The World Bridge Federation has announced some changes of format for the 2016 World Bridge Games. These Games are held every four years. The next Games will be in Wroclaw, Poland in September 2016.

The first change is that the number of team categories will increase from three (Open, Women’s and Seniors), with the addition of a fourth (Mixed Teams) category. Unlike usual Australian practice, every partnership in a mixed team must be mixed. Every WBF member country is able to send one representative team per category.

The second change is that there will no longer be a Transnational Teams event after the qualifying rounds of the four series of Teams. Instead there will be National Pairs Events in each of the above four categories. Unlimited numbers of pairs from each country can enter each pairs category.

The ABF does not have an established selection procedure for mixed teams. For 2016, we will invite mixed pairs to express interest in forming an Australian representative team. The closing date will be 31 March 2016. Players qualified for the 2016 Open, Women’s or Senior teams will be ineligible.

The pairs expressing interest will be ranked based on a formula to be determined, but expected to be wholly or largely based on 2015 PQPs. The highest-ranked three pairs will be invited to form a team. The ABF will offer a subsidy of AU$1,000 per player plus payment of entry fees.

14 October 2015