Nafiz Zorlu, “The Chief” as the Turkish bridge circles call him, was highly instrumental in the start-up of the Turkish Bridge Federation as a state organization as its first president in 1997, and its development to become one of the major European federations under the EBL umbrella.
The number of licensed bridge players attending regional and national events in Turkey soared under his visionary leadership. Additional funding that Zorlu secured from the Government resulted in the increase of the overall quality of the player levels, after which the frequent success of Turkish teams/pairs in international competitions became regular.
Zorlu enjoyed continuous success at the table throughout his career. Some of his most prominent wins are the NABC Blue Ribbon Pairs (Las Vegas-2001), WBF World Mixed Teams Championship (Sanya-2014) and EBL Transnational Open Pairs Championship (Montecatini-2017).
His love and passion for the sport of bridge is boundless. He came out of his retirement for administrational duties in 2016 and got re-elected as the TBF President. He spent enormous efforts to promote youth bridge in Turkey and he made it his priority for making Turkey an attractive destination for international bridge events such as the EBL European Open Championships (Istanbul-2019) and the EBL Main TD Course (Antalya-2019).
Nafiz Zorlu is proud to name the teams he captained “Salvo” in memory of his long-time partner Salvador Assael who passed in 2012 while participating at the 14th World Bridge Games in Lille. He even initiated an International Bridge Festival in his name where all top players participated (Cesme-Izmir-2013).
Zorlu had to undertake the difficult task of presiding the Turkish bridge during the Covid pandemic as well. During a nightmare period of 2 years, while several bridge clubs had to shut down due to lack of business, he generated income for the clubs by organizing online events as the Turkish Bridge Federation and channeling funds to the bridge clubs to help them stay afloat.
As the most prominent doyen of Turkish bridge, Zorlu’s footprints can be found on all aspects of local and international bridge for many years to come.
