Masterpoints or master points are points awarded by bridge organizations to individuals for success in competitive bridge tournaments run under their auspices. Generally, recipients must be members in good standing of the issuing organization. At the international level, competitions and point awards are administered by the World Bridge Federation (WBF); its affiliates at the multi-national level, such as the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), also issue points as do more local organizations such as the English Bridge Union (EBU), and the Deutsche Bridge Verband (DBV) and independent ones such as the American Bridge Association (ABA).
The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) is an association of the world governing bodies for contract bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go, xiangqi, mahjong and certain card games. Its members are the World Bridge Federation (WBF), World Chess Federation (FIDE), World Draughts Federation (FMJD), International Go Federation (IGF), World Xiangqi Federation (WXF), Mahjong International League (MIL) and Federation of Card Games (FCG). IMSA is an associate member of the Global Association of International Sports Federations, and was founded on 19 April 2005 during the GAISF General Assembly. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Venice Cup is a biennial world championship contract bridge tournament for national teams of Women. It is contested every odd-number year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Bermuda Bowl (Open) and d'Orsi Bowl (Seniors). Entries formally represent WBF Zones as well as nations so it is also known as the "World Zonal Women Team Championship", one of three "World Zonal Team Championships". It was first contested in 1974, as one long match between two teams, and has been concurrent with the Bermuda Bowl from 1985.
The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the international governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competitions, most of which are conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle. The most prestigious championships are those for national teams in Open, Women, and Seniors categories: the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup, and Senior Bowl, and the quadrennial World Team Olympiads, incorporated in the World Mind Sports Games beginning 2008.
Geir Helgemo is a professional bridge player who was born in Norway but is now a citizen of Monaco. Through 2012 he had won three world championships in teams-of-four competition. As of August 2018 he ranked first among Open World Grand Masters and his regular partner Tor Helness ranked second.
The World Team Olympiad was a contract bridge meet organized by the World Bridge Federation every four years from 1960 to 2004. Its main events were world championships for national teams, always including one open and one restricted to women. A parallel event for seniors was inaugurated in 2000.
The World IMP Pairs Championship is a contract bridge competition established in 1998 by the World Bridge Federation. Since then it has been a major side event in the quadrennial meet that is now called the "World Bridge Series Championships", "World Bridge Series", or "World Series".
The d'Orsi Senior Bowl, or Senior Bowl or d'Orsi Bowl, is a biennial world championship contract bridge tournament for national teams of "Seniors", players age 60 and older. It is contested every odd-number year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Bermuda Bowl (Open), Venice Cup (Women) and Wuhan Cup (Mixed). Entries formally represent WBF Zones as well as nations so it is also known as the "World Zonal Senior Team Championship", one of three "World Zonal Team Championships". It became an official world championship event in 2001 following a successful exhibition in 2000.
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.
Ralph Katz is an American bridge player. Katz is from Burr Ridge, Illinois and graduated from University of Steubenville.
The first World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) were held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008, about two months after the Olympic Games. They were sponsored and organised by the International Mind Sports Association with the General Administration of Sport of China and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.
The 2012 World Mind Sports Games were held in Lille, France, from 9 to 23 August 2012. The meeting started during the 2012 Summer Olympics and ending shortly before the 2012 Summer Paralympics, both in London. This was the second rendition of the World Mind Sports Games, which was inaugurated in 2008 in Beijing. The mind sport games had about 2000 players from 95 nations—down from 2,763 competitors and 143 countries at the 1st Games. More than half of the gold medals were contested at draughts and Russia, with the strongest draughts squad, won the most gold and most overall medals. China won five gold medals—all five events contested at Xiangqi. Chinese Taipei won four gold medals—four of the five events contested at go.
Joel Powhatan Wooldridge is an American multi national champion and world junior champion in contract bridge as well as an expert foosball player. In 1990, Wooldridge broke Sam Hirschman's previous record for the youngest to achieve Life Master status with the American Contract Bridge League surpassing the mark of 11 years, 9 months and 5 days with a new record of 11 years, 4 months and 13 days. Sam's brother Dan broke Joel's record four years later. Wooldridge lives in New York City.
The Pakistan Bridge Federation is the governing body for the game of bridge in Pakistan. The federation was founded as the Pakistan Bridge Association in 1972. It was renamed to the Pakistan Bridge Federation in 1993. Its headquarters are located in Karachi.
Lynn Davis Deas was a professional American bridge player. At the time of her death, she was second in the World Bridge Federation (WBF) All time Women Ranking by Placement Points, which do not decay over time.
The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) inaugurated the SportAccord World Mind Games December 2011 in Beijing. For all sports, the meet was invitational and the events were not world championships. Beside satisfaction of the participating players and federations, the main objectives were to achieve "a worldwide TV coverage, and a large participation to the online tournament linked to the event."
Joshua Samuel Donn is a multi national champion and a gold medal world junior champion in contract bridge. He is known as a bridge lecturer as well as author. He is the all-time leader of Richard Pavlicek's monthly polls that ran from 2000-2006 and had thousands of participants from over 90 countries. He currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada with his daughter.
