Away because of some health problem, only now I have known that Eric Kokish has passed away. I have never meet him in the real world, only in Internet; the first time was more than twenty years ago in “Bridge 2000”, the fine bridge site founded by Pinhas Romik and Samuel Levin, where Erik was a guide, maybe a planner as well. Sometimes I asked him a counsel, and he always responded, and always usefully; Erik was not only a champion, but also a great theorist, and a gentleman.
Once I saw a video where he was captain of the female US team in a world championship. He was seated a ten meters from the table, alone, watching; he was doing nothing, not a book, not a magazine, and at that distance he could not see or hear anything. He was doing nothing but keeping ready to stand up at once if called, a watchful shepherd.
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Paolo Enrico Garrisi