Welcome to the official website for the WBF World Bridge Tour (“WBT”). This is where you will find all official information relating to the Tour, including results and current ranking.

The WBT was conceived based on an idea by Jan Kamras, the current WBF President, already in 2018. Its launch was approved by the Executive Council in 2019. We all know what then happened – the worldwide Covid pandemic which all but stopped international face-to-face bridge and consequently also the launch of the WBT.

As international bridge is now back up and running we are launching the Tour with a “dry run” season in 2023, with the intention to go “live” in 2024. During the dry run we will have the possibility to evaluate all aspects of the WBT, whether it concerns the events included, their categorisation or the respective Tour Ranking Point (“TRP”) scales. All designations for this season should therefore be considered as being preliminary, and may be adjusted where deemed necessary before going live. 

The WBT events will be split into four Categories, allowing us to preliminarily also include events where we are uncertain of whether or not they will ultimately qualify for inclusion. A number of events have been preselected for inclusion. Organisers of other Open events with international participation, which they believe fulfill the requirements, are welcome to apply for inclusion by email to worldbridgetour@worldbridgefed.com. Several organisers have already applied, and some have been approved. The listing of events under the menu item “Events and Results” reflects the status as of February 28 2023, and events can still be added.

The detailed regulations, events and TRP scales are described in the respective menu items, but the following is a very brief summary of the main features of the WBT:

• The ranking is of partnerships, not of players or whole teams. A player can therefore appear in several partnerships, if playing with different partners in different Tour events.
• Players qualifying for TRPs must be, or become, registered in the WBF database.
• Both Teams and Pairs events are included.
• Only “face-to-face” events can be included. They can be organised by the WBF, Zonal Conferences, NBOs or others (but then, typically, at least sanctioned by an NBO).
• The only “new” event in the calendar will be the WBT Finals.
• Team events will have minimum playing requirements for each partnership to receive TRPs.
• As of 2024 WBT Events will also be eligible for a certain allocation of WBF Master Points, and a sanctioning fee (still to be determined) will be levied once the WBT goes live in 2024.

The events must:

• not be limited by gender or age.
• be open to all members in good standing of a WBF affiliated NBO.
• have a significant participation of foreign partnerships.

We hope that this Tour will be a success adding new excitement, and promotional value, to international bridge by providing a constantly changing ranking throughout the year. Most sports have similar “tours” or “series”, giving them exposure also outside of their main championships. The initial reactions from players and NBOs alike have been very positive.