How Young Is The Record Holder?

On May 27, three days after his eighth birthday, Andrew Chen of San Jose, California, became the youngest life master ever. The previous record holder, Zach Garrison, had achieved the milestone when he was nine, a few months before Chen was born!

Chen, whose parents, Sarah and Steve, and older brother Charlie also play, took his first lesson in September 2018. The next month, he and eight-year-old Brian Zhang won the newcomer pairs at a local sectional. In 2019, Chen amassed 215.82 masterpoints and won the Mini-McKenney Rookie of the Year award. Around that time, he decided to try to break the record. And, strangely, he benefited from the pandemic. When his school was unexpectedly closed, he had time to play in online duplicates that were awarding masterpoints.

In today’s deal, Chen played in four spades, partnering his father in an online event. Dad’s support double showed three cards in spades.

When West led a low club, Chen knew that East had at least one heart royal; otherwise, West would have led the heart king. This meant that West probably had the other honor cards for his two-level overcall. So, Chen cashed his top spades, dropping the doubleton queen offside. Declarer drew the missing trump and eventually lost one heart and one diamond. Plus 460 was a tied top.

After Garrison broke the record, I

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asked him what his future bridge ambitions were. He effectively replied, “Been there, done that.” He gave up bridge and moved on. Chen, though, has his sights set on the Flight C Grand National Teams and hopes to join the junior training program.