Overview

New Zealand BRIDGE CONGRESS 

Saturday September 23rd to Saturday September 30th 2023

 The 37th New Zealand National Bridge Congress is the premier bridge event in our annual calendar. In 2022, we saw just over 600 players attend for some or all of the 8-day period. We are confident that there will be a greater number in 2023.  We will be providing full information on prices and events in due course. 

There will be some changes this year. We will be returning to the original 3 stage competition for New Zealand Open Pairs while the Restricted Open Pairs will be a 3 session qualifying and a 3 session Final/Plate event. Day 3 for those who do not make the Final or Plate of the New Zealand Open Pairs will be a 1-day MatchPoint Swiss Pairs event. There be a 1-day Intermediate and a 1-day Junior Pairs event on Sunday 24th September. 

The NZ Open Teams Swiss Qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday will be 8x 14 board matches, as will the Restricted Open, Intermediate and Junior Teams which run alongside it. In NZ Open Teams, top16 will still qualify for the knock-out stages and there will be the normal 36 board Round of 16 on Thursday morning. However, the Quarter and semi-finals are being replaced by a Round of 4, involving 3 matches on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. The winners of each group will contest a 60 board final on Friday afternoon and Saturday. 

For those who do not qualify for the Round of 16, and those in the other Teams competitions, Thursday morning will be free though there will be walk-ins available. There will be a series of Match-Point Pairs events on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning (2 session) and a series of Swiss Pairs events on Friday afternoon and Saturday, 2 1/2 sessions, finishing with a finger-food reception and prize-giving as per 2022. 

There will be other changes to session times/lunch breaks which we will tell you about closer to the time. 

The Organising Committee hopes these changes will produce an improved Congress for all. 

NO MORE PACKAGES :

These are the prices for the events which will be played. Please enter the relevant Swiss Pairs and if your team makes the last 8 of the New Zealand Teams, we will automatically withdraw you from the Swiss Pairs. Please note you cannot play Open Restricted Swiss Pairs and Intermediate Swiss Pairs as they clash on the Wednesday morning. 

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CLICK HERE TO ENTER AN EVENT

Please note there are special events for Intermediate and Junior players.

You are welcome to play in any Congress event but the following are just for Intermediates and Juniors:

FULL-TIME STUDENT YOUTH PLAYERS

Youth players will get a 50% discount on any Congress event. You must have your Year of birth registered with NZB for this to automatically calculate.  Your club should have provided NZB with this so your levy is calculated accurately, so you should not have to do a thing, but if you go to pay and the discount is not offered, contact NZB immediately.

Restricted OPEN EVENTS

Players may compete in Restricted Open events if their ranking as at 1st February 2023 is National Master or lower rank. Please note the date. Rankings for 2023 do not appear until this date. 

Senior and YOUTH CRITERIA FOR 2023 NATIONAL BRIDGE CONGRESS

To qualify for Senior events at the Congress, a player must be at least 63 at some point in 2023. This is unchanged from 2022.

To qualify for Youth prizes and Youth discount, a player must be born after 31st December 1997. 

COMMERCIAL POLICY

All prices are per person in New Zealand Dollars and include GST. Our refund policy is 100%  before the start of Congress, with the Organisers having flexibility on refunds against written requests after that date.