As news from the event comes through it will be published here
18 November 2024
Not surprisingly the World Bridge Games in Buenos Aires had a major impact on the ranking. Previous leaders Kevin Bathurst & John Hurd did not participate there and dropped to sixth place overall.
Thanks to their third place in the main world championship Jacek Kalita & Michal Klukowski and Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver took over the top spot. By being on the winning team of the world transnational championship Vincent Demuy & John Kranyak moved from seventh up to third place. Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace are close behind in fourth, after their runner-up finish in the main championship. In fifth place we find Oren Toledano & Ami Zamir.
The gaps in the ranking are very small and there are lots of ranking points up for grabs in the final events of the season, particularly at the four events at the NABC in Las Vegas.
The present holders of 16th place are only 100 TRPs ahead of 70th place, so there are many partnerships with a realistic chance to finish in the top 16.
9 October 2024
Since our latest report three events have been concluded, the Istanbul Open, the HCL international Teams in Delhi, and the Vilnius Cup. Thanks to their second place finish in India, Kevin Bathurst & John Hurd overtook the previous leaders, by quite some margin, Oren Toledano & Ami Zamir who remained in second place. Third through sixth place remained unchanged, but Vincent Demuy & John Kranyak moved up to seventh, being on the same team at the HCL as the new leaders.
Other big movers were Australian stars Sartaj Hans & Andy Hung, up to ninth place, who were on the winning team in India, and Christian Bakke & Boye Brogeland moving up to twelfth place thanks to their third place finish at the same event.
The Tour now moves on to Buenos Aires for the World Bridge Games which, in addition to the main championships in the four separate categories, features what promises to be a great six-day Transnational Open Teams Championship with a chance to earn a lot of Tour Ranking Points as the end of the season approaches. The Top 16 positions are all still up for grabs, even though Bathurst & Hurd have put themselves squarely in the driver’s seat!
9 August 2024
The NABC in Toronto is now finished and, not surprisingly, we have a lot of changes in the rankings after the four Tour events included there.
At the top of the rankings we now find Israeli youngsters Oren Toledano & Ami Zamir, moving up from 9th place thanks to winning the Roth Swiss Teams and the Life Master Pairs. Very close behind the leaders we now find Kevin Bathurst & John Hurd, moving up from 6th place and overtaking previous co-leaders Jacek Kalita & Michal Klukowski and Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver who now share 3rd place together with Joe Grue & Brad Moss, the latter moving up from 7th place. In 6th place we find Sabine Auken & Roy Welland.
The Chairmans Cup Teams in Sweden has also been concluded. The main effect in the top of the rankings was to move Mikael & Ola Rimstedt from 21 st to 14 th place thanks to their win. They could not return early enough from Toronto to play the Qualification and first KO matches, so only received half of the winning TRP award. Had they arrived a day earlier they would have moved all the way up to 9 th place.
It is very close all through the rankings, so we are in for an exiting finish of the season with another eleven events to go. There are many world class partnerships that can still make it into the top 16.
17 June 2024
We are pleased to advise that we have added the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs, played at the summer NABC in Toronto, to the Tour schedule. This three-day event clearly deserves to be included, based on its track record, and leaving it out originally was an oversight.
11 June 2024
Unfortunately there was a late score change in Marit Sveaas International Pairs, amongst other things moving Auken & Welland down to 5th place. The correct results and the current ranking are now published.
6 June 2024
Another three Tour events have now been finalised since the last report. The biggest change in the top was that Sabine Auken & Roy Welland (pictured) moved from seventh all the way up to third place by virtue of their second place in the Marit Sveås International Pairs. That is how close it is in the standings. Kalita & Klukowski and Brink & Drijver still share first place, but the gap is down to 7 points.
There are now no more Tour events until July, when the heavyweight NABC takes place in Toronto with three Tour events, the Spingold Teams, Wernher Pairs and Roth Swiss Teams.
14 May 2024
The Schapiro Spring Foursomes brought a major change in the top of the Tour rankings. Through their victory on the Orca team, Espen Erichsen & Richard Plackett (pictured left) moved all the way up into 4th place. Their Orca team mates obviously also made big moves – both Alexander Allfrey & Andrew Robson and Simon Cope & Peter Crouch straight into shared 26th place out of the 433 partnerships from all over the world already in the ranking. Kalita & Klukowski and Brink & Drijver remain in shared 1st place, closely followed by Sementa & Versace. Erichsen & Plackett pushed Bathurst & Hurd down a place to 5th and Grue & Moss to 6th place.
The Tour is now moving to Bangkok for the Asia Pacific Bridge Federation Open teams. I will not be surprised to see “the usual suspects” from “down under” making strong moves up the rankings, and many additional partnerships will probably enter the rankings.
30 April 2024
The European Winter Championships in Alpe d’Huez altered the standings at the top of the Tour ranking. With their victory in the Swiss/KO on the Zimmermann team Kalita & Klukowski and Brink & Drijver now share the top spot. Living in Switzerland seems to help their performance at high altitudes! They are closely followed by Sementa & Versace, who were runners-up in the BAM on the Bici team. Bathurst & Hurd, Grue & Moss and Auken & Welland complete the top six.
Next stop on the Tour is the Spring Foursomes in England, before the Tour moves back east again to Bangkok/Thailand.
17 April 2024
With their victory in the South American Transnational Teams, Kevin Bathurst & John Hurd took the pole position in the overall rankings, just ahead of their teammates Joe Grue & Brad Moss. They overtook the previous frontrunners Giovanni Donati & Giacomo Percario who are now in third place.
Close behind are Sabine Auken & Roy Welland in fourth with Bobby Levin & Steve Weinstein and Eric Greco & Geoff Hampson sharing the fifth spot. It will be interesting to see if the latter are destined to share whatever position they are in by playing all Tour events as teammates – maybe Pairs events will separate them though.
The next event on the Tour calendar, the European Winter Championships in Alpe d’Huez, has just started. We will see which partnerships are best at handling the high altitude.
April 2024
As predicted, the three Tour events at the NABC in Louisville altered the standings quite dramatically. Giovanni Donati & Giacomo Percario leapt directly into first place thanks to winning the Jacoby Swiss Teams and making it to the semifinals in the Vanderbilt. They take the outright lead in spite of playing with the same teammates in both events, by virtue of having played enough boards in both events to qualify for the full TRP awards.
They are followed very closely by Sabine Auken & Roy Welland after coming in second in the Jacoby and reaching the quarterfinals in the Vanderbilt. They were teammates in both with father and son Jerome & Leo Rombaut, now in sixth place, but had scored good TRPs also earlier this year in Reykjavik.
Sharing third place is Eric Greco & Geoff Hampson and Bobby Levin & Steve Weinstein thanks to their win in the Vanderbilt.
Rounding out the top six are Simon de Wijs & Bauke Muller in fifth place and, as mentioned above, the Rombauts in sixth.
Overall, the top of the rankings already looks like a “who’s who” of international bridge, with only 8 of the Tour’s 29 events being played.
The Tour now moves south to Cali/Colombia for the prestigious South American Transnational Teams. After just a day of rest we move to the European Winter Transnationals in Alpe d’Huez/France for two highly rated events.
March 2024
Welcome to the first “official” season of the WBF World Tour.
The first five events, taking place in Japan, Iceland, and Australia, are completed, and sharing the top of the ranking are Hugh McGann & Matthew Thomson (pictured left) and Tom Jacob & Brian Mace (pictured right). Since the Gold Coast event in Australia had the highest event ranking among those completed so far, it is not surprising that many partnerships from “down under” are dominating the present ranking.
Breaking that dominance are Dennis Bilde & Martin Schaltz in shared third and Sabine Auken & Roy Welland in ninth place. The first American partnership, Adam Kaplan & Finn Kolesnik , appear in 17th place but this is bound to change when the Tour now moves on to Louisville/Kentucky for the ACBL NABC where three Tour events will be decided, including the top ranked Vanderbilt teams.
21 March 2024
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 3rd place in the overall Tour ranking by finishing 8th, substantially reducing their gap to 2nd place. Playing on the same team, Mikael & Ola Rimstedt moved up a notch to 10th while Geir Helgemo & Zia Mahmood from 48th to 37th. 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 23rd, 38th, 45th and 50th place, and that is only looking at the top 100!
The Patreuha twins
By winning the HCL event brothers Jakub & Patryk Patreuha (pictured right) moved from 80th to 31st place, while teammates Piotr Marcinowski & Kamil Nowak scoring their first ranking points and entering in 99th place.
Others making substantial moves in the top were Nabil Edgtton & Michael Whibley from 16th to 12th place, Wojciech Gawel & Rafal Jagniewski from 89th to 43rd and Sumit Mukherjee & Rajeshwar Tewari all the way from 291st to 72nd 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 17th to 10th 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
Jacek Kalita and Michal Klukowski
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 12th 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 7th to 3rd 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
Ola & Mikael Rimstedt
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
Bessis-Lorenzini, the new leaders
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.