Egypt v. Israel at bridge

Press, 3 July 1978, Page 6

Egypt v. Israel at bridge

Sporting history was made in New Orleans when Egypt’s ■bridge team played against •Israel in the short matches which closed the main event of the World Bridge Olympiad. Israel won this first match between the two nations by 40 international match points to 20. Previous encounters between the two nations have invariably been forfeited by Egypt because their players were instructed not to play against Israel, inspite of the correct personal relations which exist between the players.

| The clash between Egypt and Israel was unscheduled j and took everyone by surprise, including the organising officials of the World Bridge Federation. The two teams were among more than 50 defeated in the main knock-out stream of the open championship, and were contending for readmission under the elaborate ’‘repechage” conditions of the contest, which provided for the re-entry of one of the defeated teams.

The “repechage” event was conducted a way

that no team knew its next opponent until five minutes before the match. To the consternation of tournament officials, the names of Israel and Egypt came up in the same bracket.

Before the matches could be rescheduled, other competing nations started their matches, leaving Egypt to decide whether to play its rival or withdraw from a major bridge event in which they held their best chance of success.

Egypt decided to play — and lost the match narowly, inspite an excellent performance by the film actor, Omar Sharif, its best player. Later the same day, Israel ■played Morocco, winning this match by 44 international match points to 16. Israel ranked seventh over-all in the open team championship. Morocco finished in twelfth place, but Egypt crashed in its last matches to finish out of the first 20. The Israeli team consisted of Dr Hugo Schwartz. Shalom Seligman. Eliakim Shaufel. Samuel Lev. Michael Hochzeit, and Yeshayhu Levitt.