Bermuda Bowl


The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national. It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation, alongside the Venice Cup, the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the Wuhan Cup. Entries formally represent WBF [|zones] as well as nations, so it is also known as the World Zonal Open Team Championship. It is the oldest event that confers the title of world champion in bridge, and was first contested in 1950. The Bermuda Bowl trophy is awarded to the winning team, and is named for the site of the inaugural tournament, the Atlantic archipelago of Bermuda.
The term Bermuda Bowl is sometimes used for the entire two-week event, comprising the four zonal teams and one or more concurrent lesser tournaments.
Marrakesh, Morocco hosted the latest contest in August–September 2023, where Switzerland won the title.

Structure

See a description of the identical "Senior Bowl" structure or a detailed account of the 2011 event.

Inauguration and evolution

Organized principally by Norman Bach, an accountant and bridge player from Bermuda who played for Britain, the Bermuda Bowl was the first world championship event held after World War II, and started as a competition between the US, Europe and Britain in 1950.
The first event was won by the US. After this, the Bermuda Bowl became a yearly challenge match between the US and the European champions. The format evolved progressively, with more teams and the addition of events for women and seniors. Key milestones were:

Predecessors

won the 1937 International Bridge League championships for both open and women's national teams. They are commonly considered the first world championships for national teams, and the first world championship tournaments of any kind, because teams from the United States entered both flights, two open teams and one women's.
The IBL was a predecessor of both the European Bridge League and the WBF, although there was a competing international organization in the 1930s. The IBL organized annual championships for national teams beginning in 1932 and for women beginning in 1935. Prior to 1937, Austria won three of five in the open category and both in the women category. All of the sites were in Europe and the European Bridge League considers the 1930s series to be the first eight European Teams Championships.
In the 1937 open tournament there were 19 teams from 18 countries: the USA had two teams, one led by Ely Culbertson which came second.
In the knockout stage, Culbertson beat Norway and Hungary before losing to Austria. USA Minneapolis lost to Austria in the semifinal.
World War II practically destroyed the IBL and its nascent world championship tournament series.
With Austria the leading nation at the card table, the 1938 Anschluss of Germany and Austria was a great disruption. The leading bridge theorist and mentor Paul Stern was an outspoken opponent of Nazism; he fled to London and later became a British subject. That same year, at least Rixi Scharfstein from the Ladies emigrated to Britain; from the Open team at least Karl von Bluhdorn to Paris, Edward Frischauer and Walter Herbert to the United States, eventually California.
The International Bridge League organized two more European championships but no more tournaments or official matches involving any team from outside Europe.

1950s

1950 [Hamilton, Bermuda]

The first rendition, held at the Castle Harbor Hotel 13 to 16 November, featured three teams who played round-robin for raw scores or "total points". The USA team won both of its matches, by 4,720 points over Europe and 3,660 points over Great Britain; Europe defeated Great Britain by 1,940 points.
YearEntriesRank
195031

1951 [Naples], Italy

Held 11 to 17 November, the match was between representatives of the American Contract Bridge League and the European Bridge League consisting of 320 boards using the 15-point International Match Point scaling table for the first time. The USA team won by 116 IMPs.
YearEntriesRank
195121

1953 New York City, USA

The United States team won its third consecutive championship by 8,260 points. Crawford, Rapée, Schenken, and Stayman were also members of the previous two winning teams. The 256 boards were played against Sweden at the Sherry-Netherlands Hotel in New York, 5 to 10 January 1953.
YearEntriesRank
195321

1954 [Monte Carlo], Monaco

France won the 1953 European championship with a six-man national team and the right to represent Europe in the Bermuda Bowl to be held 9–14 January 1954. Jean Besse of Switzerland and Karl Schneider of Austria replaced one of the French pairs; the team is also referred to as France. Schneider had been a member of the 1937 world champion Austrian team. The USA team had won the right to represent that country by winning the ACBL summer nationals held in St. Louis in August 1953; the five members of that team invited Lew Mathe to round out the team to six first-timers for the Bermuda Bowl event.
The USA defeated Europe by 49 IMPs representing 4,400 points.
YearEntriesRank
195421

1955 New York City, USA

The 1955 event was held 9–14 January at the Hotel Beekman, New York. The British team had defeated 13 others to win the European title in 1954 in Montreux, Switzerland. The American team had won the 1954 ACBL summer nationals in Washington, D.C.; that team of five was augmented by Alvin Roth.
Great Britain won by a margin of 5,420 points.
YearEntriesRank
195521

1956 Paris, France

France made it two in a row for Europe. Bacherich and Ghestem were veterans from 1954.
YearEntriesRank
195621

1957 New York City, USA

Italy's Blue Team won its first of ten consecutive Bermuda Bowls. Chiaradia, Forquet, Siniscalco, and captain Carl'Alberto Perroux were veterans from the 1951 team. Avarelli, Belladona, D'Alelio, and Forquet played in every one.
YearEntriesRank
195721

1958 [Como], Italy

For 1958 the Bermuda Bowl tournament permanently included the champion of South America, whose federation and annual tournament were then ten years old. In the next several years, expansion covered other geographic zones and the defending champion.
YearEntriesRank
195831

1959 New York City, USA

YearEntriesRank
195931

1960s

There was no Bermuda Bowl in 1960, 1964 or 1968 to avoid conflict with the World Team Olympiad.

1961 [Buenos Aires], Argentina

The Blue Team won its fourth Bermuda Bowl, with Benito Garozzo now in the same lineup. This began a new string of annual world championships for Italy, after ranking only sixth in the inaugural World Team Olympiad, won by France.
At the same time, the Bermuda Bowl tournament expanded to include the defending champions. Throughout the 1960s that would mean Italy plus one from the rest of Europe. Italy would use the European Team Championships to give some international experience to new players or new partnerships.
YearEntriesRank
196141.

1962 New York City, USA

YearEntriesRank
196241.

1963 [Saint-Vincent, Italy]

Italy won again. This was the last for "Professor" Eugenio Chiaradia and the only one of the ten in a row that Walter Avarelli missed.
YearEntriesRank
196341.

1965 [Buenos Aires], Argentina

Playing at home, Argentina represented South America for the sixth time and finally defeated one of the Europeans or Americans, namely Great Britain.
This was the fifth consecutive world championship for the Blue Team, as it had won the second Olympiad in 1964. Italy would continue to win annually with the identical lineup through 1969, plus a successful comeback in 1972.
YearEntriesRank
196541.

1966 [Saint-Vincent, Italy]

The tournament expanded to five with Asia, represented by Thailand. Venezuela took Argentina's usual place and won another third for South America. Canadians Sami Kehela and Eric Murray joined four US Americans for North America.
YearEntriesRank
196651.

1967 Miami Beach">Miami Beach, Florida">Miami Beach, USA

Thailand and Venezuela returned to the field. More than forty years later, 1966/1967 remain their best national performances.
YearEntriesRank
196751.

1969 [Rio de Janeiro], Brazil

Taiwan appeared on the world bridge scene with a shocking second-place performance, represented by six players using the Precision Club bidding system recently invented by C. C. Wei.
The Blue Team of Italy retired after winning its tenth consecutive Bermuda Bowl and ninth consecutive annual world championship in open teams.
The United States team included two members of the professional Dallas Aces, Eisenberg–Goldman and two young players who would be Aces, Hamman and Kantar.
YearEntriesRank
196951.