John William Anthony Tumewu (crossFT), an international tournament director and bridge player from Indonesia, recently emerged as the champion of the Country vs Country Championships at the BBOers February Festival. He posted an impressive score of 69.57%, in a field of 2,726 participants from around the world.

I had the pleasure of speaking with John to learn more about his journey to becoming a skilled bridge player. A semi-professional in civil engineering, as well as a teacher, coach, and tournament director, John has honed his skills over the years and continues to inspire many in the bridge community.

“I started playing bridge in 1990 and became serious about it a year later. Since then, I have been competing in lots of tournaments and have always looked for a partner to share knowledge about bridge theory, develop ideas, and implement them match after match.”

John is a big fan of the BBOers Festival, which he sees as an excellent way to train and improve your abilities, especially in play and defense. He mentioned, ” I hope more and more people get involved in the festival, as it provides a great opportunity to train your sense of reading card characters and to experience the diversity and irregularity of bidding.”

He mentions that a solid understanding of the agreements used by robots is needed to do well in the Festival. “Every once in a while, you need to make bids you wouldn’t normally make with your partner,” he added.

Aside from the BBOers Festival, John plays daylong tournaments most days, such as Zenith games and 8 random boards.

As an international tournament director and player, John balances his roles by updating his knowledge about bridge and practicing as a player. He believes that to be a good tournament director you must start by being a good bridge player.

“I always need to keep my bridge knowledge up to date, and pay particular attention to bidding. Besides that, I like to keep practicing and improving as a player, and I really enjoy discussing bridge with my friends.”

Outside of bridge, John enjoys listening to music and occasionally singing with friends. He also enjoys watching sports on TV and reading books about bridge.

Thanks go to John for sharing a few words with us and for being a great ambassador for Indonesian bridge.