| world bridge games makes an impressive debut |
| |
The 1st World Bridge Games, scored a great success as part of the inaugural World Mind Sports Games, held in Beijing, China, 3-18 October 2008. This was the first attempt of the world's most popular mind sports to get together and show that, besides human body effort credit should also be given to human brain effort.
The 1st World Mind Sports Games comprised competitions for five mind sports: bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi (chinese chess). The Games were splendidly organized by China, the hosts of the 2008 Olympic Games and 2008 Paralympic Games. The experience gained by the organization of these games was evident in the World Mind Sports Games, and 3,000 participants from 143 countries and regions enjoyed a great time in Beijing. It is hoped that the way has now been paved, and that the World Mind Sports Games will soon find their rightful place under the direct umbrella of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as the third division of the Olympic Games, after the Summer and the Winter games.
1st WORLD BRIDGE GAMES
MEDAL TABLE |
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
Norway |
2 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
Turkey |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
England |
1 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
France |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
Denmark |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Italy |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Sweden |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Poland |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
China |
0 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
Israel |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Romania |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Russia |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
USA |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Bridge was by far the best attended section of the World Mind Sports Games. To support the new idea, the WBF discontinued the World Team Olympiad (which had been held in every leap year continuously since 1960) and founded the World Bridge Games. This comprised the series which used to be part of the Olympiad (Open and Women national teams), and in addition a new series of competitions for young players: national teams, pairs and an individual - all for players up to 28 years. The World Under-26 (former World Junior Championship for the Ortiz-Patiño Trophy) and Under-21 (former World Schools Championship for the Damiani Cup) teams competitions were also held in Beijing, exceptionally incorporated into the World Bridge Games. Similarly, the same happened with the World Masters Individual Championships played in Open and Women series. The Seniors competition for national teams, held along the lines of the Olympiad Open and Women series, and the World Transnational Mixed Teams championship were also held in Beijing, although, officially, they were not part of the World Bridge Games.
All in all, this was the largest world bridge championships ever held! 267 national teams, pairs and players, representing 92 different countries and regions took part in the various competitions. 13 countries shared 27 medals available to winners of the 9 different disciplines. NORWAY topped the medal table (gold in Underr-28 Teams and Open Masters Individual; silver in Open Masters Individual; bronze in Open Teams, Under-26 Teams and Under-28 Individual), followed by Turkey (gold in U-28 Pairs and Under-28 Individual) and England (gold in Women Teams; silver in Open Teams and Under-21 Teams).
To the full medal table of the World Mind Sports Games, one should add the winners of the Senior Teams (gold: Japan; silver: USA; bronze: Indonesia) and the World Transnational Mixed Teams (gold: Yeh Bros of Chinese Taipei; silver: Russia; bronze: A-Evertrust Holding Group of China), to get the full picture of the bridge competitions in Beijing.
Below are the winners of each bridge competition held in Beijing. |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
Open teams winners - Italy
Giorgio DUBOIN, Fulvio FANTONI, Lorenzo LAURIA, Claudio NUNES,
Antonio SEMENTA, Alfredo VERSACE, Maria Teresa LAVAZZA (npc) and
Massimo ORTENSI (coach) |
|
Under-28 Teams winners - Norway
Sverre Johan AAL, Erik A EIDE, Jorn Arild RINGSETH,
Steffen Fredrik SIMONSEN, Lars EIDE (npc) |
| |
|
|
| ITALY succeeded in winning yet another Olympic title. Since the inception of the competition in 1960, all in all thirteen events have been played, and Italy has won no less than 6 of them! France follows closely with 4 victories, while Brazil, Poland and USA have won one title each. In Beijing, Italy had no difficulty beating Norway in the semifinal stage, and face England (winner of the other semifinal, over Germany) in the final. This was a quiet match, from which Italy emerged with a 30 IMP lead. The playoff for third place was won by Norway. |
|
There was nothing but intense drama in the final of the inaugural series for national teams of players under 28 old. Poland, the pre-tournament favorites had an easy way: after finishing well ahead of the 74-team field in the qualifying Swiss, they had no difficulty in prevailing over Chinese Taipei in the quarter finals and France in the semi finals. They faced Norway in the final, and all seemed well when Poland led 47.3 IMPs with one segment to go. But NORWAY had not said the final word yet! Putting in a fine performance they managed to outscore their opponents winning 50 IMPs in the last 16 boards - and the gold medal! The bronze medal went to China. |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
Women teams winners - England
Sally BROCK, Heather DHONDY, Catherine DRAPER, Anne ROSEN,
Nevena SENIOR, Nicola SMITH, Martin JONES (npc) and
Sandra PENFOLD (coach) |
|
Under-26 Teams winners - Denmark
Dennis BILDE, Anne-Sofie HOULBERG, Jonas HOUMOLLER, Emil JEPSEN,
Lars Kirkegaard NIELSEN, Martin SCHALTZ, Kare GJALDBAEK (npc) and
Henrik RON (coach) |
| |
|
|
| It has been 44 years since Great Britain won the Olympic title in the Women series in the New York 1964, and ENGLAND celebrates their victory in Beijing. And in what great fashion! After beating Turkey in the semifinal, they went to face China (an easy winner over USA in the other semifinal) in the final. This was a hair-raising match! England started well and were leading 47 IMPs one segment before the end. But China fought back and they almost made it! The final margin was a mere IMP for England! The bronze medal went to USA, who beat Turkey in the playoff for third place. |
|
11 years after their first victory in Hamilton, Canada, 1997, a new generation of Danish players are celebrating capturing the Ortiz-Patiño Trophy in Beijing. USA remain the multi-winner of the prestigious Trophy with 4 victories in 12 competitions, but Denmark now joins those who have won it twice: Great Britain and Italy. In Beijing, DENMARK beat Poland in the final, while Norway won the playoff for third place over Chinese Taipei. |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
Senior teams winners - Japan
Hiroya ABE, Makoto HIRATA, Masayuki INO, Yoshiyuki NAKAMURA,
Kyoko OHNO, Akihiko YAMADA, Takashi MAEDA (npc) |
|
Under-21 Teams winners - France
Marion CANONNE, Pierre FRANCESCHETTI, Alexandre KILANI,
Aymeric LEBATTEUX, Nicolas LHUISSIER, Cedric LORENZINI and
Christophe OURSEL (npc) |
| |
|
|
| The Seniors series was introduced in 2000 and USA has won both titles contested so far. They tried to win the third title too, and almost made it! But the Seniors of JAPAN were determined to win, and succeeded despite the come back of the Americans in the last set. The final margin was just 2 IMPs! The bronze medal went to Indonesia. |
|
The World Team Championship for players up to 21 years was inaugurated just a few years ago. Poland won the inaugural title and Israel was the defending champion until Beijing when FRANCE won the third title contested and captured the Damiani Cup. To do so, they beat USA in the quarter finals, Bulgaria in the semi finals and England in the final. The bronze medal went to China. |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
World Masters Individual
Men Gold: Tor HELNESS (Norway)
Women Gold: Catarina MIDSKOG (Sweden) |
|
Under-28 Pairs
Gold: Mehmet Remzi SAKIRLER - Melih Osman SEN (Turkey)
Silver: Lotan FISHER - Ron SCHWARTZ (Israel)
Bronze: Joanna KRAWCZYK - Piotr TUCZYNSKI (Poland) |
| |
|
|
| Two Scandinavians smile happily after having won first place in the open and women series of the World Masters Individual. 36 top players took part in the open series, won by Tor Helness. He finished ahead of compatriot Geir Helgemo, while the third place went to Russia's Andrey Gromov. Sweden's Catarina Midskog was victorious among the world's top 24 women; she was followed by Anne-Frederique Levy of France and Ru Yan of China. |
|
2008 was a great year for Turkey and their youth programme. After 10 sessions of competition, divided in qualifying, semi final and final stages, Turkey's Sakiler-Sen were at the top of the general classification, slightly ahead of Israel's Fisher-Schwartz and Poland's Krawczyk-Tuczynski. All in all, 266 pairs took part in the inaugural competition, representing 71 countries. |
|
| |
 |
|
 |
Transnational Mixed teams winners - Yeh Bros
Fang-Wen GONG, Sheau-Fong HU, Gloria MENG, Chih-Kuo SHEN, Juei-Yu SHIH
and
Chen YEH (pc) |
|
Under-28 Individual
Gold: Salih Murat ANTER (Turkey)
Silver: Radu NISTOR (Romania)
Bronze: Lars Arthur JOHANSEN (Norway) |
| |
|
|
| This was the fourth time that the World Mixed Teams Championship has taken place, since it was inaugurated at the Rhodes Olympiad in 1996. This year, the winners were the 'Yeh Bros' team from Chinese Taipei, who finished ahead of Russia and China's A-Evertrust Holding Group. |
|
Turkey won their second gold medal with Salih Murat Anter who finished at the top of the general classification in the inaugural Individual tournament for players up to 28 years, well ahead of Romania's Radu Nistor and Norway's Lars Arthur Johansen. 220 players from 51 countries contested the title, over four sessions.
|
|
|
