Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrived in the northern Italian city of Verona over the weekend and took part in the World Bridge Championships taking place there.
The championships, due to open on Friday evening and to run until June 24, will involve some 4,000 players from 70 countries.
Gates, who also took part in the 2002 Bridge world championships in Toronto, arrived on his private jet. He has booked most of the rooms in one of Verona's top hotels for his aides and bodyguards. The Microsoft president is registered to take part in the mixed pairs tournament and will play his first game on Monday.
A self-described bridge addict, Gates says the game requires logic and offers mental challenges similar to his day job as head of a software giant.
Since taking up bridge in the late 1990s, he has surrounded himself with world champions and takes any opportunity to play the game's masters. He reportedly plays many games online, even though he admits a computer still cannot play well enough to really test him.
In Toronto four years ago he failed to get through to the final round.
The Verona Bridge championships have attracted several top names from Italian business, including the chairman of insurance giant Generali, Antoine Bernheim, and the actor Omar Sharif.
