PHOTOGRAPH BY | Darrin Back

Before he was 20, junior Haider Malik had played in three World Junior Bridge Championships. The Pakistan native’s team has played in Thailand, Australia, and China, where last fall they placed a somewhat disappointing 13th. They might have made a better showing, but practices are difficult to schedule when one teammate lives in Minnesota and the others are in Connecticut and Pakistan.

The four began playing bridge in high school to pass the time between classes. As they improved they started to play in clubs, and before long they were off to play in the “under 20” category at the World Junior Team Championships. “When we started, no one else under 25 played bridge,” Malik points out, “so there wasn’t much competition.”

Traveling to international tournaments is expensive, but the team has been fortunate to have sponsors. For the Beijing competition, Malik’s team was sponsored by the World Bridge Federation and World Mind Sports; the Pakistani government picked up the entry fees.

The current student preference for video games means that Malik has few friends on campus with whom to practice, though he still manages to play bridge six or seven hours a week, mostly on weekends. When they can coordinate their schedules, the four teammates play online, and they played regularly last summer while home on vacation.

“Once you play bridge you get hooked,” says Malik. “It’s a lot of fun if you’re into math, probability, and calculating.” Malik, a mathematics and economics major, has the perfect mind for the game. His heavy-duty fall schedule included macroeconomics, differential equations, and probability.
What does it take to be a contender in bridge? According to Malik, “You have to practice a lot, read books on bridge, have an experienced teacher, study expert players as they play, and be really, really committed.”