Turkish grad student revives UNC bridge club

Before Ovunc Yilmaz came to UNC from Turkey, the campus bridge team didn’t amount to much.

But when the 24-year-old graduate student in operations research took over as team captain, things changed.

“We went to local clubs and tournaments and stuff, but we didn’t do too well until Ovunc came,” said senior and team member Patrick Domico.

“He’s the superstar from Turkey who teaches us all the fancy European methods.”

In July, the UNC bridge team, then made up of four students, finished second in the North American College Bridge Team Championship. The squad lost to the University of Pennsylvania in the final, 65-64.

Yilmaz said he started playing bridge 10 years ago with his father, but it wasn’t until 2005 that he began playing regularly.

He went on to become internationally competitive, playing on a national Turkish youth team in 2007.

“I came here last year and looked for bridge people on campus,” he said.

He met Kenneth Chuk, who started UNC’s bridge club in 2007. Chuk, who graduated in May, said he’s been playing bridge since he was in middle school.

Chuk, Domico, Yilmaz and 2010 alumna Susannah Small were the only members of bridge club last year. But since they placed second as a team at the collegiate competition, they’ve found new club members.

“We put out lots of posters and found lots of people for this year,” Yilmaz said. “They’re all beginners.”

Yilmaz teaches five new students the basics of bridge on Friday afternoons in Hanes Hall, said senior Stephen Kirsch, who attends the lessons.

“The instruction we’re getting is really great,” Kirsch said. “Ovunc is a bridge guru.”

Since Chuk graduated, the competitive team has dwindled to Yilmaz, Domico and Small, who will be returning to UNC in the spring.

Yilmaz is searching for a promising beginner to fill the last spot, he said.

Yilmaz said he would also be open to starting a second team of beginners if they are competitive enough.

Junior Leah Downey said the team is searching for someone “good and intense.”

Downey joined the club because she has always wanted to learn the game, she said.

“When you think of bridge, you always think of grandmas meeting once a week and playing for nickels,” Downey said.

“It’s a lot more complicated than I thought.”

Kirsch said he hopes to be able to play competitively in a few years.

“I love cards and I love old people, and that’s what bridge is,” he said.

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