2024 Bridge Points rankings: Interview

The year 2024 came to a close just a few days ago, marking the end of the first annual Bridge Points Circuit rankings. 🇳🇱 Roelof van Lopik was crowned King of 2024 after an intense final week of competition. 🇫🇷 Dominique Fonteneau came second, with 🇮🇱 Yoram Aviram completing the podium.

I had the opportunity to meet these three champions together and get their first thoughts 🎙️

🎙️ Boris Plays: Hello gentlemen, and congratulations! The last tournaments counting towards the 2024 annual rankings are over, so you’re officially on this year’s podium! Roelof, honour to the winner, it was a marathon that ended in a sprint! Did you feel Dominique’s breath on the back of your neck at the end? 😆

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: Hello Boris and Happy New Year to everyone! Well, as soon as I reached the finals of the Winter Summit, I was convinced I had a good chance to win the annual rankings. On the last hand of the final qualification tournament, I made 3NT+2 for 80%. 3NT+1 was 40% and not enough to qualify…

🎙️ Boris Plays: That’s crazy! I had noticed that you almost didn’t make the 60% needed to qualify, but to think that in the end it all came down to a single trick taken is unbelievable. Especially since if you hadn’t qualified for the finals, you couldn’t have expected a lesser performance from Dominique Fonteneau, who finished 7^th in the finals! 🥵

Dominique, do you think you could have done something to snatch first place at the last minute, or was Roelof’s rocket start just too much to overcome?

🥈 Dominique Fonteneau: Hi all! In the Winter Summit event, I could have finished 2^nd instead of 7^th but I made the wrong choices many times. One board cost me a lot: I played in 6NT with K KTxxx KQJ98 Kx on North’s 1H opening. It was the best contract. Unfortunately, Argine made the best defence against me and I scored zero instead of the top. Maybe this board cost me the first place of the annual rankings, we’ll never know…

🎙️ Boris Plays: Actually, someone may know! Roelof, sorry to break your little secret but can you tell us about that spreadsheet you made to calculate how many Bridge Points you needed to win to stay ahead of Dominique despite his meteoric rise? 😅

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: Ha ha! My spreadsheet was initially meant to track my progress. As I’ve said before (see Roelof’s first interview in November 2024), my goal is to get to level 40. But as the end of the year approached, I used it to check daily what lead I had over Dominique. I thought that if I averaged 70 Bridge Points a day, it would be difficult for him to overtake me. Until suddenly the BP1000 Winter Summit appeared on the calendar… I was a bit desperate at first, it felt like I was participating in a quiz and leading 49-0 after 49 questions. And then the quiz master says “the final question is worth 50 points”.

Luckily I did well in this tournament and then had an average of over 62% in the last 10 tournaments of the year.

🎙️ Boris Plays: What about you Yoram, are you happy with your 3^rd place?

🥉 Yoram Aviram: Hello Boris 🙂 Yes, and it was a good fight for the bronze medal too. FatOrange was a tough opponent.

🎙️ Boris Plays: He sure was! You finished 3^rd with 9,089 BP and FatOrange ended in 4^th place with 8,760 BP. Can you pinpoint a particular moment that made the difference?

🥉 Yoram Aviram: Well, it was close before the BP1000 tournament (editor’s note: the Winter Summit) and clear that it would decide the bronze. It started very badly for me. About halfway through the finals, my score was around 45% and FatOrange had nearly 55% with about a third of the boards played… It seemed bad. But then I improved to around 51% and he finished just above me. Then I knew it was probably over 🙂

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: I think FatOrange also qualified for the finals thanks to his last qualification tournament!

🎙️ Boris Plays: This BP1000 tournament was definitely the catalyst for a thrilling conclusion. It must have been stressful for you, but as a spectator I loved it and I’m asking for more! 😜

Now, what are your plans for 2025? Will you still be fighting for the top? Do you have any specific goal you could share?

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: It’s not realistic for me to stay at the top of the rankings. When I see the other names in the top 10, almost all of them have played international tournaments. I only play online, not even in a club. But if I can stay in the top 10, I will be very happy.

🥉 Yoram Aviram: Well, for me it depends on the format. If we have to play all the tournaments, it’s too much for me. If it’s more moderate, I’ll do my best.

🎙️ Boris Plays: I understand, yearly and monthly rankings are quite demanding. On the other hand, the Live rankings are meant to reward performance over attendance. And it will be modified to make sure top players don’t have to play all the tournaments to do well: we announced in a previous article that it will soon only take into account your 25 best performances over the last 365 days.

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: I’ve spoken to several players who all think that the 25 best tournaments is a bit too little. The best 50 or even 100 would be more realistic…

🎙️ Boris Plays: You’re absolutely right, we also heard that feedback and decided to go with the best 50 instead of 25.

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: Great! Then my new goal will be to have a rating of 2500. 🤓

🎙️ Boris Plays: Yoram, the two of us have already debated this new Live rankings system and you weren’t so convinced. The final adjustments are being made right now and the new system will be deployed soon. I can already tell you that you’re World No. 2, very close to Dominique who takes first place. I understand that the monthly and yearly rankings will be a little too demanding for you, but will we have the pleasure of seeing you battle it out for the Live rankings?

🥉 Yoram Aviram: Of course! Although I was in favour of an averaging system, taking the top 50 tournaments is an improvement. I’m going to continue playing on the Bridge Points Circuit – not all tournaments – and if I do well, my Live ranking should be good.

Will it be reset periodically? If not, then after a while, when one has 50 very good results, then it’s not going to change anymore.

🎙️ Boris Plays: Absolutely, it’s a 365-day rolling rankings, which means that after 365 days your result in a tournament doesn’t count anymore even if it was very good. It is directly inspired by the ATP tennis rankings. For example, your Winter Summit result will expire in about 350 days.

🥉 Yoram Aviram: My specific poor result in that one has already expired, I believe… 🙃

🎙️ Boris Plays: Ha ha ha 😆 That’s what I call a champion’s comment because even if your result seems disappointing to you, reaching the finals was already no easy task! What’s more, since it was a BP1000 event, you racked up a lot of points. I’m willing to bet that this performance will stay in your top 50 until it expires in a year’s time!

🥉 Yoram Aviram: Ok then, make it 25 tournaments… 😂

🎙️ Boris Plays: 🤣

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: So, about the medal ceremony under the Eiffel Tower…

🎙️ Boris Plays: Although there will definitely be a trophy for each of you (keep an eye on your mailbox), it will be a celebrate-from-home situation, I’m afraid 😉

🥇 Roelof van Lopik: 😂👍👍

🥉 Yoram Aviram: 💚

And that’s where my conversation with our three 2024 champions ended. Congratulations again to them and to all the players who took part in a Bridge Points Circuit tournament. You’ve made this new game mode a success, and we look forward to a full year of exciting tournaments in 2025!