World Computer Bridge Championship

History of World Computer Bridge Championship

In 1996 the American Contract Bridge League established an official annual World Computer Bridge Championship to be held at a major international bridge event. The first event was held at the 1997 summer North American Bridge Championships in Albuquerque. Following championships were hosted by World Bridge Federation World Championships, ACBL North American Championships and the EBL first European Open Championship.

Before 1996 there had been some small-group championships with only 3 or 4 participants, and relatively short (12 to 16 boards) matches. From 1989-1992, there was an annual "Computer Olympiad" for thinking games, organised by David Levy, where one of the competitions was for bridge. In 1993 David Levy had other commitments and some of the programmers decided to gather and hold a competition. In the years 1994-1995 an event was organised by Bridge Baron but by 1996 this had crumbled into non-existence.

When in 1996 New York Times bridge editor, Alan Truscott, asked ACBL's Al Levy (no relative of David Levy) why the computer contest scheduled for the 1996 spring Philadelphia NABC didn't take place Al Levy decided to revive the championship and petitioned for an official ACBL computer competition.

With Al Levy as the organizer and coordinator the ACBL managed to get the majority of the leading bridge programs to compete. 

It has since then been held once a year. Since 1999 as joint activity between ACBL and WBF. Organizer since the start has been Al Levy. 

The first winner was Bridge Baron (1997) and the last Micro Bridge (2019).

World Computer Bridge Championship: Allowable bids and Conventions and Explainable bids. 

Deals from the 2019 final in HTML format: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Information and articles about all Championships.

Detailed info about all Championships 1997-2019 

The 2023 WCBC has been cancelled.