From junior champion to world bridge champion.

Bridge is in my blood. It has shaped who I am and where I stand today. Bridge has taught me a great deal, taken me all over the world — and introduced me to the love of my life. And now it's my work.

How it started

I was eleven when my grandmother won a prize at a bridge tournament my mother organized. My father — a bridge teacher himself — taught me the rules. A year later, I won a prize too. I was hooked.

Not long after, I played in the Dutch Junior Championship. I won it convincingly. Bridge was no longer just a hobby. I represented the Netherlands multiple times at European and World Championships, both as a junior and as an adult.

University and the subtop

I was accepted to University College Utrecht — partly because I promised to start a bridge club there. I did. I taught fellow students and played in the subtop myself. Later, in Maastricht, I spent my final years playing on the Dutch junior national team. My partner and I performed so well that we were invited to the national B-squad — but our partnership ended.

Magie — and a new chapter

In 2008 I met my now wife: the Czech player Magie Tichá. When she moved to Groningen to study in 2010, we started playing for fun at De Zeerob. We performed well together right away. In 2011 we came fourth in the Master Class Pairs — and third at the European Mixed Pairs Championship in Poznań. It was clear: we were a partnership to watch.

Richard and Magie at the table, playing together for the Dutch national team.

The road to the world stage, together with Magie

The winning Dutch team, right after the World Championship in Wrocław, 2016.

Winning the Champions Cup, Riga 2017.

The moment everything changed

In 2018, Magie and I became parents. With the arrival of our second son, we set professional bridge aside. In 2023, I played a tournament with my mother. Our sons — three and five at the time — asked what I had been doing. They wanted to try it themselves. And so our boys played their very first hand of bridge.

I watched how quickly they picked it up, how they thought, how much fun they had. Something clicked. I realized I could combine my three greatest passions: teaching, young people, and bridge.

The career switch — three passions, one mission

In 2024 I made the leap. I left my job as a lawyer with the Dutch government and took the plunge. I dedicated myself fully to youth bridge and started teaching at schools. My enthusiasm and the progress we made caught the attention of the Dutch Bridge Federation, who asked me to organize the national schools' bridge championship as project coordinator — and growth exceeded every expectation. In the first year, 101 pupils from 17 schools took part. The year after: 268 pupils from 34 schools. My students from De Agnietenschool (Elburg) and De Marshof (Zwolle) placed first and second in the primary-school category of the 2026 national schools' bridge championship.

Youth bridge had been declining in the Netherlands for years. That tide is turning — and I'm proud to be part of that.

Why I coach

I've been teaching students, beginners and advanced players since 2000. Since 2012 I've run clinics at bridge clubs across the Netherlands. But the deepest motivation is simple: it gives me enormous satisfaction to contribute to someone's development. Watching someone grow because of what we did together — that's what I do it for. That's something I'm genuinely proud of.

My approach

I work with general principles you can apply anywhere. Bridge is a logical game. I don't teach you rules — I teach you how to reason through any problem using logic. I give you room to discover things for yourself and step in where needed, always in a friendly way that respects who you are. Practical, effective, results-driven.