Zia Mahmood | |
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 Zia Mahmood, Providence 2022 |
Mir Zia Mahmood (born 7 January 1946) is a Pakistani-American professional bridge player. He is a World Bridge Federation and American Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master. As of April 2011 he was the 10th-ranked World Grand Master. [1]
Zia was born in Karachi, British India, now Pakistan. Zia was educated in England from the age of six to twenty-one. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant of the Institute of England and Wales and spent three years running a family business in Pakistan. He also spent eighteen months in Abu Dhabi developing business interests.
Mahmood is married to Lady Emma, his wife since February 2001. [2] They have two sons: Zain and Rafi. [3] Zain is also a bridge player [4]
Mahmood achieved international bridge fame, almost overnight, during one fortnight in 1981 when he led Pakistan to a second-place finish in the Bermuda Bowl tournament. [3] The Bermuda Bowl is the most important open world championship, and that was the first participation by anyone from the World Bridge Federation geographic zone "Asia and the Middle East". It also tied Taiwan for the best finish by anyone from outside Europe and the United States. It is now the second best finish from outside Europe and the United States, after Brazil won the tournament in 1989.
Five years later, Zia led a short-handed team from Pakistan to second place in the 1986 Rosenblum Cup tournament, which is the open world championship in even-number non-Olympic years. [3] That remains tied for best finish by anyone from outside Europe and the United States. The event is transnational, but none of the nine winning teams has included a single player from outside Europe and the United States.
Zia Mahmood is the author of Bridge My Way, an autobiography, and has hosted many TV shows. For many years his regular partner was Masood Salim (deceased), followed by Michael Rosenberg, and now Bob Hamman—as members of Nick Nickell's professional team through spring 2012.
Beginning 2012/2013, [n 1] Nickell has replaced Hamman and Zia with Bobby Levin–Steve Weinstein. [5]
Zia has represented the United States in world competition, and thus he won his first major world championship, the 2009 Bermuda Bowl. Although he won the quadrennial Mixed Teams in 2004 with Sabine Auken and a French pair. He still considers himself Pakistani, however: "I am proud and happy to be representing America, but my Pakistani identity is in no way submerged. I feel like a Pakistani who is living in America and playing for America." To prove his point, Zia and his American teammates once played their opening match in Pakistani dress. [6]
Mahmood spends much of his time in Great Britain and the United States and is very much part of the London bridge scene. He wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper until January 2012, when the paper stopped covering bridge. [7]
The ACBL Hall of Fame inducted Zia in 2007. [8] According to the citation sometime that year, he was a London resident.
Zia won the ACBL's 3-day Life Master Pairs championship in 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2023 with four different partners. He has also been a 6-time runner-up.
Mariusz Puczyński is a Polish bridge player whose greatest achievement has been to win the Bronze Medal in the 2004 European Bridge Championship. His teammates on that occasion included Cezary Balicki and Adam Żmudziński, for many years known as Poland's strongest pair and as one of the strongest pairs in the world. During the 2015 bridge cheating scandals, Puczyński satisfied himself that his former teammates had not been playing honestly, and returned his medal to the European Bridge League because he no longer wanted it. [9] In early 2019, Puczyński had by chance the opportunity to partner Zia in a tournament in Poland. Someone told Zia about Puczyński's gesture, and he warmly complimented him for it. On 15 May 2019, Puczyński received a package through the post as a present. It contained the Gold Medal which Zia had won at the 2009 Bermuda Bowl. [10]
Robert David "Bob" Hamman is an American professional bridge player, among the greatest players of all time. He is from Dallas, Texas.
Jeffrey John (Jeff) Meckstroth is an American professional contract bridge player. He is a multiple world champion, winning the Bermuda Bowl on USA teams five times. He is one of only ten players who have won the so-called triple crown of bridge: the Bermuda Bowl, the World Open Pairs and the World Team Olympiad. As of May 16, 2016, he was the fifth-ranking World Grand Master. For decades Meckstroth has been in a regular partnership with Eric Rodwell and together, nicknamed "Meckwell", they are one of the most successful bridge partnerships of all time. They are well known for playing an aggressive and very detailed system that derived from Precision Club.
Michael Rosenberg is an American bridge player.
Claudio Nunes is an Italian professional bridge player.
The Spingold national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC).
The Reisinger national bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC).
Robert "Bobby", "Bob" Goldman was an American bridge player, teacher and writer. He won three Bermuda Bowls, Olympiad Mixed Teams 1972, and 20 North American Bridge Championships. He authored books on bridge, most notably Aces Scientific and Winners and Losers at the Bridge Table, and conventions including Kickback, Exclusion Blackwood and Super Gerber (Redwood). He was from Highland Village, Texas.
Robert J. (Bobby) Levin is an American professional bridge player, from Aventura, Florida. He was the youngest winner of the Bermuda Bowl world championship for national teams from 1981 until 2015, when 19-year old Michal Klukowski of Poland succeeded him. Levin is also a five-time winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading contest for cash prizes, with his regular partner Steve Weinstein. As of June 2013, Levin ranks number 20 among Open World Grand Masters and his wife Jill ranks number 21 among Women World Grand Masters.
Eric R. Murray was a Canadian contract bridge player and co-founder of the Canadian Bridge Federation (CBF). He and his long-time regular partner Sami Kehela were considered two of the best Canadian players in the history of the game. The Eric R. Murray Trophy, named in his honour, is awarded to the open team representing Canada in the quadrennial World Team Olympiad.
Steve Weinstein is an American professional bridge and poker player. He is known best as the youngest winner of the ACBL Life Master Pairs at the time that he achieved it, and the most frequent winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading contest for cash prizes. As of March 2022, the World Bridge Federation shows Weinstein at number 22 in the Open World Grand Masters rankings. His highest ranking was 16th, in October 2011.
Richard A. Freeman was a world champion American bridge player holding the title of World Grand Master, the highest title of the World Bridge Federation. He won the Bermuda Bowl world team championship and won many national championships. Freeman was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2001. At the time of his death he held 17,880 masterpoints.
Sidney Silodor was an American bridge player. Silodor was a World Champion, winning the Bermuda Bowl in 1950. Silodor is currently 6th on the all-time list of North American Bridge Championships wins with 34. Silodor was a lawyer from Havertown, Pennsylvania.
Charles Julius Solomon was an American bridge player, administrator, writer, and sponsor. He was Inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2000.
Frank T. "Nick" Nickell is an American bridge player. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, and lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, as of 1994.
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Paul Herbert Hodge was an American bridge player.
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Lew Stansby is an American bridge player from Dublin, California. Lew, a former commodities trader lives with wife and fellow national champion JoAnna Stansby. Since his first national win in the Reisinger in 1965, he has won over 35 national championships and seven world championships, accumulating a win in every decade since 1965.
Eric O. Kokish was a Canadian professional bridge player, writer, and coach from Montreal.
Boye Brogeland is a Norwegian professional bridge player. After a successful junior career, he won three Bermuda Bowl medals with the Norwegian team, including the gold in Shanghai 2007, and several North American Bridge Championships. He came into public focus in 2015 when he led a campaign against cheating in bridge, exposing wrongdoing of several top pairs, for which he received public recognition.
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