Zia Mahmood | |
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 Zia Mahmood, Philadelphia 2025 |
MirZia Mahmood (born 7 January 1946) is aPakistani-American professionalbridge player. He is aWorld Bridge Federation andAmerican Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master. As of April 2011 he was the 10th-ranked World Grand Master.[1]
Zia was born inKarachi, British India, now Pakistan. Zia was educated in England from the age of six to twenty-one. He qualified as aChartered Accountant of the Institute of England and Wales and spent three years running a family business in Pakistan. He also spent eighteen months inAbu Dhabi developing business interests.
Mahmood is married to Lady Emma. They have two sons: Zain and Rafi.[2] Zain is also a bridge player[3]
Mahmood achieved international bridge fame, almost overnight, during one fortnight in 1981 when he led Pakistan to a second-place finish in theBermuda Bowl tournament.[2] The Bermuda Bowl is the most importantopen world championship, and that was the first participation by anyone from the World Bridge Federation geographic zone "Asia and the Middle East". It also tiedTaiwan 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, afterBrazil won the tournament in 1989.
Five years later, Zia led a short-handed team from Pakistan to second place in the 1986Rosenblum Cup tournament, which is the open world championship in even-number non-Olympic years.[2] That remains tied for best finish by anyone from outside Europe and the United States. The event istransnational, but none of the nine winning teams has included a single player from outside Europe and the United States.
Zia Mahmood is the author ofBridge My Way, an autobiography, and has hosted many TV shows. For many years his regular partner was Masood Salim (deceased), followed byMichael Rosenberg, and nowBob Hamman—as members ofNick Nickell's professional team through spring 2012.
Beginning 2012/2013,[n 1] Nickell has replaced Hamman and Zia withBobby Levin–Steve Weinstein.[4]
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 withSabine 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.[5]
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 forThe Guardian newspaper until January 2012, when the paper stopped covering bridge.[6]
TheACBL Hall of Fame inducted Zia in 2007.[7] According to the citation sometime that year, he was a London resident.
Zia won the ACBL's 3-dayLife 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 2004European Bridge Championship. His teammates on that occasion includedCezary Balicki andAdam Żmudziński, for many years known as Poland's strongest pair and as one of the strongest pairs in the world. During the2015 bridge cheating scandals, Puczyński satisfied himself that his former teammates had not been playing honestly, and returned his medal to theEuropean Bridge League because he no longer wanted it.[8] 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.[9]
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