World Open Pairs Championship

The World Open Pairs Championship is a contract bridge competition initiated in 1962 and held as part of the World Bridge Series Championships every four years. Open to all pairs without any quota restrictions on nationality, the championship is widely regarded as the most prestigious pairs competition in contract bridge. In its present form, the competition lasts eight days.

Results

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World meets commonly run for 15 days on a schedule whose details vary.

In 2006 the Open Pairs played Saturday to Saturday, the 8th to 15th days of the meet, with five qualifying, five semifinal, and five final sessions. At the start of qualifying, 32 teams remained in the knockout stage of the marquee teams competition for the Rosenblum Cup. During qualifying sessions for the pairs, the Rosenblum teams were reduced from 32 to 8. There were some provisions for late entry to the pairs by players knocked out of the teams at a late stage. There were 392 pairs in the qualifier, 193 in the semifinal, and 72 in the final.[1]

United States pairs have won four of 14 tournaments through 2014, Brazil two, Poland two, and six other nations one each. (The tournament is "open" in several respects including the registered nationalities of partners but no transnational pair has won any of the 42 medals.) Marcelo Branco of Brazil is the only two-time champion.

Year, Site Entries Medalists
1962 [2]


Cannes, France

1.   Pierre Jaïs   Roger Trézel
2.   Terence Reese   Boris Schapiro
[a] 3.   René Bacherich   Pierre Ghestem
1966 [3]


Amsterdam, Netherlands 

1.   Hans Kreijns   Bob Slavenburg
2.   John Fisher   Jim Jacoby
[a] 3.   B. Jay Becker   Dorothy Hayden
1970 [4]


Stockholm, Sweden

1.   Fritz Babsch   Peter Manhardt
2.   Benito Garozzo   Federico Mayer
[a] 3.   William Saulino   Italo Zanasi
1974 [5]


Las Palmas, Spain

[b] 1.   Bob Hamman   Bobby Wolff
2.   Adriano Abate   Leandro Burgay
3.   Federico De Paula   Italo Zanasi
1978 [6]


New Orleans, USA

1.   Marcelo Branco   Gabino Cintra
2.   Eric Kokish   Peter Nagy
3.   Roger Bates   John Mohan
1982 [7]


Biarritz, France

1.   Chip Martel   Lew Stansby
2.   Anton Maas   Max Rebattu
3.   Gabriel Chagas   Roberto Mello
1986 [8]


Miami Beach, USA

1.   Jeff Meckstroth   Eric Rodwell
2.   Heinrich Berger   Wolfgang Meinl
3.   Steve Burgess   Paul Marston
1990 [9]


Geneva, Switzerland

1.   Marcelo Branco   Gabriel Chagas
2.   Ralph Katz   Peter Nagy
3.   Cezary Balicki   Adam Żmudziński
1994 [10]


Albuquerque, USA

1.   Marcin Leśniewski   Marek Szymanowski
2.   Bob Hamman   Michael Rosenberg
3.   Eric Kirchhoff   Anton Maas
1998 [11][12]


Lille, France

1.   Michał Kwiecień   Jacek Pszczoła
2.   David Berkowitz   Larry N. Cohen
3.   Peter Fredin   Magnus Lindkvist
2002 [13][14]


Montreal, Canada

327 1.   Fulvio Fantoni   Claudio Nunes
2.   Zia Mahmood   Michael Rosenberg
3.   Diego Brenner   Gabriel Chagas
2006 [15][16]


Verona, Italy

392 1.   FU Zhong   ZHAO Jie (Jack Zhao)
2.   Bobby Levin   Steve Weinstein
3.   Fulvio Fantoni   Claudio Nunes
2010 [17][18]


Philadelphia, USA

313 1.   Bobby Levin   Steve Weinstein
2.   Björn Fallenius   Peter Fredin
3.   Josef Piekarek   Alexander Smirnov
2014 [19]


Sanya, China

200[c] 1.   Ehud Friedlander   Inon Liran
2.   Jacek Kalita   Michał Nowosadzki
3.   Thomas Bessis   Cédric Lorenzini

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c [citation needed] The WBF currently lists only the winners and runners up, neither third place nor the size of the field.
  2. ^ For 1974 to 1998 the WBF currently lists at least three leaders (3 in 1974; 72 in 1998) without the size of the field. Some of those listings may enumerate the finalists.
  3. ^ There were 200 initial entries in 2014, excluding drop-ins from the teams.[19]

References

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  1. ^ Results (linked schedule), 12th World Bridge Championships, 2006. WBF.
  2. ^ Results & Participants, 1st World Open Pairs Championship, 1962. WBF.
  3. ^ Results & Participants, 2nd World Open Pairs Championship, 1966. WBF.
  4. ^ Results & Participants, 3rd World Open Pairs Championship, 1970. WBF.
  5. ^ Results & Participants, 4th World Open Pairs Championship, 1974. WBF.
  6. ^ Results & Participants, 5th World Open Pairs Championship, 1978. WBF.
  7. ^ Results & Participants, 6th World Open Pairs Championship, 1982. WBF.
  8. ^ Results & Participants, 7th World Open Pairs Championship, 1986. WBF.
  9. ^ Results & Participants, 8th World Open Pairs Championship, 1990. WBF.
  10. ^ Results & Participants, 9th World Open Pairs Championship, 1994. WBF.
  11. ^ Results & Participants, 10th World Open Pairs Championship, 1998. WBF.
  12. ^ 1998 World Bridge Championships contemporary coverage, 1998. WBF.
  13. ^ Results & Participants (Open series), 11th World Championship, 2002. WBF.
  14. ^ World Bridge Championships contemporary coverage, 2002. WBF.
  15. ^ Results & Participants, Open Pairs, 2006. WBF.
  16. ^ 12th World Bridge Championships contemporary coverage, 2006. WBF.
  17. ^ Results & Participants, Open Pairs, 2010. WBF.
  18. ^ 13th World Bridge Series contemporary coverage, 2010. WBF.
  19. ^ a b "The results from the Red Bull World Bridge Series". WBF. October 2014. Retrieved 2015-02-12.
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