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).
A bridge convention is an agreement about an artificial call or a set of related artificial calls. Calls made during the auction phase of a contract bridge game convey information about the player's card holdings. Calls may be "natural" or "artificial".
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.
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), Wuhan Cup (Mixed) 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.
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.
McConnell Cup is a team event for women held every four years as part of the World Bridge Series Championships. The event was inaugurated in 1994 and is named in honor of Ruth McConnell, former treasurer for the World Bridge Federation (WBF) and former president of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). McConnell was also instrumental in inaugurating the Venice Cup women's team championship in 1974.
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 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 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 Teams Championship is a bridge competition for zonal teams of players up to about 25 years old.
The Canadian Bridge Federation, (La Fédération Canadienne de Bridge ), is the primary organizational body for contract bridge in Canada. Like its American counterpart, the United States Bridge Federation, the CBF promotes bridge by running tournaments for youths and adults and provides financial support for teams that represent Canada in international competition. It publishes a magazine, Bridge Canada.
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.
The United States Bridge Federation (USBF) is the national federation for contract bridge in the United States and a non-profit organization formed by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and the American Bridge Association (ABA) in 2001 to hold the United States Bridge Championships and to select, train, and support Open, Women, Senior and Junior teams to represent the United States in international competition.
Brian R. Senior is a professional bridge player and writer from Nottingham. He has represented Great Britain, England, Northern Ireland and Ireland in international competition and has won all the major English Bridge Union teams competitions. Senior is also the editor and publisher of the annual official world championship book, under World Bridge Federation auspices.
The South African Bridge Federation (SABF) is the national governing body, custodian and regulator for the card game of bridge in South Africa. SABF is affiliated to the world governing body World Bridge Federation (WBF), the regional continental body African Bridge Federation (ABF), and SASCOC.
