UNIVERSAL BRIDGE COMPETITION

I have had the pleasure of witnessing our game in all strata .. from Mama-Papa Bridge Kitchen Bridge episodes though the club duplicates, Sectionals, Regionals, Nationals and the Trials – all the way to the top sphere of world championships.   I started in the Sixties kibitzing Norman in Bal Harbour, Deauville, Taipei, New Orleans and Biarritz through the Eighties and my tour of duty continued with Bobby in Monte Carlo, Verona, Istanbul and Sao Paulo last year.   I also had the honor of accompanying Bobby to China on three different occasions for the celebrated Yeh Cup.  I must confess I felt truly blessed to kibitz all these world-class super experts.  I was reminded of Mike Todd’s famed Around the World in Eighty Days.   But in my case – it took fifty years.

Last night Bobby and I were relaxing over a drink and he started to recount his memories of high level events starting in the seedling days of the Aces in the Seventies.  It was a combined lesson in bridge history and tournament structures and I sat spellbound realizing how much the average (even avid and experienced) bridge player does not know about the history and frequency of championship events.   After five decades, they all start to look alike to me but Bobby elaborated on who runs what and how often and I listened in amazement.    I’d like to share what I gleaned from my hobby history lesson of last evening.

Make no mistake!   The Bermuda Bowl (BB) is the World Bridge Federation’s (WBF)  premier, signature event.  From its beginning in Bermuda in 1950, it was played every year (with perhaps one or two years omitted through 1976) when the new format took effect. 

The current schedule is for the BB to be held every other year (with the remaining events every fourth year).  The latter is known as The World Team Olympiad (WTO), with as many as 80 different nations participating and being entitled to one team each. The World Bridge Championships (WBC) (which now bears the caption of The World Bridge Series) specializes in Trans Nationalism (being able to jump borders and not be required to play with a countryman).  The Rosenblum Team and the World Open Pair are the two main events which draw bridge players from near and far.

The WTO spends over half the tournament eliminating the lower finishers (perhaps around 60 teams) coming down to a Round of 16 which features relatively short KO matches to the finish.  The WBC is socially charged where all players from the best on down have the opportunity to partner and team with players from all around the world, promoting the purpose of what the WBF stands for and is seriously opting for  — "Bridge for Peace".

Both the WBC and especially the WTO have many novice-type players representing the various around-the-world countries with the WTO welcoming lesser bridge-known contestants from places  such as Botswana, French Polynesia, Cypress, the Netherland Antilles and many other smaller principalities where bridge interest is great but the number of players is small and, of course, very inexperienced.  It is a great stage for socializing and offering opportunities for bridge to arouse interest and then remain in those developing nations.  Without that thoughtful beginning fifty-plus years ago, South America, for one,  would almost surely never have developed so many world class players as there are today.

To repeat, the BERMUDA BOWL is what the WBF is all about!

Since it is basically a contest between the Zones (eight in all), each zone is entitled to send a small number of teams varying and based upon the bridge population within.  Zone 1 (all of Europe and its satellites) is now entitled to either 6 or 7 teams based on an overwhelming size advantage (perhaps 450,000 bridge players) compared to Zone 2 (North America) being allowed three teams (about 160,000) with most of the other zones (3-8) being restricted to no more than two.  Also, a recent change has now allowed the host Zone an extra team in order to insure local interest in the staging of the tournament.  For those interested in bridge history, when the Bermuda Bowl was first established, Zone 1 only had about 120,000 members while Zone 2 had around 180,000.

For Bermuda Bowl years each zone has their own qualification tournaments to determine their official representatives.  These trials have expanded to include the Open, Women, Senior and, in fewer countries, the Junior event.  While each country (not zone) also qualifies teams for the WTO, there are events and championships for the women and seniors but they are not classified as highly as the major team event.  Of course, the WBC has all sorts of random world championships but none have close to the aura and importance of the BB.

Again it may be interesting to some to learn that our WBF Godfather, Jimmy Ortiz-Patino, has always been against lesser events being held simultaneously since he thought we should concentrate (like the prestigious America’s Cup, Davis Cup and Ryder Cup) on the “main attraction” and not dilute its importance.

As a history guide, there have been two other events called ‘World Championships.’  The first was the Pan American Championship held in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1992 for the Western Hemisphere.  The second was the Salt Lake City Championship held in 2002 in Salt Lake City (with a limited number of top teams — more on the order of an exhibition – with many good players, but not necessarily regular partnerships).  It took place before the Winter Olympics which were scheduled in Salt Lake a week later with the intention of enticing the World Olympic Committee to consider Bridge as a competitive sport. 

Different logistics through the years have also influenced our site selection.  Since for a long period of time the third world developing countries had very few Convention Center-type facilities, the WBF then preferred to award BB’s to these third world countries where only 20+ teams attended instead of the far larger WTO and WBC which would go only to Zones 1 and 2 to be held in either very large hotels usually with Convention Center-type access in order to have enough space for more than twice as many players.  Add that problem to the ACBL’s reluctance (after 1986 where poor planning caused the ACBL to lose much money on that Miami tournament) to hold any WBF type tournament on our soil — until this upcoming October when The World Bridge Series Championship will be held in Philadelphia.

I know it is a lot to digest (and perhaps boring to some), but I had no clue (nor did many of you) how expansive world bridge competition has become.   I might add that Bobby watched the evolution of universal bridge since his early days on the ACBL BOD through his presidency of both the ACBL and WBF as well as tons of other administrative positions.   It boggles my mind that bridge has come such a long way in six decades.