World Junior Teams Championship
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.
[b] In 2010 Israel defeated France in the Juniors final while China won the bronze medal.
[1] 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.
[2][d] 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.
[3] The Youth Congress in odd-number years is transnational: pairs and teams comprising players from different bridge nations are eligible to enter.
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 (now biennial in even years) and even-year pairs events are distinct from the older series of pairs championships (now biennial in odd years).
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.
They end with a knockout stage and a playoff between losing semifinalists; that is, two concluding matches determine first and third places.
The 2013 rendition in Atlanta, United States, is termed the "3rd World Youth Open Bridge Championships" as of August 2014.
At least two-thirds of the team names, and more among the strong performers, suggest a single nationality.
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.
15 youngsters teams The World Youth Congress (to conclude 29 August 2011) 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(*).
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.
