News items from 2023

December 2023

With the completion of the NABC in Atlanta, where four Tour events were held, the inaugural 2023 “dry run” season of the WBF World Tour has come to an end.

After the 34 events, Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace (pictured left) stand at the top of the ranking with 514 points, followed by Thomas Bessis & Cedric Lorenzini with 455 and Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver with 440.

You can click here to find the full ranking, which reads like a “who’s who” of the international bridge scene

We are now preparing for the Tour to go “live” in 2024. Organisers of international events that fulfil the requirements listed on the Tour website, http://championships.worldbridge.org/world-bridge-tour, are welcome to apply for inclusion by email to worldbridgetour@worldbridgefed.com.

15 November

After the conclusion of the prestigious HCL International Teams in New Delhi, Christian Bakke & Boye Brogeland consolidated their 3^rd place in the overall Tour ranking by finishing 8^th, substantially reducing their gap to 2^nd place. Playing on the same team, Mikael & Ola Rimstedt moved up a notch to 10^th while Geir Helgemo & Zia Mahmood from 48^th to 37^th. If Zia and Geir would play with the same partner more often they would surely be way up in the rankings – they occur in different partnerships also in 23^rd, 38^th, 45^th and 50^th place, and that is only looking at the top 100!

By winning the HCL event brothers Jakub & Patryk Patreuha (pictured right) moved from 80^th to 31^st place, while teammates Piotr Marcinowski & Kamil Nowak scoring their first ranking points and entering in 99^th place.

Others making substantial moves in the top were Nabil Edgtton & Michael Whibley from 16^th to 12^th place, Wojciech Gawel & Rafal Jagniewski from 89^th to 43^rd and Sumit Mukherjee & Rajeshwar Tewari  all the way from 291^st to 72^nd place!

As you can see, big moves are still possible before the Tour concludes with the Reisinger BAM Teams in Atlanta.

On a sad note, the organisers of the Red Sea Bridge Festival in Eilat have been forced to postpone the event. Consequently there will be no Tour event between now and Atlanta. We hope the situation will soon improve, enabling the Festival to be rescheduled.

11 October

The biggest change in the top 20 after the three latest events – Vilnius Cup, New Zealand Open and Istanbul Open – was that Antonio Palma & Frederic Wrang moved from 17^th to 10^th place thanks to their victory in Vilnius. Their teammates, Nick Sandqvist & Nathalie Shashou, made the biggest overall move, from 418th up to 75th!

The number of partnerships in the ranking is now 848 – will we reach 1,000 before the season is over?

The Tour now moves to New Delhi for the HCL International Open.

20 September

The World Championships in Marrakech are over. Not surprisingly they resulted in large movements in the Tour rankings. Jacek Kalita & Michal Klukowski  took a giant leap all the way up to 12^th place after winning the Bermuda Bowl (their teammates were already highly placed).

At the very top Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace overtook Thomas Bessis & Cedric Lorenzini (who did not play in Marrakech) by placing third in the Bermuda Bowl, to re-claim the top spot in the rankings.

Christian Bakke & Boye Brogeland moved from 7^th to 3^rd by finishing second in the Bermuda Bowl. Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver, Joe Grue & Brad Moss and Jerome & Leo Rombaut round out the top six.

Coming up still this month are Tour events in Lithuania, New Zealand, and Turkiye, which I suspect will result in a few more partnerships being added to the 771(!) already in the Tour Ranking.

9 August

The Chairman’s Cup in Örebro resulted in one major change in the top of the overall ranking.

After their convincing victory on Gillian Miniter’s team Mikael & Ola Rimstedt moved all the way up into fifth position.

Now on to Marrakech, where lots of ranking points are in play!

 

 

 

 

31 July

The Summer NABC in Chicago is now over. I had expected many American partnerships to make strong moves up the ranking – some did, but not as many as expected. The fact is that there are many non-American top professional partnerships playing the ACBL Nationals these days, and they did very well last week.

With their win in the Spingold on the Fleisher team Bessis & Lorenzini and team mates Sementa & Versace kept their positions as first and second respectively in the ranking. No other partnership assembled that many points in Chicago, so they extended their lead over the chasing field. Brink & Drijver placed third/fourth in the Spingold and moved up from sixth to third place in the rankings. After solid performances Rombaut & Rombaut moved up to fourth. Donati & Percario did slightly better than Auken & Welland and overtook them into fifth, while the latter remained in sixth place.

Among the American partnerships the biggest movers were Brian Platnick & Kevin Rosenberg, Finn Kolesnik & Roger Lee, Kevin Bathurst & John Hurd and Vincent Demuy & John Kranyak. However, Joe Grue & Brad Moss still remain the highest ranked American partnership in eighth, just behind Bakke-Brogeland of Norway.

Other very strong performers among the top 20 were Nabil Edgtton & Michael Whibley, Antonio Palma & Frederic Wrang, Alon Birman & Dror Padon, David Gold & Zia Mahmood, Denis Bilde & Agustin Madala and Piotr Gawrys & Michal Klukowski.

The next stop on the Tour is Örebro in Sweden for the Chairman’s Cup, which is followed by the World Championships in Marrakech.

27 June 2023

Not surprisingly the events at the European Transnational Championships in Strasbourg created big changes in the overall ranking. With their win in the Swiss/KO Teams Thomas Bessis & Cedric Lorenzini leapfrogged previous leader Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace who remained in second, while Philippe Soulet & Hervé Vinciguerra moved up into third place overall. Their second place in the Swiss/KO Teams took Jérôme & Leo Rombaut all the way up to fourth while Sabine Auken & Roy Welland won the Open Pairs and placed well also in the Swiss/KO Teams to place fifth overall. Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver also did well and are in sixth place.

Behind the leaders it is extremely tight, and when we are now moving over to the other side of the Atlantic we can expect quite some changes in the ranking. At the Summer North American Bridge Championships in Chicago there are three events included in the WBF World Tour – the Spingold KO Teams, the Wernher Pairs and the Roth Swiss Teams. Though American partnerships are not yet numerous near the top of the rankings this may well be about to change since there are loads of Ranking Points up for grabs!

1 June 2023

After Marit Sveaas International Pairs in Lillehammer and the Budapest Open Teams there has been movement at the top of the rankings.

Sementa & Versace and Donati & Percario remain first and second respectively, but the partnership of Espen Erichsen (ENG) & Richard Plackett (WAL) has overtaken Grue & Moss for third place.

It is very tight following them and there are plenty of opportunities to score lots of Ranking Points in the upcoming “heavy weight” events on the Tour, the European Transnational Open Teams, Pairs and BAM in Strasbourg this month and the NABC Spingold, Wernher Pairs and Roth Swiss Teams in Chicago in July.

I can almost guarantee big moves in the rankings – in particular by many North American partnerships that do not yet appear near the top, so stay tuned and participate in as many WBF Tour events as you can. There are now 444 Partnerships in the ranking so it is not only for the world’s best. You can all compete with your peers for “bragging rights”!”

4th May 2023 

After some great results in the latest events on the WBT calendar, the European Winter Games in France and the Schapiro Spring Fours in England, we have a new partnership on top, namely Italian stars Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace. They are followed by youngsters Giovanni Donati & Giacomo Percario, pushing down previous leaders Joe Grue & Brad Moss, who didn’t play in either of those events, into third place. Slowly closing in on the leading three, in fourth to sixth place we now find Thomas Bessis & Cedric Lorenzini, Mikael & Ola Rimstedt and Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver respectively.

Without disrespect to those following – What a top 6!

You can get directly to the full current ranking using the link on the menu. There are almost 400 partnerships in the ranking already!

Next up are the Marit Sveås International Pairs in Norway (with a large prize purse) and the Budapest Open Teams.

(To avoid any misunderstanding, Sementa & Versace did not play in the Schapiro Spring Fours, only in the EWG)

21st April 2023

After the 8th event on the WBF WBT calendar, the South American Transnational Teams in Buenos Aires, the partnership of Joe Grue & Brad Moss (both USA) is leading the Tour Ranking. Following in 2nd place is Nabil Edgtton (AUS) & Michael Whibley (NZL) and in 3rd place we find David Gold (ENG) & Zia Mahmood (USA).
Following close behind are Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace (both ITA) and Giorgio Duboin (ITA) & Michael Kamil (USA) in shared 4th, and Andy Hung & Liam Milne (both AUS) in 6th place.
The full current ranking can be seen by clicking the, you guessed it, “CURRENT RANKING” tab on this site.
The TRP awarded in each event are linked to in the “EVENTS & RESULTS” tab.

Grue & Moss, who have more world and national titles to their names than most, followed up their victory in the Vanderbilt in New Orleans with a 5th place finish on Gilian Miniter’s team in Buenos Aires, giving them a total of 130 TRP.
Edgtton & Whibley have been racking up both airline miles and their 105 TRP by playing in WBT events on three continents already!
Gold & Mahmood scored their 100 TRP by winning the Vanderbilt.

The next events on the WBT calendar are played at the European Winter Games in Tignes, followed by the Schapiro Spring Foursomes in Bristol and the Marit Sveås International Pairs in Lillehammer.