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WORLD BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS
HISTORY OF THE WORLD TEAM OLYMPIAD
1960
The World Team Olympiad,
inaugurated in 1960, was the first competition to be set up by the
WBF itself; the Bermuda Bowl already being well established when
the WBF was founded in 1958.
Harold S. Vanderbilt,
the inventor of modern bridge scoring, endowed the new event with
a handsome cup, the Vanderbilt Trophy. His generosity continues
to provide replicas for each member of the winning team.
This first Olympiad
was held in Turin, Italy, and was contested by 25 countries.
In the Open Series there were actually 29 teams because - on this
occasion only - a concession was made to NCBOs with large memberships,
the USA being allowed to enter four teams and Sweden two. In the
Women's Series 14 NCBOs were represented, each by one team.
The Open field was divided
into three groups, leading to six-team final. This was won narrowly
by France from Great Britain. The Women's Series, a straight round
robin, was won by an egyptian team representing the United Arab
Republic, who beat France more narrowly - the two teams finished
level on victory points, UAR taking the crown on quotient.
The successful players
in this first World Team Olympiad were, in the Open: Rene Bacherich,
Gerard Bourchtoff, Claude Delmouly, Pierre Ghestem, Pierre Jais
and Roger Trezel, with Baron de Nexon as npc. In the Women's: Helen
Camara, Aida Choucry, Samiha Fathy, Loula Gordon, Josephine Morcos
and Suzanne Naguib, with Sergio de Polo as npc.
Competing were, Australia
(W), Austria (W), Belgium (W), Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark (W),
Finland, France (W), Germany (W), Great Britain (W), Netherlands
(W), Iceland, India, Ireland (W), Italy (W), Lebanon, Philippines
(W), South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (W), United Arab Republic
(W), USA (W), Venezuela.
1964
The Olympiad then became
a competition for one Open team and one Women's team from each NCBO.
In 1964 it was held in New York, with 29 teams in the Open
and 15 in the Women's. the Open consisted of a round robin of 18-board
matches, the tope four qualifying for a 60-board semi-final and
a 60-board final. The Open series was won by Italy (Walter Avarelli,
Giorgio Belladonna, Massimo d'Alelio, Pietro Forquet, Benito Garozzo,
Camillo Pabis-Ticci, Sergio Osella [npc]). Runners-up were the USA,
with Great Britain third and Canada fourth. This was the first of
three successive Olympiad victories gained by Italy.
The Women's series was
a straight round robin of 36-board match, won comfortably by Great
Britain (Dimmie Fleming, Fritzi Gordon, Jane Juan, Rixi Markus,
Mary Moss, Dorothy Shanahan, Harold Franklin [npc]), with USA second,
well ahead of France.
1968
The third World Team
Olympiad, in 1968, was held at Deauville, France, with 33
Open teams playing a format similar to that of 1964, but with round
robin matches of 20 boards and semi-finals and final of 80 boards.
The event was won by Italy with the same team as four years earlier,
but with A Trancanella as npc. Runners-up were the USA, with Canada
third and the Netherlands fourth. The 19-team Women's Series was
won by Sweden (Britt Blom, Karin Eriksson, Eva Martensson, Rut Segandor,
Gunborg Silborn, Britta Werner, L.Saaby [npc]), with South Africa
second and USA third.
1972
The 1972 Olympiad was
held at Miami Beach, Florida, with an Open field grown to
39. By doing without off days it proved possible to maintain the
length of the round robin matches at 20-boards, with 64-board semi-finals
and an 88-board final. For the first time, boards were duplicated
across the field, including the Women's matches - a popular innovation.
The Open was won by Italy, again with the same team, but another
new npc, U.Barsotti. the USA were second, Canada third and France
fourth. The Women's Series, playing a straight round robin, was
also won by Italy (Marisa Bianchi, Rina Jabes, Antonietta Robaudo,
Luciana Romanelli, Anna Valenti, Maria Venturini, Giovanni Pelluchi
[npc]), with South Africa second and USA third of 18 contestants.
1976
The fifth Olympiad in
1976 was held in Monte Carlo along with the 22nd Bermuda
Bowl - the first and only occasion when both were staged in the
same year. The double event was needed to bring the timing right
for a new scheduling of WBF competitions.
The 1976 format was
a straight round robin of 16-board matches between 45 competing
nations: there was no semi-final or final. The last round was dramatic:
Italy, who had seemed almost home, lost unexpectedly to Greece 17-3;
whilst Brazil, who had seemed headed for forth place, scored a surprise
'blitz' over Canada, bringing them to the top of the table. The
Brazilian team was Pedro-Paulo Assumpcao, Sergio Barbosa, Marcelo
Branco, Gabriel Chagas, Gabriel Cintra, Christiano Fonseca. Italy
was second, with Great Britain third and Poland fourth.
Thus the Vanderbilt
Trophy went to the Western Hemisphere for the first time, whilst
Brazil became the first NCBO outside Zones 1 and 2 to win an Open
teams championship. At the same time Poland became the first nation
from Eastern Europe to achieve prominence in any WBF event.
In the Women's Series,
Italy (Marisa Bianchi, Luciana Capodanno, Marisa d'Andrea, Rina
Jabes, Antonietta Robaudo, Anna Valenti) retained their crown, finishing
ahead of Great Britain and the USA in the 21-nation field.
1980
The sixth World Team
Olympiad, held at Valkenburg, Netherlands in 1980, surpassed
all previous attendance records - there were 58 Open teams and half
that number of Women's teams. A single round robin was now impracticable
and the Open field had to be divided into two groups of comparable
strength and geographical representation. This was hard to achieve
and the task was made more difficult by the inability, due to government
intervention, of a number of teams to play against South Africa.
Each of the two groups
played a round robin of 20-board matches. Four teams emerged from
each group to contest the semi-finals, again on a round robin basis,
the first and fourth placed teams from one group and the second
and third placed teams from the other group being matched. In each
semi-final, 32-board matches were played.
The finalists proved
to be France and USA, France winning the 88-board encounter by 131
IMPs to 111. This performance by Paul Chemla, Michel Lebel, Christian
Mari, Michel Perron, Philippe Soulet and Henri Svarc, with Pierre
Schmeil as non-playing captain, was outstanding, the team losing
only one match during the two-week-long event - to Chinese Taipei,
in the semi-finals round robin. Thus in 1980 the Vanderbilt Trophy
went to France after an interval of 20 years.
The Women's Series,
a straight round robin, was comfortably won by the USA (Mary Jane
Farell, Emma Jean Hawes, Marilyn Johnson, Jaqui Mitchell, Gail Moss,
Dorothy Truscott), ahead of Italy and Great Britain. USA lost only
four of their 28 matches - three of these by a margin of only 11
victory points to 9!
1984
The seventh World Team
Olympiad was held in Seattle, State of Washington, USA. The
Open was won by Poland from a field of 54, divided into two groups,
each of which qualified four teams for the quarter finals. In these
Poland beat Pakistan; France beat Indonesia; Denmark beat Italy;
and Austria beat the USA. In the semi-finals France beat Denmark
164-149 and Poland beat Austria 147-143.
Poland led throughout
the final to win by 236 IMPs to 156. The winners were Piotr Gawrys,
Krzysztof Martens, Tomasz Przybora, Jack Romanski, Piotr Tuszynski
and Henryk Wolny, with Marian Frenkiel as npc.
The Women's Series
played a complete round robin, also of 20-board matches. The final
was won narrowly by USA with Betty Ann Kennedy, Jaqui Mitchell,
Gail Moss, Judi Radin, Carol Sanders and Kathie Wei under the captaincy
of Jim Zimmerman.
They defeated Great Britain by 109 ½ IMPs to 99, having started
with carryover of 22 ½ . The losing semi-finalists were France and
the Netherlands.
1984 also saw a new
competition, the WBF Swiss Plate, for teams that failed to make
the semi-finals. New alignments were permitted as long as all the
players were from the same country and had competed in either the
Open or Women's Series as players or npcs. The winners were Sweden.
1988
In 1988 the eighth
World Team Olympiad was held in Venice, Italy. The Open was
won by USA (Seymon Deutsch, Robert Hamman, Jim Jacoby, Jeff Meckstroth,
Eric Rodwell, Bobby Wolff, Dan Morse [npc]) from a field of 57 teams,
divided into two groups, each of which qualified four teams for
the Quarter-finals. In these USA beat Denmark, India beat Greece,
Austria beat Great Britain, and Sweden beat Italy. In the semi-finals,
the USA beat India and Austria beat Sweden. The USA led throughout
the final to win by 289.7 IMPs to 247.
The Women's Series was split into three, again qualifying eight
teams to the knockout phase. Denmark (Trine Dahl, Bettina Kalkerup,
Kirsten Moller, Judy Norris, Charlotte Palmund, Dorthe Schaltz,
Mrs Lindegaard [npc]) defeated Great Britain by 178-157 IMPs in
an exciting final.
1992
The ninth NEC World
Team Olympiad was also played in Italy, but this time at
Salsomaggiore Terme. The 57 teams in the Open Championship
were divided into two groups for the round robin, with the leading
four teams from each qualifying for the knockout stages. In the
final, France (Paul Chemla, Michel Perron, Alain Levy, Herve Mouiel,
Pierre Adad, Maurice Aujaleu and Jose Damiani [npc]) beat the USA
251-171. The runners-up were the same team who won in 1988, except
that Michael Rosenberg replaced the late Jim Jacoby. The Netherlands
took the bronze medal.
The 34 teams that contested
the Women's series were also divided into two groups but they played
a double round robin. In the final, Austria (Maria Erhart, Barbara
Lindinger, Terry Weigkricht, Doris Fischer, Jovanka Smederevac,
Herta Gyimesi and Ernst Pichler [npc]) beat Great Britain 266-218.
France took the bronze medal. Norway won the WBF Swiss Plate.
1996
The 10th World Teams
Olympiad was played in Rhodes. Celebrating the 100th anniversary
of the Olympic Games, the Olympiads registered a record participation
with 71 Open Teams and 44 Women's in two series.
FRANCE: Mark Bompis,
Alain Levy, Christian Mari, Herve Mouiel, Franck Multon, Henri Szwarc,
Jean-Louis Stoppa (npc) USA: Jillian Blanchard, Juanita Chambers,
Lynn Deas, Gail Greenberg, Irina Levitana, Shawn Quinn, Eddie Wold
(npc).
2000
To be held in Maastricht,
The Netherlands - 26 August to 9 September 2000.
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