Benito Garozzo is playing the open teams at the Open EC in Ostend, so Elisabeth van Ettinger took the opportunity to to make a short video interview with him for NewInBridge. Back in the eighties Elisabeth was member of the Dutch selection of which Mr. Garozzo was in charge. We publish here an excerpt of the interview, edited by Laura Cecilia Porro.
Elisabeth van Ettinger – I am very proud to have with me today one of the very famous people in bridge: Benito Garozzo. Are you going to play in this tournament? Who are you playing with?
Benito Garozzo – My partner is Romain Zaleski, he is a very nice player who is playing my system which is not so easy to play.
EVE -I remember your system but probably it has changed quite a bit.
BG – I have changed the system almost every year.
EVE -Is it still very artificial? Strong club?
BG – No I have been playing 5 card majors for more than 4 years.
EVE – I remember the time you trained me with the Dutch team and we all had to learn your system.
BG – That was the Volmac system. It was a very nice system. I moved to the US and 5 card major was the system that almost everyone was playing so I switched to it.
EVE – Are you still playing a lot?
BG – I play a lot particularly on BBO. I play almost every day for a long time, since BBO started I probably have not missed many days, my love is still bridge.
EVE – Your life is still very much bridge, other things are not so important.
BG – I used to play a little golf, I was very bad, I loved it, but then I got a bad back and I had to quit.
EVE – How many hours a day do you think you are playing bridge?
BG – It depends. If I am training with a partner I play a lot, if not I play a little less, still almost every day.
EVE – Are you still training people?
BG – My partner, we are training together, we are starting playing now together.
EVE – Mr Zaleski?
BG – Yes. We train together. We play many hands and we also bid hands, partnership bidding is a very good way to train the bidding system. You have to remember the system, otherwise it’s better to play no conventions.
EVE – Which pair are you playing with?
BG – We have two very young pairs, my partner is not so young, but the others are in their 40s.
EVE – Who are they?
BG – Riccardo Intonti, who used to play for the juniors when I was training the Italian juniors, now he’s in his 40s, and his partner is Mario D’Avossa who also was a junior just after I quit, he’s a little younger, a couple of years less. Then Lanzarotti, who is a very known and very good player, he plays with young Manno.
EVE – Am I allowed to ask how old are you now?
BG – I am very young still, I don’t have 90 yet! I am going to be 86.
EVE – It’s wonderful you are still playing so much. I wish you all the luck in this tournament!
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Elisabeth van Ettinger (NewInBridge)
Enjoy the video of the interview: click here>>