Rose Meltzer, of Los Gatos, California, became the first woman to obtain the rank of "world grand master" of the World Bridge Federation by winning the Rosenblum Cup at the recent world championships in Verona, Italy.

In fact, Rose is the only female to win any open world championship, and she has won four of them! It started in the year 2000 with the Transnational Open Teams in Bermuda, when Rose won with Alan Sontag, Peter Weichsel, Adam Zmudzinski and Cesari Balicki. Weichsel played half with Rose and half with Sontag in that event. Next came the Bermuda Bowl (2001) in Paris, where Rose partnered Kyle Larsen, with teammates Lew Stansby, Chip Martel, Sontag and Weichsel. The third victory was the Senior Bowl in Estoril, Portugal, last year, with Garey Hayden as Rose's partner (Kyle, Rose's regular partner was too young); Stansby played with Roger Bates (Chip Martel, Stansby's regular partner, was also too young) and Weichsel and Sontag.

And, finally, the fourth Open Team world championship that Rose won was the Rosenblum in Verona. Rose played with Larsen, and her teammates were Sontag, Bates, Geir Helgemo and Tor Hellness.

Rose said afterward: I can hardly believe it all -- I'm still on cloud nine. I've learned to enjoy and relish these moments as long as possible.