World Junior Teams Championship
The World Junior Teams Championship is a bridge competition for zonal teams of players up to about 25 years old.
Zonal signifies both organization by the World Bridge Federation and qualification in eight WBF zones; for example, six teams qualify from 'Europe' defined by European Bridge League membership. Zones may require national representation; for example, the six European teams must represent six member nations of the EBL.
The oldest event, sometimes called the Junior Teams without qualification, dates from 1987 with some changes in definition. Today that is the "open" u-26 tournament in contrast to the u-26 for women, the open u-21 and the open u-16. It has been held every two years, odd-number years to 2005 and even years from 2006. Competitors vie for the Ortiz-Patiño Trophy, formerly presented by WBF President Emeritus Jaime Ortiz-Patiño who conceived the idea while serving as WBF President in 1985. The even-year tournaments officially constitute the World Youth Teams Championships for so-called juniors, girls, and youngsters. The entries are national teams, representing countries affiliated with the WBF via membership in the eight geographical "zonal organizations". Moreover, they must qualify within their zones, usually by high standing in a zonal championship tournament that is limited to one team per member nation.
The 2008 junior teams championships were part of the inaugural World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, China. Denmark won its second gold medal, beating Poland in the final, while Norway won the bronze. The 1st Games also included under-28 and under-21 team championships won by Norway and France. Under-21 and u-26 are part of the WBF youth program but u-28 is not.
In 2010 Israel defeated France in the Juniors final while China won the bronze medal. The event was part of the newly christened World Bridge Series that also included World Young Ladies Teams and under-21 World Youngsters Teams, both won by Poland.
In 2011, at the 2nd World Youth Congress, "Ned Juniors" comprising four players from the Netherlands won the main teams event, a six-day tournament with 27 entries. Ned Juniors won the full-day 56-deal final by 131 to 60 IMPs against "Arg Uru" from Argentina and Uruguay. Meanwhile, "Ned Rum", with one Dutch pair and one transnational pair from Romania and the United States, won third place against "France".
Arg Uru led the preliminary round-robin from which eight teams advanced to full-day knockout matches, and its second-place finish matched that by Argentina in 1989, the best finish for any youth players from outside Europe and North America.
The Youth Congress in odd-number years is transnational: pairs and teams comprising players from different bridge nations are eligible to enter. Transnational teams finished second and third in the main event, but 23 of 27 entries have team names which imply nationality. Medal ceremonies raise the national flag and play the national anthem is the gold medal winner is national in composition.
Scope
The Junior Teams event officially became part of the plural "World Youth Teams Championships" when a tournament for under-21 players was initiated. Beginning 2009, teams events were added to the WBF youth program for odd-number years, contested immediately prior to the older events for pairs in the newly christened "World Youth Congress".Odd-year teams events are distinct from the older series of teams championships and even-year pairs events are distinct from the older series of pairs championships. Some conditions differ.
This article covers all "world championships" for youth teams while World Junior Pairs Championship covers all "world championships" for youth pairs or individuals.
Location
The Youth Teams series has moved around the world, with only one of the last 10 renditions in Europe. Meanwhile, all eight renditions now counted in the Youth Pairs series have been in Europe.The distinct Youth Congress has been held 2009 in Turkey and 2011 in Croatia.
Results
The World Youth Teams Championships now comprise three concurrent events or flights: the original Juniors, the Youngsters from 2004, and the Girls from 2010. The latter are sometimes called "Schools" and "Young Ladies", as they were christened in Europe before adoption at the world level.The Juniors format has evolved. Currently all three flights determine three medalists. They end with a knockout stage and a playoff between losing semifinalists; that is, two concluding matches determine first and third places.
Juniors
The Netherlands won the inaugural world championship for junior teams in 1987 and won the Bermuda Bowl in 1993 with three of the recent junior players: De Boer, Leufkens, and Westra. No other junior teams champions have so quickly won the Bermuda Bowl.Youngsters
Girls
Kids
, host of the 2014 championships, sponsored an invitational tournament for "National Kids Teams" of players born 1999 and later. Seven invitations were accepted: five from Europe including host Turkey, India from Asia & the Middle East, and China from Asia Pacific.The Kids played round-robin in three days with a four-team knockout, semifinals and finals, completed during the 5- and 6-day round-robin stages of the official events. France and Poland virtually tied the round robin and won the semifinals before Poland won the trophy over 42 deals. China beat Sweden in the third-place match. Meanwhile, India won a two-day, three-team contest for fifth place.
Poland, France, India, China and the host were represented in all four tournaments.
Youth Congress
The World Youth Congress is a distinct meet in odd years with transnational entries permitted in all teams and pairs events. It was inaugurated 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey; reiterated 2011 in Opatija, Croatia. The 2013 rendition in Atlanta, United States, is termed the "3rd World Youth Open Bridge Championships" as of August 2014.40 teams entered the main event at the 1st World Youth Congress in 2009. At least two-thirds of the team names, and more among the strong performers, suggest a single nationality. "Japan Czech" won the final against "Italy Red" while "USA 1" won third place against "Netherlands Red". Evidently 8 teams advanced from preliminary play to knockout matches and there were no playoffs to distinguish any of the quarterfinal losers, 5th to 8th places.
27 teams entered at the 2nd Congress in 2011, all but four having team names that suggest a single nationality.
The World Youth Congress will include "world championships" for teams, pairs, and individuals, each with Juniors and Youngsters flights if the number of u-21 entries is sufficient. There will also be secondary contests with alternative forms of scoring, board-a-match teams and IMP pairs.
Some of these events may officially continue "world championships" for junior players contested before 2009: miscellaneous ones, not those now held in even-number years: biennial World Youth Teams Championships and quadrennial World Bridge Games.
The 2011 events for teams and pairs will be transnational in that entries may comprise players from different countries and open in that there is no preliminary qualification at zonal level.
Here is a list of pertinent past championships.
Teams
Pairs
Individuals
University students
"under the auspices of the FISU".. WBF.Teams comprise university student players from one nation, not one university.
Europe 1993 to 2001
;2000 0826-0902 Maastricht, Netherlands
Bridge Olympiades
1st World University Teams Bridge Cup : "Players must be students of a recognized University, between 17 and 28 years of age. Each country may enter one representative team."
;2002 08 04/13 Bruges, Belgium
EBL from 199x, worldwide 2000, FISU 2002
;2004 1031/1106 Istanbul, Turkey
alongside 12th Olympiad
;2006 10-21/26 Tianjin, China
;2008 09 03/08 Łódź, Poland
first European 1993 Antwerp, initiator Paul Magerman, son Geert M is now technical delegate FISU
;2010 08-02/09 Kaohsiung, Taiwan
;2012 07-10/15 Reims, France
| Year | n | Champion | Runners up |
| 2000 Maastricht | 24 teams |  Austria Andreas Gloyer, Arno Lindermann, Bernd Saurer, Martin Schifko | DEN NED |
| 2002 Bruges | 13 |  Denmark Michael Askgaard, Gregers Bjanarson, Anders Hagen, Kasper Konow, | NED POL |
| - | |||
| 2004 Istanbul | 15 |  Poland Krzysztof BURAS, Jacek KALITA, Krzysztof KOTOROWICZ, Piotr MADRY, Grzegorz NARKIEWICZ, Wojciech STRZEMECKI | USA TUR |
| - | |||
| 2006 Tianjin | 27 |  China A Jing Jin, Xin Li, Jing Liu, Shu Liu, Yan Liu, Yan Wwang | POLb SWE |
| - | |||
| 2008 Łódź | 21 |  Netherlands A Marion Michielsen–Meike Wortel, Bob Drijver–Merijn Groenenboom, Danny Molenaar–Tim Verbeek | a NORa POLb |
| - | |||
| 2010 Kaohsiung | 14 | Poland Wojciech GAWEL, Jacek KALITA, Michal NOWOSADZKI, Jan SIKORA, Piotr WIANKOWSKI, Piotr ZATORSKI | ISR USA |
| - | |||
| 2012 July 10–15, Reims, France | 18 | Poland | - |