Mengenal Kejuaraan Dunia Bridge

Buat pemain bridge sendiri, Kejuaraan Dunia Bridge sering membingungkan apalagi bagi yang awam. Selama ini ada Bermuda Bowl, Senior Bowl, Olympiade Team, Olympiade Pasangan dan lain-lain. Sejak WBF diakui oleh IOC maka WBF harus patuh kepada aturan-aturan dari WBF dimana Olympiade tidak boleh digunakan kecuali oleh IOC.

Sebab itu, Olympiade Team sekarang menjadi World Bridge Games yang mempertandingan National Open Team, National Women Team dan National Youth Team (Under 28). World Bridge Games selanjutnya menjadi bagian dari World Mind Sports Game yang dipertandingkan empat tahun sekali bertepatan dengan olympiade musim panas.

Selengkapnya :

At meetings held in Shanghai in 2007, the new four year cycle of WBF events was agreed as follows:

In the odd-numbered years, beginning in 2009, the following events will be held:
	Bermuda Bowl
	Venice Cup
	Senior Bowl
	World Transnational Open Teams (WTNOT)
These events will collectively be known as the World Bridge Team Championships and will be for national teams qualifying in the various WBF Zones, except for the WTNOT, which will be open to all teams, national or transnational.
In the even-numbered years beginning in 2010, the World Bridge Series will be held, consisting of:
	Rosenblum Cup (World Knockout Teams)
	McConnell Teams (Women’s KO Teams)
	Senior KO Teams
	World Mixed Pairs
	World Open Pairs
	World Women’s Pairs
	World Senior Pairs
	IMP Pairs
All these events will be transnational, having no national restrictions.
From 2008, the World Bridge Games
In the other even-numbered years (the same years as the Summer Olympics – previously known as Olympiads), beginning in 2008, the World Mind Sports Games will be held. These games will be held under the aegis of IMSA and will consist of bridge, chess, go and draughts (and Chinese chess next year in Beijing). The events held in the World Bridge Games will be:
	National Open Teams
	National Women’s Teams
	National Youth Teams, Pairs & Individual
Each member of the WBF is entitled to a team in each series. The Youth Teams is a new event for 2008. And in addition, as usual (but not included in the medal roll of the WMSG).
	Senior Teams (One national team per country)
	World Transnational Mixed Teams (no quotas)
Note that the Open, Women's, Youth Teams and Pairs and Senior Teams are all for National Teams (1 team per country); the Transnational Teams has no restrictions and is open to all players who are members in good standing with their NBO
In addition for 2008 the World Junior Team Championships will be staged comprising:
	The World Junior Championship for the Ortiz-Patiño Trophy - this will be for players aged under 26, born in 1982 or later. The teams for this event will qualify through their own Zonal Championships
	The World Schools Team Championship for the Damiani Cup - this will be for players aged under 21, born in 1987 or later. The teams for this event will also qualify through their own Zonal Championships.
As teams are knocked out of these two events, they may join play in the Youth Teams and as teams are eliminated from the Youth Teams, they will be eligible to join the World Youth Pairs, then the Individual. Details are still being worked on. At the World Mind Sports Games, all youth and women’s competitors will be offered free room and board in the media village apartments to encourage participation. It is also hoped to provide discounted or possibly even free flights for the youth and women's teams
Youth Bridge from 2008
The Youth cycle will be run on a four-year basis, starting in 2008 with the World Mind Sports Games Then, in 2009 and 2011, and in odd-numbered years thereafter, the following events will be held:
	World Youth Championships. Under 26 (and under 21 if enough players to divide the field). All these events will be transnational.
	World Youth Pairs
	World Youth Individual
	World Youth Teams
In 2010, the World Junior Teams will be held, consisting of:
	The Ortiz-Patiño Trophy (under 26)
	The José Damiani’s Cup (under 21)
After 2008, all World Youth Championships will revert back to the summer timeframe.
Future venues: The next three World Championship sites will be Beijing, China, São Paulo, Brazil, and St. Petersburg, Russia.