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