U.S. Team Earns World Bridge Title

The U.S. bridge team captained by Steve Robinson of Arlington, Va., won the world championship Sunday night, ending a seven-day contest entered by 48 countries. In the final match, which consisted of 128 deals, the United States defeated Pakistan by the convincing score of 357 to 207 international match points.

The U.S. team, playing steadily and occasionally with great brilliance, was in command of the match throughout. Playing with Robinson were Kit Woolsey of Kensington, Calif., Bob Lipsitz of Annandale, Va., Ed Manfield of Arlington, Va., Peter Boyd of Falls Church, Va., and Neil Silverman of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The winners range in age from 35 (Boyd) to 45 (Robinson). Silverman and Woolsey are option traders, Manfield an economist, and the others are computer experts and systems analysts.

Playing for Pakistan were Zia Mahmood, Nishat Abedi, Nisar Ahmed, and Jan-E-Alam Fazli. The same players took second place also in the 1981 world championship.

In the Friday semi-finals, the Robinson team defeated a California team that included Stelios Touchtidis of Sherman Oaks, Ross Grabel of Huntington Beach, Stan Holzberg of Northridge, Robert Radwin of West Covina, Jim Robison of Los Angeles and Jon Wittes of Los Alamitos.

The world championship continues with Open Pair and Women’s Pair contests, scheduled to end Sunday.