2024 WBF World Tour Final

Where it all began

Sourced by Jude Goodwin. Photo WBF.

The World Bridge Federation (WBF) World Tour is a global bridge circuit conceived by WBF President Jan Kamras. The tour was created to unify major bridge events worldwide, allowing top players to earn ranking points across different tournaments. Kamras first introduced the idea in 2018, aiming to establish an annual series that highlights elite competition in bridge.

The concept of a global bridge tour began to take shape in 2019 when the idea was first publicly discussed. Initially, the goal was to integrate major bridge tournaments into a ranking system similar to professional sports tours. By 2023, a pilot version of the WBF World Tour had been tested, incorporating several high-profile international bridge tournaments. The 2024 season marks the first full implementation of the WBF World Tour, featuring a system of “Tour Ranking Points” awarded at major tournaments worldwide. Throughout the year, pairs accumulate points in high-level events across all continents, including world championships and leading zonal championships in Europe, Asia, and North America. The highest-ranked pairs have earned invitations to the first-ever WBF World Tour Final, a season-ending competition to determine the tour champion.

Key Milestones in the Tour’s History

2018 – Concept Initiation: Jan Kamras proposes the WBF World Tour as a way to connect existing high-profile bridge events and introduce a global ranking system.
2019 – Early Discussions: The World Tour concept is publicly discussed, with plans to model it after professional sports tours.
2023 – Pilot Season: A trial version of the World Tour takes place, integrating select international tournaments to test the ranking system.
2024 – Launch of Tour Rankings: The first official season of the WBF World Tour takes place, with ranking points awarded at select international tournaments.
Late 2024 – Qualification for the Finals: The top-performing pairs secure invitations to the inaugural World Tour Final based on their results throughout the season.
March 12–13, 2025 – First WBF World Tour Final: The inaugural World Tour Final will be held in Memphis, Tennessee, coinciding with the Spring 2025 North American Bridge Championships (NABC). The event will determine the first-ever WBF World Tour champion, with the winners receiving the newly established Jan Kamras Trophy.

The 2024 WBF World Tour Final at the Memphis NABC

Date and Venue

The first-ever WBF World Tour Final is set to take place on March 12–13, 2025, at the Renasant Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee. This event coincides with the American Contract Bridge League’s Spring 2025 NABC, providing a high-profile venue for this prestigious final.

Format and Scoring Method

The World Tour Final will feature a round-robin pairs tournament, where all 16 qualified pairs will play against each other. Each pair will face every other pair in a 6-board segment, totaling 15 rounds across two days. The event will use Cross-IMP scoring, a method that compares each pair’s results to a datum or all other results, converting score differences into International Match Points (IMPs). The pair with the highest total IMP score at the end of the tournament will be crowned the 2024 World Tour champion.

Participating Pairs

A total of 16 pairs have qualified for the 2024 World Tour Final, representing some of the world’s top bridge players. These pairs earned their spots through exceptional performances in World Tour events throughout 2024:

Antonio Sementa & Alfredo Versace – Italy
Kevin Bathurst & John Hurd – USA
Sabine Auken & Roy Welland – Germany/USA
Nikos Delimpaltadakis & Vassilis Vroustis – Greece
Joe Grue & Brad Moss – USA
Jérôme Rombaut & Léo Rombaut – France
Sartaj Hans & Andy Hung – Australia
Mikael Rimstedt & Ola Rimstedt – Sweden
Nabil Edgtton & Michael Whibley – Australia/New Zealand
Giovanni Donati & Giacomo Percario – Italy
Espen Erichsen & Richard Plackett – England/Wales (UK)
Martin Fleisher & Chip Martel – USA
Krzysztof Buras & Jacek Pszczola – Poland (Pszczola now USA)
Przemysław Janiszewski & Wojciech Strzemecki – Poland
Leonardo Cima & Giorgio Duboin – Italy
Rajath Shourie & Gavin Wolpert – USA/Canada

Schedule of Play and Broadcast Details

The World Tour Final will be played over two days, with a total of 15 rounds (each round consisting of 6 boards). Play will be split into multiple sessions with breaks in between. All rounds will be broadcast live via the RealBridge online platform on a 30-minute delay.

To watch on RealBridge, just go to the RealBridge Kibitz site and log in (only one person can be logged in with any name, so please include your surname). For more information about what you can see and how, RealBridge has an article about spectating.

Day 1 – March 12, 2025:

11:00 AM – 1:40 PM: Rounds 1–3
3:00 PM – 6:40 PM: Rounds 4–7

Day 2 – March 13, 2025:

10:00 AM – 1:35 PM: Rounds 8–11
3:00 PM – 6:40 PM: Rounds 12–15

The schedule ensures that players have adequate rest between sessions while maintaining a competitive pace. The RealBridge coverage will allow viewers around the world to watch the matches in near-real-time with expert commentary.

The Jan Kamras Trophy and Its Significance

The Jan Kamras Trophy, awarded to the winners of the WBF World Tour Final, is named in honor of Jan Kamras, the WBF President who initiated and developed the tour. Kamras has personally donated the trophy, which will be presented at the conclusion of play on March 13, 2025.

Organizers hope this trophy marks the beginning of a new era in global bridge competition, linking major international tournaments into a unified series. Winning the Jan Kamras Trophy will be a prestigious achievement, recognizing the best-performing pair across an entire year of top-level competition.

Final thoughts

The WBF World Tour has quickly evolved from concept to reality, creating a structured, year-long circuit of elite tournaments. The 2024 season culminates in the first-ever WBF World Tour Final in Memphis, where the top 16 pairs will compete for the title. The introduction of the Jan Kamras Trophy symbolizes this new chapter in competitive bridge, celebrating the highest levels of skill and performance. This inaugural event sets the stage for future editions, establishing the WBF World Tour Final as a premier competition in international bridge.

Here at Great Bridge Links we wish all the pairs good cards and good luck in the 2024 World Bridge Tour Final. However, as we progress painfully through an anti-diversity agenda on the part of our political leaders today, we strongly maintain that encouraging diversity in events such as this are the key to bridge’s survival.

There are requirements for an event to be part of the World Bridge tour and we believe that they need to include a requirement for female participation. An event to be included in WBT rankings needs to have at least 40% female registration, for example. This would be very easy to manage. Event organizers, knowing about the requirement, could go out of their way to encourage women to participate. Offer onsite child care, offer transportation, offer discounted hotel rates for women in this event, talk it up at your club and unit levels. Easy! And before you know it, there will be way more women in that top 16.

Remove barriers to women participating in competitive bridge and you’ll have a much more diverse, and sustainable, field. It will be more interesting too!