Christian Bakke was born on November 21st 1995 in Bergen. Both his parents are high level bridge players. He has three brothers. He completed his high school studies at Fana Gymnasiuman in his hometown. He is currently studying mathematics and physics at the University of Bergen.
Christian learned to play at home and gradually gave up the other sports he practiced with his brothers to devote himself more and more to bridge.
At a youth level he won over several national titles, a silver (2015) and a bronze (2017) in the Transnational Swiss Teams, a bronze in the Damiani Trophy (2014), a gold in the European Mixed Pairs (2018), a silver in the Transnational BAM Teams (2017), a bronze in the David Pigot (2015).
In 2017 he won the Joan Gerard award that the WBF gives to the player who shows the best sporting spirit of each championship and in 2019 he won the Jacoby and the BAM Open Teams in the World Youth Open Championships. in 2022 Bakke added a Bermuda Bowl bronze to his trophy cabinet.
Boye Brogeland He owns, runs and writes for Norwegian Bridge Magazine. Among his many significant results: a Bermuda Bowl win in 2007, European Championship wins in 2008 and 2018 and Spingold in 2017. In 2019 he won a bronze medal at the Bermuda Bowl in China in a play-off against the USA in a nail biting finish. It was such a close match that Boye said: “That bronze felt like gold!” He now has another Bermuda Bowl bronze from 2022.
Brogeland spearheaded an anti-cheating campaign which shook up the bridge world and for which he was named IBPA (International Bridge Press Association) Bridge Personality of the Year in 2015. See Boye’s Wikipedia page.
Espen Erichsen’s roll of honour includes: 1996 European Junior Championship (Gold); 1997 World Junior Championship (Silver); 2005 European Mixed Teams (Gold); 2009 Nordic Championship (Gold). Espen has represented England in the Camrose three times (he does, after all, live in Tunbridge Wells) and has won the Premier league twice (having won its Norwegian equivalent three times). He has also won the Lederer twice. Espen and Thor-Erik Hoftaniska won the Open Pairs at the 2019 Reykjavik Bridge Festival. See Espen’s EBU profile.
Simon Gillis is an Investment Manager, and sits on the finance committee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. He has a wife, two children, lots of wine and no dog. He has two Gold Cup wins on his bridge CV (2016 and 2010) and has reached the semi-finals on other occasions including 2015. With the same team as this year’s Lederer he won the BAM at the World Championships in Lyon in August 2017. His impressive record also includes winning the Iceland Open twice, the Brighton teams and Deauville. See Simon’s EBU profile.
Erik Saelensminde
Odin Svendsen
Lederer Trophy 