The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national teams. It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the Wuhan Cup (mixed). Entries formally represent WBF zones as well as nations, so it is also known as the World Zonal Open Team Championship. It is the oldest event that confers the title of world champion in bridge, and was first contested in 1950. The Bermuda Bowl trophy is awarded to the winning team, and is named for the site of the inaugural tournament, the Atlantic archipelago of Bermuda.
Edgar Kaplan was an American bridge player and one of the principal contributors to the game. His career spanned six decades and covered every aspect of bridge. He was a teacher, author, editor, administrator, champion player, theorist, expert Vugraph commentator, coach/captain and authority on the laws of the game. He was the editor and publisher of The Bridge World magazine for more than 30 years (1967–1997). With Alfred Sheinwold he developed the Kaplan–Sheinwold bidding system. He was from New York City.
Robert S. (Bobby) Wolff is an American bridge player, writer, and administrator. He is the only person to win world championships in five different categories. He is a graduate of Trinity University.
Jeffrey John (Jeff) Meckstroth is an American professional contract bridge player. He is a multiple world champion, winning the Bermuda Bowl on USA teams five times. He is one of only ten players who have won the so-called triple crown of bridge: the Bermuda Bowl, the World Open Pairs and the World Team Olympiad. As of May 16, 2016, he was the fifth-ranking World Grand Master. For decades Meckstroth has been in a regular partnership with Eric Rodwell and together, nicknamed "Meckwell", they are one of the most successful bridge partnerships of all time. They are well known for playing an aggressive and very detailed system that derived from Precision Club.
Fulvio Fantoni is an Italian international bridge player. He is a six-time world champion, a World Grand Master of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), and the WBF first-ranked player as of December 2011. He is one of 10 players who have won the Triple Crown of Bridge.
Claudio Nunes is an Italian professional bridge player.
Kit Woolsey is an American bridge and backgammon player. He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2005.
Terje Aa is a Norwegian bridge player, WBF World Life Master, and regular member of the Norwegian team since 1993. Teams on which he was a member have placed in the top three of the World Bridge Federation European and World Championships 11 times between 1984 and 2008.
Robert "Bobby", "Bob" Goldman was an American bridge player, teacher and writer. He won three Bermuda Bowls, Olympiad Mixed Teams 1972, and 20 North American Bridge Championships. He authored books on bridge, most notably Aces Scientific and Winners and Losers at the Bridge Table, and conventions including Kickback, Exclusion Blackwood and Super Gerber (Redwood). He was from Highland Village, Texas.
The World Transnational Open Teams Championship is a major side event conducted by the World Bridge Federation during the semifinal and final stages of its world championships for national teams at contract bridge—the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup, and Senior Bowl. New teams may enter the Transnational, as well as national teams eliminated before the semifinals of the main events—Open, Women, and Seniors respectively. It is not required that all team members be from one country, hence the term transnational. A series of Swiss matches qualifies eight teams for three knockout rounds which conclude during the finals of the main events.
The World Junior Pairs Championship is a bridge competition organized by the World Bridge Federation. It was inaugurated 1995 in Ghent, Belgium, when it incorporated the European Junior Pairs Championship inaugurated 1991. Officially the Juniors and Youngsters Pairs Championships are biennial in odd years, although there are parallel contests in some even years.
The World Junior Teams Championship is a bridge competition for zonal teams of players up to about 25 years old.
Robert J. (Bobby) Levin is an American professional bridge player, from Aventura, Florida. He was the youngest winner of the Bermuda Bowl world championship for national teams from 1981 until 2015, when 19-year old Michal Klukowski of Poland succeeded him. Levin is also a five-time winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading contest for cash prizes, with his regular partner Steve Weinstein. As of June 2013, Levin ranks number 20 among Open World Grand Masters and his wife Jill ranks number 21 among Women World Grand Masters.
Alan M. Sontag is an American professional bridge player. He won six world championships, including two Bermuda Bowl wins. Sontag is also known for his book The Bridge Bum, a book "on everybody's list of the top ten bridge books ever written."
Steve Weinstein is an American professional bridge and poker player. He is known best as the youngest winner of the ACBL Life Master Pairs at the time that he achieved it, and the most frequent winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading contest for cash prizes. As of March 2022, the World Bridge Federation shows Weinstein at number 22 in the Open World Grand Masters rankings. His highest ranking was 16th, in October 2011.
Tor Helness 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 teams-of-four competition. As of October 2016 he ranks second among Open World Grand Masters and his regular partner Geir Helgemo ranks first.
Pierre Zimmermann is a Swiss-born real estate developer and champion bridge player formerly resident in Monaco.
Boye Brogeland is a Norwegian professional bridge player. After a successful junior career, he won three Bermuda Bowl medals with the Norwegian team, including the gold in Shanghai 2007, and several North American Bridge Championships. He came into public focus in 2015 when he led a campaign against cheating in bridge, exposing wrongdoing of several top pairs, for which he received public recognition.
Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes are professional bridge players originally from Italy, but since 2011 playing for Monaco. In 2015, they were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the world respectively.
