Tor Helness (born 25 July 1957) is a Norwegian professional bridge player. He was a stalwart on Norway junior and open teams for thirty years before moving to Monaco. Through 2012 he has won four world championships in competition. As of October 2016 he ranks second among Open World Grand Masters and his regular partner Geir Helgemo ranks first."Open Classification" (ranked table, page one). WBF Master Points Records. WBF. Retrieved 2016-10-04.
From 1979 to 1981, Helness represented Norway on both its junior and open teams. In 1980 the juniors were European champions (there was yet no world championship) and the open team reached the World Team Olympiad semifinal. For 25 years the open team regularly reached European semifinals, and it won world silver medals in 1993 and 2001. Norway finally won the world team championship in 2007, the biennial Bermuda Bowl, with a team of six including Helness–Helgemo as anchor pair.
The couple Tor and Gunn Helness won the Mixed Pairs (an event without a world championship) at the 2005 European Open Championships."The Mixed Pairs Final, Session 2". Jos Jacobs. Bulletin 8, 25 June 2005. 2nd European Open Bridge Championships. EBL. Retrieved 2013-06-15. At the inaugural, 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, Tor Helness won the Open Individual gold medal and Geir Helgemo won the silver. Norway's open team won the bronze.
Emigration to Monaco From 2011 Helness and his regular Norwegian partner Geir Helgemo were full-time members of a team led and paid by the Swiss real estate tycoon Pierre Zimmermann, under contract expiring 2016. From 2012 all six members were established as residents of Monaco in order to represent the state internationally. After some success, the team dissolved as a result of the Fantoni and Nunes cheating scandal, withdrawing from the 2015 Bermuda Bowl.
Helness and Helgemo were jailed following conviction on charges of tax evasion in 2017.Helgemo & Helness: Appeal Court Reduces the Sentence" In 2021, they returned to the Norwegian Open team.
Bridge career
Major wins
World Championships (5) Bermuda Bowl (1) 2007 Rosenblum Cup (2) 2006, 2018 World Transnational Open Teams Championship (2) 2009, 2015 North American Bridge Championships (8) Reisinger (2) 2012, 2013 Vanderbilt (1) 2010 Spingold (3) 2011, 2012, 2018 Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (1) 2005 Open Pairs I (1) 2009 European Championships (5) Open Teams (1) 2012 Junior Teams (1) 1980 Mixed Teams (1) 2005 Mixed Pairs (1) 2005 European Champions' Cup (1) 2016 Nordic Championships (2) Open Teams (2) 1980, 1982 Norwegian Championships (34) Open Pairs (7) 1980, 1982, 1986, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 Club Teams (9) 1981, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 Premier League (13) 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2014 Swiss Teams (2) 2007, 2008 Mixed Pairs (1) 1991 Mixed Teams (2) 2004, 2012
Other notable wins Cap Volmac World Top Invitational Pairs (2) 1994, 1996 Macallan Invitational Pairs (2) 1998, 1999 Generali World Masters Individual (1) 2008 Cavendish Invitational Teams (1) 2010 European Winter Games (1) 2016
References
External links