On Wednesday 20th of June 2012, after the match Italy-Netherlands, Italian ace Giorgio Duboin has been interviewed live on BTCC (Bridgetopics.com Channel) from Dublin, where the European Bridge Championships were being held. BTCC is the new web TV produced by Neapolitan Club and BridgeTopics.com. Here we offer a summary of the interview run by Jan Van Cleeff and Laura Cecilia Porro.
As usual, we start with a few dilemmas. We give you 2 words and you have to choose one of them. Giorgino, tell me: Home or travel?
I would like to be at home but my lifestyle is to travel all the year. I enjoy to be at home with my family, son, and beautiful cat.
Deauville or Gold Coast in Australia?
Gold Coast, I cannot play Deauville anymore because I am involved in the US Nationals in the same period.
England or Netherlands?
I just lost against Netherlands, so in this moment I prefer England!
Bocchi or Sementa?
With Bocchi I built one of the best partnership in the world, which lasted 18 years. With Sementa I do not think we can be as good as we were with Norberto, but life changes and in this moment I prefer Sementa.
Support doubles: yes or no?
Definitely no. The Italian style does not have support doubles. Doubles are to show better hands.
Which is your best success?
Two cycles in my bridge career: When I was a junior, I started playing in the national open team when I was 23-24. After, for about 10 years there was a period in which I did not take part in competitions and if I did I did not have success. After 1997 the best period of my career starts: I won the first European, and six more, 3 Olympic games, one Bermuda Bowl, Nationals in US, and many tournaments in Europe.
Last month we had an interesting experiment: the best Dutch pair Brink and Drijver played in the Italian Championships for the first time but did not have success. Why?
I did not play against them. I do not think our Championships are tough but probably they found the atmosphere distracting: too much good food, and too many crazy Italian pairs.
Where do the IMPs come from?
I think the most important part is the bidding auction, mainly in competition, but also one-sided. Now the level of bridge is very good around the world so it is hard to score IMPs as declarer or defender. IMPs come from bidding.
Do you need a very artificial system to achieve this?
I play a very natural system, you do not need a very sophisticated relay-system. The most important thing is to know what each single bid means.
Do you have a general policy on leads?
This is a question that everybody used to ask: the Italian style is to lead as passive as possible. But with some exceptions, maybe very aggressive once every twenty boards.
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BTCC team
June 25, 2012