The United States Bridge Federation (USBF) is the

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

al federation for

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

in the United States and a non-profit organization formed by the

American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It is the largest such organization in North America having the stated mission ''"to promote, grow and sustain th ...

(ACBL) and the

American Bridge Association The American Bridge Association (ABA) is a tournament bridge organization in the United States of America. Origins The ABA was formed in 1932 by black tennis players at Buckroe Beach, Virginia; at the time, blacks were excluded from most bridge ...

(ABA) in 2001 to hold the United States Bridge Championships and to select, train, and support Open, Women, Senior and Junior teams to represent the United States in international competition. The USBF receives support for its teams from the ACBL International Fund and Junior Fund, its membership dues, contributions and entry fees for the USBCs.

Organization

2018 officers. * President: Marty Fleisher * Vice President: Josh Parker * CFO: Stan Subeck * Secretary & COO: Jan Martel The President and the Vice President are elected for 2-year terms.

Olympic recognition

Originally, the USBF was also created to support the

World Bridge Federation The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the international governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competitions, most of which are conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle. The most prestigiou ...

(WBF) efforts to obtain Olympic recognition for bridge. Following August 2002 recommendations by the Olympic Programme Commission, bridge and chess were recognized as "mind sports" by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

but they were not found eligible for the main Olympic program. On April 19, 2005, three years after that negative Commission report and three years before the

2008 Summer Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

in Beijing whose program was its focus, four mind sports including bridge and chess established the

International Mind Sports Association The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) is an association of the world governing bodies for contract bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go, xiangqi (Chinese chess), and mahjong. Its members are the World Bridge Federation (WBF), Worl ...

with primary purpose to organize quadrennial World Mind Sports Games approximately alongside the Olympics."History"
IMSA – International Mind Sports Association (imsaworld.com). Retrieved 2014-11-05. The inaugural,

2008 World Mind Sports Games The first World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) were held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008, about two months after the Olympic Games.

were held in Beijing during October, two months after the Summer Olympics and using the same facilities. The second, 2012 WMSG were held in

Lille, France Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

, entirely unassociated with the London Summer Olympics—smaller than in 2008, with a much smaller bridge program including no individuals, pairs, or youth events.

References

External links

*
American Bridge Association
(official)
American Contract Bridge League
(official) {{WPCBIndex Contract bridge governing bodies Contract bridge in the United States

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

Organization

Olympic recognition

See also

References

External links