This new event, inaugurated in Tunisia in 1997, offers a week of top level Swiss Teams competition in the exciting milieu of the Bermuda Bowl/Venice Cup. This is a multinational event, which means that team members do not have to come from the same country. Participants can look forward to a traditionally warm Bermuda welcome!

Format
The World Transnational Open Teams event will be played during the second week of the Orbis World Bridge Championships in Bermuda.
The qualifying stages will be held from Sunday to Thursday of the second week with the top teams qualifying for the knock out phase to be played on the Thursday and Friday.

The Tournament is likely to be Swiss type, but with semi-finals and a final being played in order to determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medallists. The Bronze Medal will be awarded to the losing semi-finalist which finishes with a higher placing in the Swiss.

It is probable that sixteen 10-board matches of Swiss will be played to qualify for the semi-finals and two more matches will be played to determine the final standings from the 5th place on. The semi-finals are likely to be played in 32-board matches and the final as a 48 board match; the knock-out stage - if possible - will be played simultaneously with, and will use the same hands being played at that time in the Bermuda Bowl/Venice Cup. The winner of the Swiss will have a free choice of opponents for the semi-final match from amongst the other three qualifying teams.

There will probably be alternating starting times, one day 11:00 am the next 2:00 pm and so on, with four matches per day. This will give all players some mornings and some evenings free for other activities.

Systems
This Championship will be designated as a WBF Category 3 event, which means that no brown sticker conventions and complicated systems will be permitted. Additional Systems information will be published as soon as it is available.

Who can enter?
Teams will consist of 4, 5 or 6 players from the same or different NCBOs.

Participants in the Bermuda Bowl or Venice Cup who are eliminated in the quarter-finals or earlier will be eligible to enter the World Transnational Open Teams event.

Other teams, whether national or Transnational, who wish to participate in this exciting new event will be able to do so (subject to approval by the WBF Credentials Committee), by contacting their NCBO and requesting nomination.

There will be separate classifications for mixed teams and women's teams and, if there are at least 20 teams made up of Seniors players, a separate event for Seniors will also be organised. Otherwise there will be a separate classification for the Seniors within the field.

How to enter
Each player must be approved by their NCBO of origin and entries must be submitted to the WBF Credentials Committee. Contact your NCBO for further details (each NCBO will receive entry forms prior to the event). For details as to how to contact your NCBO of origin, click here.

Past Winners

Members of the first winning team were Leandro Burgay, Dano de Falco, Marcin Lesniewski, Krzysztof Martens & Franco Mariani.