Bridge Tournaments: From Club Games to World Championships

A bridge tournament is an organized competition, usually duplicate, in which pairs or teams play the same deals and are ranked by comparing their results. Tournaments range from a weekend sectional at a local hotel to world championships for national teams, and most of them have events for every level, including players in their first year.

If you play at a club, you already know the format: a tournament is a bigger club game, with more sessions, more players and prizes. This page explains the levels, the main championships, how online events work, and what to expect at your first one.

Every tournament has a schedule of events. Each event has a format and a scoring method:

Events are also split by experience. A limited or flighted event is open only to players below a set number of masterpoints, so new players compete against other new players. An open event is for anyone.

Victory points convert an IMP margin into a fixed score per match, often out of 20. A narrow win gives a little more than half the points, a big win gives nearly all of them. This stops one huge win from deciding a whole event.

In North America, the ACBL organizes play in levels. Each level awards a different color of masterpoints:

1. Club games (black points): your weekly duplicate. Some club games are special events with extra points.
2. Sectional tournaments (silver points): one to three days, run by a local unit. Many clubs also host sectional-rated games during special weeks.
3. Regional tournaments (red and gold points): usually a week long, run by a district. They include events for every level, from newcomer pairs to strong knockouts.
4. North American Bridge Championships (platinum points for the top national events): the national level, described below.

The EBU in England has a similar structure, with county events, congresses and national events, each with its own type of master points. Most national bodies follow the same idea: club, regional, national, then international.

For new players the masterpoint colors matter mostly for rank. They become important once you aim for a title such as Life Master in the ACBL, which needs points of several colors.

The NABC, or North American Bridge Championships, is the ACBL's national tournament. It is held three times a year, in spring, summer and fall, each time in a different city, and lasts about ten days.

Each NABC has national championships with long histories. Among the best known are the Vanderbilt knockout teams in spring, the Spingold knockout teams in summer, and the Reisinger board-a-match teams and the Blue Ribbon Pairs in the fall. Winning one of them is among the top achievements in North American bridge.

You do not need to be an expert to go. Every NABC also runs side games, regional-rated events and newcomer programs for players with few masterpoints, often with free lectures in the morning.

The World Bridge Federation (WBF) runs the world championships. The main ones are:

• The World Team Championships, held in odd-numbered years: the Bermuda Bowl (open), the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl (seniors) and a mixed event, the Wuhan Cup. Countries qualify through their zones, such as Europe or North America. The Bermuda Bowl, first played in 1950, is the most prestigious title in the game.
• The World Bridge Games, held every four years, also for national teams, in open, women's, seniors and mixed series.
• The World Bridge Series, also every four years, with transnational events: you can enter with teammates from any country. The open teams there play for the Rosenblum Cup.
• Youth championships for players under 26, 21 and 16.

World championship teams are usually national teams chosen through trials or ranking events in each country.

The European Bridge League (EBL) runs the European championships. The European Team Championships are for national teams and are the main qualifying route to the Bermuda Bowl for European countries. The EBL also runs open championships, where anyone can enter with any partner, and a Champions Cup for the best club teams of each country.

Other zones have their own championships too, such as the South American, Asia Pacific and African championships, each feeding qualifiers into the world events.

Between the official championships there are dozens of bridge festivals: open tournaments, often in holiday destinations, that mix serious events with social ones. They usually run for a week, welcome players of all levels and countries, and offer pairs and teams events side by side.

Some well-known examples are the Gold Coast Congress in Australia, the Reykjavik Bridge Festival in Iceland and the Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel. Many national bodies also run a summer congress or a national festival.

There are also invitational events, where the organizer invites top pairs or teams, and pro-am events, where a professional plays with a client. You will read about these in bridge news, but most players enter open events.

Online tournaments have grown enormously, and since 2020 many clubs and national bodies run regular online events. The common types:

• Robot tournaments: you play a set of boards with a robot partner against robot opponents, and you are compared with everyone who played the same deals. You can play them at any hour.
• Human pairs and teams events: the same formats as live tournaments, with a director online.
• Video platforms: some events use a video link so players can see each other, which helps with security at higher levels.
• Masterpoint events: many national bodies award masterpoints for sanctioned online games.

Online play has its own etiquette: you alert your own calls (only the opponents see your explanation, not partner), and you must not use outside information, such as a second screen or a phone call with partner.

1. Find a tournament near you. The calendar on your national body's site lists sectionals, regionals and congresses. Your club usually posts upcoming ones too.
2. Choose the right event. Look for limited or newcomer events, usually labeled with a masterpoint limit, such as "0-50" or "0-300" in the ACBL.
3. Bring a partner. Most events need one. Many tournaments have a partnership desk that can match you with someone at your level.
4. Check membership. Sanctioned events usually need membership of the national body, or a small extra fee.
5. Prepare your convention card. Agree on your system in advance, and keep it simple. See the convention card.
6. Plan your stamina. A tournament day can be two sessions of about three hours each. Eat, sleep and take breaks.
7. Call the director whenever something goes wrong. Directors at tournaments are used to new players and are there to help.

The best preparation is practice on the decisions that come up most: opening leads, competitive part-score bidding and choosing between game and part score.

BridgeDummy's weekly league puts you in tiers with players at a similar level, which feels much like a short tournament each week. The Puzzle Rush runs train quick decisions under time pressure, and the 1v1 challenges give you a rated head-to-head match with an ELO rating. All of them use the same kind of puzzles: you choose one call or lead, and the answer is checked against many deals that fit the auction.

For the scoring methods behind these formats, read matchpoints vs IMPs and duplicate bridge. For the history of the big championships, see the history of bridge.