World Open Pairs Championship

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

See also

• World Mixed Pairs Championship
• World Women Pairs Championship

External links

• World Open Pairs Championships 1962–present (table) at the World Bridge Federation.