Talk:Irina Levitina

Correction
"She is the only person in the world to win world championships in both chess and bridge"

Levitina was never the Woman's Chess World Champion. She lost as challenger to Maia Chiburdanidze in 1984. Batgirl (talk) 23:38, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Well spotted. I have adjusted the intro accordingly. Brittle heaven (talk) 00:34, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Professional Bridge Player?
Is she really a professional bridge player? I'd imagine that'd be even harder to earn a living from than professional chess player. Peter Ballard 07:02, 19 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, she is. (I've seen her at a US national bridge tournament.)  It is probably easier to be a professional bridge player.  I know some bridge pros, but no chess pros.  The reason is that bridge is a partnership/team competition.  Players can hire a professional to be their partner.  In addition, there are a lot of team events where you have four, five, or six on a team.  A person can hire professionals to make up most of the team.  In addition, bridge players can make money from giving lessons and talks, plus sometimes from writing and maybe winning prizes.  But probably most of the income of a professional bridge player is from being hired by an amateur to be a partner or team member.


 * Apart from the partnership bit, that is all true of chess pros. I'm still surprised, but there you go. Thanks for that. [...]

Anti-Bush placard

 * Do you remember a few months ago when a US bridge team got in trouble for holding up a sign "We did not vote for Bush" after winning a tournament? She was one of them.  Bubba73 (talk), 04:08, 19 March 2008 (UTC)


 * No, it didn't register outside the US, it seems. Peter Ballard (talk) 04:36, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Six years later I noticed the quartet of External links. This needs to be covered in the article. (Indeed, no aspect of anyone's biography should be "covered" by a splash in the External links section alone.) Three tidbits from the NYT article only: All four Ext links hit immediate content, no follow-up. Two print, two audio-video.
 * Re professional play Debbie [Zuckerman] Rosenberg (Debbie Rosenberg), who holds the back-of-a-menu sign in the photo, observes (quote) The proposed sanctions would hurt the team's playing members financially. “I earn my living from bridge, and a substantial part of that from being hired to compete in high-level competitions,” Debbie Rosenberg, a team member, said. “So being barred would directly affect much of my ability to earn a living.”
 * Gail Greenberg, presumably paid by USBF to lead the team, claims/concedes the initiative was hers. (She was elected to the ACBL Hall of Fame this year, to be inducted next month. last year.)
 * USBF threatens/offers suspension and probation with a separate deal for those three of 6 players who "expressed regret that the action offended some people." Levitina is one of the three "who have not made any mollifying statements."

P.S. USBF president and spokeswomen Jan Martel (bridge) was inducted by the ACBL Hall of Fame two years ago. Captain Gail Greenberg last year. Regretful star Jill Meyers this year, to be inducted next month. Martel for service to bridge, Greenberg and Meyers for tournament play.

--P64 (talk) 15:33, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
 * See ACBL Hall of Fame induction by year with linked citations/biographies of Martel 2012, Greenberg 2013, and Meyers 2014. (Meyers ranks 1st among Women WGM, as Levitina now ranks 5th.) --P64 (talk) 03:27, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

United States Bridge Championships
Those USBF-tournaments are true national championships, so I explained her numerous "national" titles briefly in the text.

What record of past tournaments does USBF provide online?

We now list (3) 2000, 2004, 2008 for Levitina but her WBF record says that she played for USA1 in the Venice Cup tournaments fo 2001, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2013 --not necessarily USBChampion, if she was added to some of those rosters. (Those USA teams placed 5, 4, 1, 2, 5 in the tournament; she also placed third with USA2 in 1997.)

P.S. Let me preempt a mistake we don't make, yet: SportAccord World Mind Games medal events (one gold for Levitina in 2011) are not world championships (altho they may yield "world titles"?), the meet not to be confused with quadrennial World Mind Sports Games.

--P64 (talk) 03:37, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Photograph
I suggest the current (as of November 10, 2014) photograph showing her only in profile and smoking a cigarette should be replaced by a better one. Newwhist (talk) 12:26, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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