal in the 2002 IOC Grand Prix. He was a runner-up in the 1995 Bermuda Bowl [4] as a member of the Canada open team. In 2005 he was named Personality of the Year by the International Bridge Press Association. [5]
Gitelman was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Canadian youth and later open international teams before he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. He resides there with his wife, Sheri Weinstock, also a well-known bridge player.
He competed for Team Canada at the 1993 Maccabiah Games and 1997 Maccabiah Games in Israel. [6] [7]
He is well known for the educational software he produced through his company Bridge Base Inc. His most recent project is Bridge Base Online (BBO), which he began in 2001, for online bridge play. BBO is one of the most popular bridge-playing sites. He officially retired from Bridge Base Online on July 12, 2019.
Bill Gates selected Gitelman as his personal bridge coach. [8]
Gitelman is sometimes recognized for his creativity at the bridge table. In one tournament he discarded an Ace, as a signal to his partner to not lead that suit. His partner led the remaining logical suit which Gitelman, being void, ruffed. [ citation needed ]
Robert David "Bob" Hamman is an American professional bridge player, among the greatest players of all time. He is from Dallas, Texas.
Robert S. (Bobby) Wolff is an American bridge player, writer, and administrator. He is the only person to win world championships in five different categories. He is a graduate of Trinity University.
Jeffrey John (Jeff) Meckstroth is an American professional contract bridge player. He is a multiple world champion, winning the Bermuda Bowl on USA teams five times. He is one of only ten players who have won the so-called triple crown of bridge: the Bermuda Bowl, the World Open Pairs and the World Team Olympiad. As of May 16, 2016, he was the fifth-ranking World Grand Master. For decades Meckstroth has been in a regular partnership with Eric Rodwell and together, nicknamed "Meckwell", they are one of the most successful bridge partnerships of all time. They are well known for playing an aggressive and very detailed system that derived from Precision Club.
Eric Victor Rodwell is an American professional bridge player. He has won the Bermuda Bowl representing the United States five times and is one of ten players who have won the triple crown of bridge: the Bermuda Bowl, the World Open Pairs and the World Team Olympiad.
Mir Zia Mahmood is a Pakistani-American professional bridge player. He is a World Bridge Federation and American Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master. As of April 2011 he was the 10th-ranked World Grand Master.
Norberto Bocchi is an Italian bridge player. Bocchi has won five World teams championships along with six consecutive European teams championships and a seventh European in 2010. For many years his regular partner was Giorgio Duboin. After missing one European and World championship cycle (2008–2009), he returned to the Italian national team in 2010, now playing with Agustín Madala, and Italy returned to the victor stand.(2010 Open Teams, final standings)
Giorgio Duboin is an Italian professional bridge player. He has won four world teams championships along with six consecutive European teams championships and a seventh European in 2010. For many years his regular partner was Norberto Bocchi; now he plays primarily with Antonio Sementa.
Claudio Nunes is an Italian professional bridge player.
Jacek Pszczoła is an American professional bridge player of Polish origin. Representing Poland, Pszczoła won the 1998 World Open Pairs Championship with Michał Kwiecień. American bridge players often refer to him by the nickname "Pepsi". He was Player of the Year of the ACBL in 2019.
William Eisenberg is an American bridge and backgammon professional. In bridge, Eisenberg has won five Bermuda Bowl world team titles and he won the backgammon world title in 1975. Eisenberg is World Bridge Federation (WBF) and American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master. He lived in Boca Raton, Florida, as of 1994 and 1998.
North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November for about eleven days. They comprise both championship and side contests of different kinds in many classes of competition. Host cities in the United States and Canada are selected several years in advance.
Michael Steven Lawrence is an American bridge player, teacher, theorist, and prolific writer.
Marty A. Bergen is an American bridge teacher, writer and player. A ten-time national champion and American Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master, he retired from active competition in 1993. He is still a bridge teacher and writer and is a World Bridge Federation World International Master. He was recently voted to be the 22nd most influential person in the history of bridge.
Robert "Bobby", "Bob" Goldman was an American bridge player, teacher and writer. He won three Bermuda Bowls, Olympiad Mixed Teams 1972, and 20 North American Bridge Championships. He authored books on bridge, most notably Aces Scientific and Winners and Losers at the Bridge Table, and conventions including Kickback, Exclusion Blackwood and Super Gerber (Redwood). He was from Highland Village, Texas.
Paul Soloway was a world champion American bridge player. He won the Bermuda Bowl world team championship five times and won 30 North American Bridge Championships "national"-level events.
Lorenzo Lauria is an Italian international bridge player. He is a six-time world champion and a World Grand Master of the World Bridge Federation (WBF). As of July 2014 he ranks fifth among Open World Grand Masters and his regular partner Alfredo Versace ranks fourth.
Björn Fallenius (1957-2023) was a Swedish bridge player, for many years a resident of New York City. He and his late wife Kathy Fallenius operated the Cavendish Bridge Club.
Boye Brogeland is a Norwegian professional bridge player. After a successful junior career, he won three Bermuda Bowl medals with the Norwegian team, including the gold in Shanghai 2007, and several North American Bridge Championships. He came into public focus in 2015 when he led a campaign against cheating in bridge, exposing wrongdoing of several top pairs, for which he received public recognition.
Sam Lev is an Israeli bridge player.
Richard Schwartz was an American bridge player.