MANILA, Philippines - When it comes to games demanding mental prowess, age is no issue. Half of the six-member bridge team that represented the country in the first International Mind Sports Game (following the Beijing Olympics) were, technically speaking, senior citizens. The event included draughts, the Japanese game called go and bridge.

Angeles ?Nene? Quimson is proud to say the core team players aren?t coy about their age?she herself, her partner Vicente ?Chot? Reyes, her cousin, former beauty queen Carmen ?Chuchay? Tuason. She has a younger partner, Romy Virola, a statistician. The younger members are Martin Anastacio and Serefino Carreon.

Seventy-two countries joined the most prestigious category, the open tournament. They were divided into four brackets composed of 18 delegations each. After six days of competition, the Philippines ranked 15th place out of 18 countries in their bracket. Quimson says the competition was stiff as the other countries were more experienced and skillful.

On the low ranking, Reyes points out that the Philippines is small in the bridge world compared to the US, which has 250,000 professional players, or Turkey, with half a million players. ?We are noncompetitive. We could have done better but there was lack of preparation and some players could not practice enough. One player lives in Sweden and only worked with the partner in Manila towards competition,? he says. Nonetheless, he feels there is still hope for the country.

Fierce contest

To the uninitiated, bridge is a trick-taking (a trick is a series of rounds) card game of cleverness, risk and luck. It is played by four players who form two partnerships; the partners sit across each other at a table. The game consists of the auction or bidding (making an educated guess about the point value of the tricks they will take), followed by the play and the scoring.

The auction is consummated with a contract, which is a deal made by one partnership that their side will garner at least a pledged number of tricks with a specified suit as trump (cards that outrank the others). Partnerships play against each other to make the contract. The highest bidder?s bid is concurred; and the other partners prevent the contract from being accomplished.

Sylvia Alejandro, corporate secretary of the Philippine Bridge Tournament Association, adds, ?In bridge you reach a contract, depending on how well you assess your card holding. It?s a fierce contest. In the defense of the game, opponents will try to bring you down. Outwitting them comes with experience. Over time, you learn how to manage your cards in a way that you can visualize the cards positioning. From the auction you have to remember who made the bids. That will give you a clue as to how to play the cards. Winning comes when you try to garner the number of tricks that you have earlier declared.?

Quimson adds, ?We are a group of four players divided into two teams. One challenges the other.

You bid on what you think you can earn. After the auction, you play. You must make your bid. If you cannot make it, you are penalized. That?s when you have to pay. But if you accomplish what you bid for?you fulfill your contract?then you are awarded of what you bid for.?

Card sense

When people ask the country?s best bridge player, Vicente Reyes, to explain the game, he says he can?t do it in one sitting. It takes at least 12 lessons before the person can understand the rudiments of the game.

It?s a challenge to remember the cards and have the ability to count to 13 cards per suit. ?You?ll be surprised that many people can?t do that. I?ve trained myself to count and remember the cards that go out. The other thing is to deduce the cards that opponents are holding by the way they play. There are many strategies and techniques to the game. That?s why it is complicated. You also have to get along with your partner and help each other get the optimum score,? says Reyes.?

Blessed with a gift for intuition, Reyes taught himself bridge in his teens. ?It doesn?t require intelligence or good memory. It?s card sense,? he says. He once discussed with a top psychologist about card sense or what makes people good in bridge and how others, despite their gold medals in math, can be terrible at the card game. The psychology attributed the skill to spatial intelligence. ?You can put abstract things in your mind and work it out mentally. Many people don?t have that.?

To improve her game, Quimson lured the cream of the crop with fancy meals in her house. She learned bridge by watching her parents José Tuason and Nening del Rosario who were avid players. She?s been playing for tricks since she was 8 years old. ?For me, it?s the most difficult card game. It?s a game of numbers. You have to memorize, think a lot, see what cards come out. You have to determine who has what card by the bidding. You will know this one holds a lot of diamonds or hearts or spades. That is what bridge is all about.?

It was an on-again, off-again love affair. She resumed bridge with her husband, the late John Quimson, former Philippine ambassador to the Court of St. James. After a 23-year hiatus, she decided to resume and take it more seriously.

?We bet very little. If we lose P100 or P80, we are already sad. It is such a challenge that you don?t care about money. It?s not like mahjong that if you don?t play high stakes, then it?s boring,? she says. It was later in life that Quimson was interested in being a good bridge player. Reyes, an old family friend, became her mentor.

The secret

The bridge team underwent a series of qualifying games organized by the Philippine Tournament Bridge Association which works with the Philippine Olympic Committee and is also recognized by the World Bridge Federation and Pacific Asia Bridge Association. To qualify, players competed for several weeks.

Alejandro cites two factors on how the senior players made it to the team. ?Good luck comes with good play. There were certain deals where one doesn?t know which way to go. Perhaps their judgement was better than the other team.?

Months before the game, Reyes would fly to London where Quimson has residence and spend some months. They practiced for 15 hours a week and competed in the UK, Sweden and Australia to get the feel of playing for the big time.

?It?s hard to be in the team if you are my age. Bridge players are in their 40s and 50s in other countries,? says Quimson.

They cite businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffet, 78, touted as the ambassador of the game. He spends 12 hours a week to play bridge and travels around the world for competitions. In world championships in Verona, Italy, in 2006, he even pledged $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

?I take bridge more seriously now than when I was younger. I want to do my best,? she says. ?I like the challenge. It makes my mind work. They say if you play bridge, you won?t have Alzheimer?s disease.?

Reyes says being in the Olympiad at 71 is an achievement. He commends his partner for her dedication and stamina throughout the event. ?She did not get tired or show any lack of memory.?

Alejandro says age is not an issue in competing. In fact, she competed at the Bridge Olympiad in Rhodes, Greece, and is setting her sights on the Bridge Olympiad in 2012 at an advance age. Her partner, national player Albert Quiogue, is 20 years her junior. ?It?s just a mind-set. If you read ?The Secret,? it says there is no such thing as age. That?s only a Western concept that has been hammered down by media.?

Alejandro began competing in bridge after retirement. ?Bridge is great at any age. It helps you focus and sharpens your ability to decide.?