Earlier, I gave some reasons why becoming a Life Master may not be such a big deal.
But I still think it’s worthwhile. Consider:
- How many times in your life are you going to be a Master of anything? Okay, maybe it’s not on the same level as winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but it’s something.
- Being a Life Master doesn’t mean that other players will necessarily look up to you, but not being a Life Master is certainly viewed with suspicion. Oh, I know it’s possible to be a non-LM and play and pretty good game of bridge. I just haven’t met too many people that fall into that category.
- Once you make Life Master, they can’t take it away from you. (At least not yet, anyway.) In chess, if you make it to Master, you’ll lose the title if your rating falls below 2200.
- There are people who spend years, decades even, trying to get those last few gold points. Ask them if they think Life Master is a worthwhile goal!
- It’s not a perfect system, by any means, but becoming a Life Master is probably as close as we’ll come to objective evidence that someone isn’t a totally hopeless bridge player.
