Who Will Win?

In the World Junior Pairs Championship, of the Defending Champions Adi Azizi and Yuval Yener from Israel only Yuval is here, partnering Yotam Bar-Yossef who is in Israel's Junior Bridge Team. The Americans tell me that the pair to beat is Joe Grue and John Kranyak, who starred when USA won the World Junior Teams Championship in Sydney last year. France's top two youth pairs Thomas Bessis – Julien Gaviard and Olivier Bessis - Romain Tembouret have good form in the World Open Bridge Championships in Verona earlier in June.

Peter Marjai and Gabor Minarik have been at the forefront of Hungary's surge to the top level of world junior bridge in the last few years. Eldad Ginossar has an Open World Championship bronze medal from Verona two weeks ago. Eldad and his partner leading Belgian junior Steve de Roos should be serious contenders here. Poland has Silver Medallists from Sydney 2005 Jacek Kalita and Krzysztof Kotorowicz leading their large contingent.

For England, pairs such as Ollie Burgess – Ben Handley-Pritchard and Michael Byrne – Alex Morris might do well. From the Netherlands comes Marion Michielsen and her partner Vincent de Pagter, Vincent having done well in Tata in 2003. Bob Drijver is another Tata medallist from Netherlands, partnered this time by Bas Tammens. Petter Eide – Allan Livgard from Norway are another pair with a good record.

Then there are the players from far away, Paul Gosney from Australia and Michael Whibley from New Zealand are the top pair from down under, Adolfo Madala is the brother of the now famous bridge professional Agustin Madala of Argentina and China Hong Kong's top pair might be a chance. Past results however suggest that the winner is more likely to come from Europe or USA.

The winners of the 1st World Schools Pairs Championship are impossible to predict, because the event has never been held before.