The Alan Truscott Memorial Award

Alan Truscott, circa 1964, The New York Times
The Alan Truscott Award is presented periodically to an individual or organisation that, in the
opinion of the IBPA Executive, has done something in the world of bridge that Alan would have
approved of and appreciated. Alan was an IBPA Executive member, serving as its president from
1981 to 1985 and was the long-time Bridge Editor of The New York Times. Alan was also a fine player:
before leaving England for the United States, Alan represented Great Britain internationally, earning
a first and second in the European Team Championships and a third in the Bermuda Bowl. Before
such things were forbidden, he served as the NPC for Bermuda and Brazil in World Championships.

2022 Recipient: Marek Malysa

Marek Malysa (Poland)
Dr. Malysa is a retired mathematics professor from Gdansk University, past-Chair of the WBF
Bridge and Science Committee, on-site organiser of the 2016 World Bridge Games and 2022 World
Bridge Series, both in Wrocław, an author, a bridge teaching programme developer, and the
organiser of several scientific conferences. Today, he leads the research at Nicolaus Copernicus

University in Toruń, Poland, on bridge’s effect on patients with dementias, including Alzheimer’s
disease.
Marek Malysa has also been a Vice-President of the Polish Bridge Union and a member of the
Seniors Committee of the European Bridge League and the World Bridge Federation. In November
2017, with Samantha Punch, he started the Bridge and Science Committee (now a part of the
Development Committee) of the World Bridge Federation. Scientific research in bridge had already
been established: Samantha Punch of the University of Stirling had created the Sociology of Bridge,
with its own Ph.D. programme; Véronique Ventos, with NukkAI, is exploring Artificial Intelligence to
be used in bridge; and the first and second International Scientific Conferences dedicated to our
game took place in Poland with the third one in Croatia and the fourth in Scotland, respectively. The
Fifth Anniversary Conference is scheduled for 23-24 January, 2023, again in Poland (Toruń).
Marek led the Bridge 60-plus project, which helped launch 310 bridge clubs for the elderly in Poland.
He is also Chairman of the Council of the Bridge to the People Foundation (at
www.bridgetothepeople.eu), which funds research into the social and health benefits of bridge. Marek
has been Non-Playing Captain of the Polish Under-21 team in European and World Championships
and he was coach of the Polish Women’s team at the European Championships in Opatija in 2016.
He has been involved with BAMSA from the beginning and his contribution includes setting up the
first two international academic conferences on bridge.
Today, Marek’s main interest is bridge’s rôle in preventing, slowing and reversing the effects of
dementias and, particularly, Alzheimer’s disease. The pilot research is represented by two papers
about bridge and Alzheimer therapy and dementia prevention. These can be found here:
http://www.worldbridge.org/…/pilot-study-on-the-well-being…/
https://bridgetothepeople.eu/research-results/
IBPA feels that Alan would love the idea of Marek’s research and is proud to present him with the
2022 Alan Truscott Memorial Award.