This communique provides an update from the ABF Board on key developments over the past six months.

If you have any questions, please contact David Fryda, Executive Director at david.fryda@abf.com.au

Youth Week and Summer Festival of Bridge

These two events that are held in Canberra in January every year were a great success in 2025. Player numbers were up in both events, however, the Women’s Teams entries continue to drop, reflecting a global trend.

WBF President Jan Kamras

The World Bridge Federation (WBF) President, Jan Kamras, succumbed to his illness in March leaving behind a wonderful legacy of support to the bridge world in his relatively short tenure. His contributions were significant and, as evidenced by the condolences posted on the WBF’s website from around the world, he was greatly admired.

Australia’s Ben Thompson who has been the WBF’s First Vice President throughout Jan’s tenure as President is currently the interim President and he has nominated to replace Jan for the remainder of the current term. The Board, on behalf of Australian bridge players, wishes Ben well for the election later this month.

World Tour Success

A part of Jan Kamras’ legacy was the establishment of the World Bridge Tour. The Board would like to congratulate Andy Hung and Sartaj Hans on winning the final of the inaugural World Tour and are hence the first pair to be awarded the Jan Kamras Trophy.

Congratulations also to Nabil Edgtton who partnered with Michael Whibley from New Zealand to come second in the event played by a total of 16 pairs who had qualified by amassing points from various qualifying events held around the world during 2024.

2025 Australian Representative Teams

Australia’s representative teams for 2025 have all now been decided. The Board wishes all teams the best of luck in the upcoming APBF Championships in Hefei, China (May), 19th World Youth Teams Championships in Salsomaggiorie, Italy (July) and the World Championships in Herning, Denmark (August). Our teams will represent us in the Open, Mixed, Women’s and Seniors categories in China and Denmark as well as in Under-26 and Under-21 categories in Italy.

More details on who is in each team can be found on the ABF website.

This year’s Under-21 team is a self-funded team and they would appreciate whatever support Australia’s bridge players are able to give them. The ABF is covering the cost of the team’s uniforms and entry fees. A GoFundMe fundraising initiative has been set up for this purpose and the Board endorses the team’s request for support.

Gold Coast Congress

After the QBA announced last year that, despite exhaustive efforts, they were unable to secure dates in February 2026 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre (GCCEC), the ABF explored the possibility of holding Australia’s most popular congress in January instead. As was announced on April 29, the availability and cost of accommodation at that time of year resulted in the decision not to proceed. The GCCEC declined to offer any other dates in 2026. As a result there will be no Gold Coast Congress in 2026.

The QBA and ABF are working together to explore alternative options for a Gold Point event at that time of the year.

Grand National Open Teams (GNOT)

Club and regional heats for the 2025 are already under way throughout the country. The Board reviewed the feedback from players, clubs and states/territories after last year’s event and elected to continue with the format that was introduced in 2024. A maximum of 64 teams will participate in the first stage of the final online (Realbridge) between Friday 19 and Sunday 21 September. The top four teams along with the next eight highest placed non-metropolitan teams will qualify for the second stage of the finals, face-to-face in Sydney on the weekend of 22-23 November.

Teams that qualify for the second stage of the finals will receive a partial subsidy proportional to the cost to travel to Sydney from their home club. The subsidy will not cover the full cost of travel.

Players and teams who do not wish to play in the online final may still participate in the club and regional heats and earn gold points. Should they qualify for the online final then they do not have to take up their spot which will pass to the next placed team.

Similarly, if a team that qualifies for the second stage of the finals does not want to travel to Sydney they do not have to and again the spot will pass to the next placed team.

Club Teams Knockout

The 2025 Club Teams Knockout event which runs online and attracts teams in a range of masterpoint divisions. The exact makeup of the divisions will be determined based on entries. In 2024 the divisions were Under-50, Under-100, Under-300, Under-750 and Open. Players will represent their club and gold points are awarded. The Board encourages players to form teams and enjoy the experience of playing against similarly skilled players from across the country.

Watch the ABF website and your club’s noticeboards for more information.

2028 ANC

The right to host the Australian National Championships rotates around the states and territories each year. The Northern Territory has not always been in a position to take up their opportunity to host this event. The Board reached out to the NTBA last year to see if they would like to take up their hosting rights for 2028 (Queensland in 2025, ACT in 2026 and Tasmania in 2027). Given the popularity of Darwin as a tourist destination during the winter months, the NTBA advised that they would like to host the event but to hold it in Alice Springs. After a lengthy process of evaluating their proposal across multiple criteria, including player security, the Board has voted in favour of the NTBA’s proposal. The event will be organised by Chris Depasquale, a regular player at ANC events.

ABF Finances

The ABF’s finances are continuing to improve thanks to the efforts of the ABF’s Accountant and Executive Director to bring them back on track. The Board is already discussing the priorities for much needed investments in 2026 and beyond when the ABF’s revenues are forecast to once again cover more than its operational costs.

Opportunities in the areas of technology, growing player numbers, improving teaching resources, promoting director development and improving our performance internationally are all being considered.

My ABF

The Board is being regularly kept appraised of the My ABF project. Whilst there have been some delays and disruptions, our confidence in the project team led by Sean Munley and Julian Foster remains high.

Pause in Development: Work was paused while an agreement was negotiated with a new software developer. We’re pleased to confirm that this agreement is now in place and development has resumed.

Revised Timeline: The current focus is on addressing several software version upgrades that are necessary to future proof the system. We expect this work to be completed by July.

Masterpoint Centre Integration: Work on the previously communicated objective to integrate the operation of the Masterpoint Centre into My ABF is already underway. The coding of this functionality will start in July and the current objective is to deliver it in March 2026.

Steering Committee Updates: There have been some changes to the membership of the Steering Committee. The Board would like to thank Jacqui Dudurovic, Peter Reynolds and Bernie Plath for their contributions and we welcome the support of David Sydes and Phil Young who have recently joined. The support of these suitably skilled bridge players is essential to the ongoing success of My ABF.

Our Commitment: The ABF remains committed to delivering a robust platform that supports players, officials, and the broader bridge community. We greatly appreciate your continued patience and engagement as this important work progresses.

International Performance Task Force

The Board is keen to understand how we can support our international teams to improve their performance on the world stage. Despite us having many talented, top class players, as evidenced by the recent performance of Andy, Sartaj and Nabil in the World Tour, we have not enjoyed great results at world or Asia-Pacific teams championships for many years.

A task force, chaired by Axel Johannsson (SA), was appointed by the Board in February to review the situation and to provide us with recommendations on how we might be able to turn our fortunes around. The task force is working with the Tournament Committee and interviewing a broad range of players from both within Australia and from successful countries around the world. They will provide a report to the Board in September and we will look to implement their recommendations in 2026 with our eyes on improved results at the World Championships in 2027.

2026 International Team Playoffs

The major championship events held under the auspices of the WBF occur on a four-year cycle.

The events to be held in Poland in 2026 are what are referred to as Transnational events. That means the participating teams may comprise players from different countries. This means that our Playoffs leading up to the 2026 events will qualify pairs, rather than teams, to receive subsidies to play in Poland. At the time of writing this communique the details of the finals have not yet been finalised. The Open and Mixed playoffs will run as a pairs event, most likely in Canberra in February whilst the Tournament Committee is still considering the best way to run the Seniors and Women’s playoffs.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the ABF will be held at the Queensland Contract Bridge Club clubrooms on 23 May. This year is not a ‘voting year’ and as such there are no Board positions being contested.

ABF Policies Reviews

Several of the ABF’s policies posted on our website have not been reviewed for several years. A working group of Councillors and the Executive Director has been working on updating them and following the AGM revised versions will be posted. In addition, another working group has been developing a new Communications Policy aimed at improving the flow of information from the ABF to states/territories, clubs and players. The new policy is expected to be published in June.

Posted in Latest News on May 8, 2025