Download the WBF Eligibility Code

Download the WBF Bona Fide Residence Criteria

At the Meeting of the WBF Executive Council held on 27th September 2018 in Orlando, Florida, USA, it was unanimously agreed that the gender of a participant in the WBF Championships should be taken as that shown in the ID/Passport. This is a binding requirement of eligibility to participate in the WBF Championships and Events.

Youth Players

The regulation regarding the age of players in Youth events was definitively adopted in San Paolo 2009 and confirmed in Philadelphia 2010 by the Executive Council, and has been in force since January 1st 2011.

On 25th September 2018 in Orlando the Executive Council decided to change the names of the Youth Categories to simply reflect their ages: from Juniors, Girls, Youngster & Kids to Under 26 Open (U26), Under 26 Women (U26W), Under 21 (U21) and Under 16 (U16). At the meetings held in Wuhan in 2019, a further category of Under 31 Open (U31) was added.

Unless otherwise stated in the Supplemental Conditions of Contest for the event:

• Players in U16 events must be 15 or younger on December 31 of the year of the competition.
• Players in the U21 events must be 20 or younger on December 31 of the year of the competition.
• Players in the U26 events must be 25 or younger on December 31 of the year of the competition.
• Players in the U31 events must be 30 or younger on December 31 of the year of the competition.

Senior Players

19 August 2017 : The WBF Executive Council decided to raise the age requirement for Senior players to 65 over the next 8 years in accordance with the following schedule:

• From 1st January 2024 a Senior player must have achieved the age of 64 in the year of the Championship in which he is going to play
• From 1st January 2026 a Senior player must have achieved the age of 65 in the year of the Championship in which he is going to play

Update 28 May 2020. At a meeting of the WBF Management Committee held on this date, it was unanimously decided to abolish the eligibility requirement stated below.

Only NBOs participating in the World Bridge Games are eligible to qualify to participate in the Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup Championships held in either of the two subsequent odd-numbered years.

In each case, an Open Team or at least one Open Pair must participate in the Games in order to be eligible for the Bermuda Bowl and a Women’s Team or at least one Women’s Pair must participate to be eligible for the Venice Cup. There are no such criteria for the d’Orsi Seniors Bowl or the Mixed Teams Championship.

All participants in the WBF Zonal Championships are required to be registered in the WBF Database and have provided a valid, signed WBF Commitment form and a recent photograph for display on the website. You can check whether you are registered by clicking here to go to our People Finder section and following the instructions. You need only enter your family name, it is not necessary to enter your country as well. Please note that if you have, for any reason, changed your family name you should check both your previous and current names to avoid any possible duplication of your record. If you are registered but for a different country from the one you wish to represent, please check the WBF Eligibility Regulations and contact both your NBO and Anna Gudge immediately as you should not play for a country if you are not eligible to do so.

If you are not registered, then please:

• Go to this page where you should read the instructions carefully, download and complete the registration form and follow the link on the page to download the Commitment form which must be sent at the same time, and send them with your photograph to anna.gudge@worldbridgefed.com.
• If you are already correctly registered for the country you will be representing, then please email Anna Gudge and request a digital Commitment form that you will then be able to complete, read and sign.
• Send in a photograph of yourself. This should be head and shoulders, in good resolution and in focus. A selfie is fine and as it is for display as well as for badges in future Championships it is nice if you are smiling!

Both completed forms and the photograph should be emailed to anna.gudge@worldbridgefed.com

Players who are already registered and wish to update the photograph that is displayed with their record on the WBF Site should send in a new photograph to be used and it will be displayed the next time the site is updated.