The sad story was certainly that of International Bridge Press Association’s ‘Personality of the Year’ Zia Mahmood and his teammates of USA-1. At Shanghai, USA-1 was throughout first or second in the round-robin stage and although its semifinal win over South Africa was a narrow one (207-199), it was a strong contender for the title. Zia, the most liked bridge player in the world today, has never won a world title so far.

The teams to watch hereafter would be the Netherlands and South Africa. While the former won the bronze, the latter scored some unbelievable victories including one against 2005 champion, Italy and ran USA-1 close in the semifinals.

There was a spell binding finish to the trans-national finals. Team Russia had a carry over of 6 IMPs going into the three segment final against the Swiss-French-Italian team, Zimmerman.

Wiping of the deficit, Zimmerman — the team had 2005 Bermuda Bowl winning pair, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes — took a lead of 34 IMPs at the end of the first segment. Although Team Russia recovered well in the next two segments, it fell short, giving victory to the Zimmerman team by 4 IMPs.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail