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
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.
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
Cannes, France
|
|
1. |
Pierre Jaïs |
Roger Trézel |
|
2. |
Terence Reese |
Boris Schapiro |
| |
3. |
René Bacherich |
Pierre Ghestem |
|
| 1966
Amsterdam, Netherlands
|
|
1. |
Hans Kreijns |
Bob Slavenburg |
|
2. |
John Fisher |
Jim Jacoby |
| |
3. |
B. Jay Becker |
Dorothy Hayden |
|
| 1970
Stockholm, Sweden
|
|
1. |
Fritz Babsch |
Peter Manhardt |
|
2. |
Benito Garozzo |
Federico Mayer |
| |
3. |
William Saulino |
Italo Zanasi |
|
| 1974
Las Palmas, Spain
|
|
1. |
Bob Hamman |
Bobby Wolff |
|
2. |
Adriano Abate |
Leandro Burgay |
|
3. |
Federico De Paula |
Italo Zanasi |
|
| 1978
New Orleans, USA
|
|
1. |
Marcelo Branco |
Gabino Cintra |
|
2. |
Eric Kokish |
Peter Nagy |
|
3. |
Roger Bates |
John Mohan |
|
| 1982
Biarritz, France
|
|
1. |
Chip Martel |
Lew Stansby |
|
2. |
Anton Maas |
Max Rebattu |
|
3. |
Gabriel Chagas |
Roberto Mello |
|
| 1986
Miami Beach, USA
|
|
1. |
Jeff Meckstroth |
Eric Rodwell |
|
2. |
Heinrich Berger |
Wolfgang Meinl |
|
3. |
Steve Burgess |
Paul Marston |
|
| 1990
Geneva, Switzerland
|
|
1. |
Marcelo Branco |
Gabriel Chagas |
|
2. |
Ralph Katz |
Peter Nagy |
|
3. |
Cezary Balicki |
Adam Żmudziński |
|
| 1994
Albuquerque, USA
|
|
1. |
Marcin Leśniewski |
Marek Szymanowski |
|
2. |
Bob Hamman |
Michael Rosenberg |
|
3. |
Eric Kirchhoff |
Anton Maas |
|
| 1998
Lille, France
|
|
1. |
Michał Kwiecień |
Jacek Pszczoła |
|
2. |
David Berkowitz |
Larry N. Cohen |
|
3. |
Peter Fredin |
Magnus Lindkvist |
|
| 2002
Montreal, Canada
|
327 |
1. |
Fulvio Fantoni |
Claudio Nunes |
|
2. |
Zia Mahmood |
Michael Rosenberg |
|
3. |
Diego Brenner |
Gabriel Chagas |
|
| 2006
Verona, Italy
|
392 |
1. |
FU Zhong |
ZHAO Jie (Jack Zhao) |
|
2. |
Bobby Levin |
Steve Weinstein |
|
3. |
Fulvio Fantoni |
Claudio Nunes |
|
| 2010
Philadelphia, USA
|
313 |
1. |
Bobby Levin |
Steve Weinstein |
|
2. |
Björn Fallenius |
Peter Fredin |
|
3. |
Josef Piekarek |
Alexander Smirnov |
|
| 2014
Sanya, China
|
200 |
1. |
Ehud Friedlander |
Inon Liran |
|
2. |
Jacek Kalita |
Michał Nowosadzki |
|
3. |
Thomas Bessis |
Cédric Lorenzini |
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