Master Points
By WBF In 43rd World Bridge Teams Championships On 21st August 2017
So what are WBF Master points, Placing Points, Senior Points, Year Points, On-Line Bridge Points? These are questions that I am often asked. The WBF Master Point system was formulated in the late seventies and is a system to reward the top players and provide a system to award titles. I took over the administration of WBF master points at the beginning of the millennium.
WBF Master Points are awarded separately to Open, Women and Mixed events and are reduced by 15% each year, the idea being that they are an indication of a current players’ activity and skill. By earning these points you can become either a WBF World Master or a WBF International Master, to progress further up the titles a player must win Placing Points and these are not reduced each year, thus indicating the career of a player. Five of these and you can become a WBF Life Master, with ten and a WBF World Championship title a player will become a WBF World Grand Master. All titles stay with the player for ever.
Some Youth tournaments attract WBF Masterpoints and we are considering some improvements to this.
WBF Senior Points are awarded to Senior events only, are Open points and are reduced by 15% each year. The titles that can be won are WBF Senior Master, WBF Senior International Master, WBF Senior Life Master, WBF Senior Grand Master depending on the number of points accumulated.
WBF On-Line Master Points are awarded for On-Line Bridge events, these points and titles are kept separate, as this form of Bridge is considered a different form to ‘table bridge’.
All these types of points mentioned are awarded mainly for events run by the WBF. For events run by other organisations the WBF offers the chance to award WBF Year Points. The events have to meet certain criteria be of sufficient size and contain a defined strength of players. Any Year Points awarded in a calendar year can be converted to WBF Master Points at the ration of 10 to 1 as long as the player has at least 100 WBF Year Points.
I hope this clarifies some of the reasoning behind the WBF Master Point system. The actual amounts awarded for any particular event are decided beforehand and depend on the considered strength and size of the tournament. We at the WBF try to keep things fair whist still maintaining the value of the points awarded so that they mean something to the player.
The web site for WBF Master Points is on the main WBF web site as well as a direct link www.wbfmasterpoints.com
Mark Newton
WBF Masterpoint Manager