Partnership-Based PQPs

Summary of Change

Effective immediately, PQPs will accrue to partnerships rather than individual players. This change applies to all PQP-earning events from the 2025 GNOT onwards and will affect the 2027 Open and Mixed Teams Playoffs.

This change is in line with international best-practice and is intended to get more long-term partnerships representing Australia internationally, contributing to improved results.

This announcement explains the changes and reasons behind them in more detail.

Background

Earlier this year, the ABF Board commissioned an International Performance Task Force (IPTF) to evaluate Australian international team performances and recommend strategies for improvement. The Task Force recently delivered its final report containing over 30 recommendations.

The IPTF identified three essential themes for fostering high-level bridge in Australia:

• a cultural change from representation as a right to representation as a privilege;
• selecting established pairs rather than individual players; and
• providing opportunities for pairs to compete in high-level international competition.

A critical finding was that Australia has fewer long-term elite-level partnerships compared with other leading bridge nations. This comparative weakness directly impacts our international results. The Task Force’s highest-priority recommendation to address this issue is to transition from an individual-based PQP system to a partnership-based system.

The ABF Board and Tournament Committee have endorsed this recommendation and are implementing it now to allow partnerships sufficient time to accumulate PQPs before the 2027 Playoffs.

The Current PQP System

Under the current system, PQPs accrue to individual players based on performances at domestic and select international tournaments. Any player with at least one PQP may enter Playoff events with any partner, regardless of whether they have previously played together.

This system values PQPs equally, regardless of whether they were earned with multiple partners or within a steady partnership, despite international evidence that stable partnerships achieve better overseas results.

Changes for the 2027 Open and Mixed Teams Playoffs

From the 2025 GNOT through the 2026 Spring Nationals, PQPs will accrue to partnerships. This change has the following implications:

• Only PQPs earned by a partnership playing together will count toward their team’s PQP total when entering a Playoff;
• PQPs earned with other partners will not be counted;
• To be eligible for the Playoffs, each partnership must have earned at least one PQP while playing together;
• The previous PQP Partnership Bonus (which doubled PQPs earned in the partnership entering the Playoff) will cease and be replaced by this new system.

An indicative analysis showing how 2025 PQPs would have accumulated under the new partnership-based system is available on the 2026 Open Playoff website. This analysis is for illustrative purposes only and does not affect the upcoming 2026 Playoffs.

Rationale for This Change

This change is considered essential in supporting the ultimate goal of improving Australia’s international team performances by:

• Rewarding partnerships that consistently perform at a high level together
• Incentivising partnerships to compete more frequently as a unit
• Reducing casual partnerships among top-level players, including in Playoffs
• Ensuring that partnerships entering Playoffs have established competitive experience together.

What Remains Unchanged

The upcoming 2026 Playoffs will not be affected by this change. PQPs for the February 2026 Open Playoff and March 2026 Mixed Playoff will operate under the existing individual-based system. 

The ABF will continue to hold Playoffs to select Australian teams for the 2027 Asia Pacific Bridge Federation Championships and World Championships. The format of the teams-based Playoffs for Open and Mixed categories will remain unchanged. Only the PQP qualification and seeding system will be modified.

The 2026 PQP Table has been published and is available here. The timing of the 2027 Playoffs will be announced when finalised.

Further details on implementing the Task Force’s broader recommendations will be shared in the coming months.

Feedback

The ABF welcomes feedback on these changes.

David Fryda, Executive Director
david.fryda@abf.com.au

Liam Milne, Tournament Committee Chair
tcchair@abf.com.au

Posted in Latest News on December 20, 2025