10th WORLD BRIDGE TEAM OLYMPIAD

Rhodes, Greece / 19 October - 2 November 1996

Qualifier | Quarter Finals | Semi Finals | Finals / Play Offs

Teams | Days & Matches | Daily Bulletins

Medal winners

The 10th World Bridge Team Olympiad was held on the picturesque island of Rhodes, Greece, October 19 - November 2, 1996. With 72 countries taking part, this was by far the best attended Bridge Olympiad ever held since the competition was launched in 1960.

The tournament was played in two series for national teams: Open and Ladies. There were 71 teams taking part in the Open, while 43 competed in the Ladies series. Each series was divided into two sections: A and B.

• Qualifier

Play in the Olympiad started with the qualifying stage: a complete round-robin within each section aimed to decide the quarter finalists. Four 16-board matches were played each day in the Open series; the Ladies played three 20-board matches daily. The first four teams from each section advanced to the next stage:

For the complete classification click: Open A | Open B | Ladies A | Ladies B

• Quarter Finals

The quarter-finals (and all subsequent stages) were played as knockout matches. In each series, the winner of a section was entitled to choose their quarter-final opponent among the second, third or fourth team of the other section. The other matches were between teams from different sections (the highest ranking available team of one section playing against the lowest ranking available team of the other).

Accordingly, in the Open series, France picked up Russia and Italy chose Denmark. This forced Indonesia to face Iceland, and Chinese Taipei to play Poland.

In the Ladies series, China chose Israel and USA picked up The Netherlands. The other matches were Germany vs Canada and Austria vs Great Britain.

Each match was played over four segments of 16 boards, i.e. a total of 64 boards, in one day. The results were:

For the detailed quarter-final results click: Open | Ladies

• Semi Finals

Since three of the winning teams (France, Indonesia, Denmark) had originated from the same qualifying section in the Open series, France, the round-robin's first ranked team, could choose their semi-final opponent; they picked up Chinese Taipei. The other match was between Indonesia and Denmark.

In the Ladies, the two round-robin winners could not play against each other in the semni-finals. China played Canada and the United States faced Austria.

The matches were played in 6 segments of 16 boards, i.e. a total of 96 boards, and the finalists emerged as follows:

For the detailed semi-final results click: Open | Ladies

• Finals / Play-Off

The winners of the Open series semi-finals, France and Indonesia, played a 128-board final in 8 segments of 16 boards each, while the semi-final losers Denmark and Chinese Taipei faced each other in a 32-board play-off (down from 48 boards) for the bronze medal.

In the Ladies, the final was played in 6 segments of 16 boards, i.e. a total of 96 boards, between China and the United States. In the play-off for third place, Austria faced Canada in a 48-board match.

For the detailed results of the finals and play offs click: Open Final | Ladies Final | Open Play Off | Ladies Play Off