In 4 groups (6 teams each) the 9th session of the Alt competition will be played.

With team Jupiter as a new team in NewCo 9, so far 62 teams participated in this competion.

This week 22 teams will fight for the one and only Alt Trophy of the year.

First there will be a qualifying stage, played in the form of a “Swiss” that will consist of 120 boards in 10 matches of 12 boards each.

The top 8 teams from this Swiss will advance to the knockout stage.

QF and SF will be played over 1 segment of 24 boards each with possible change of the line up after 12 boards. The Final will be played over 24 boards, 2 separate segments of 12 boards each.

Again 24 teams, participating in this 8th session of the Alt competition, September 20-24.

We became positive reactions about the Elevator format, so we decided to continue and play a second, September 6-10, 24 teams at the start.

This week we play the 7th session of Alt’s competition, this time in three groups ( 6-6-8).
We welcome two new teams in this NewCo: Moran (Ireland) and Seligman.

From July 26th through July 30th, ALT will be holding a special 1-week event with an exciting new format.

All teams start in one big group and play 3 rounds of 12 boards. After day one there the field will split. The top 12 teams go to Group “A”; the others (14+ teams) go to Group “B”. The rest of the week will be used to reduce the size of group A, while allowing teams to move up and down between the groups. By Friday, Group A will be reduced to a 4-team group which will play a complete round robin for the title.

This week Alt has it’s sixth session of the competition (a series of 10), leading to a big Final at the end of the year.
All the teams, playing in this NewCo competition, so far 51 teams, are welcome in that last event of 2021.

This week NewCo 5 will be played by 28 teams ( 3 x 6 in group A/B/C, 1 x 10 in D ) among which some new teams again: Briljant Orange, PC Plus, Tilly).
In A/B/C there will be a double Round Robin, in D a single RR.

A MAST FOR EVERY BRIDGE LOVER

Alt introduces the first Midi Alt Swiss Teams event, May 10-13.
Four days in a row (Monday-Thursday) MAST will be played (3 x 12 boards per day), starting 10.00 EST / 16.00 CET.

NEWCOntinuing April 26-29

ALT presents the 4th session of the competition, 34 teams competing in four days.
There will be played in three groups (double round robin) of 6 teams and a Swiss group of 16 teams with 6 new teams in the competition: Bridge42, Buqqy, Levinson, Slowakia, Vandeputte and Macavity. 

Starting Monday, April 12, Alt organises the second BAM (Board-a-Match) during the week, ending on Friday.

The qualifying stage will be played in the form of a “Round Robin” and will consist of 104 boards played in 13 matches of 8 boards each.

Scoring: board-a-match (1:0 – 0.5:0.5 – 0:1).

The top 8 teams from the Round Robin qualifying stage will advance to the knockout stage (Thursday and Friday).

Participating teams (14): Gupta, Donner, Mikadinho, Amateurs, Seligman, Salvo, Huang, Can-Am, Cantor, Bid72, Quaranteam, Netbridge, Rippey, Pitch & Putt Busslo.

Play starts 10.00 EDT / 16.00 CET.

This week Alt will continue the competition, this time with 28 teams: three groups of 6 teams and one of 10. 
Groups A/B/C play double Round Robin (10 rounds of 16 boards), home teams have seating rights.
Group D plays single Round Robin (9 rounds of 16 boards), no seating rights (blind line-up).
As always everybody is very welcome at Alt’s open tables (direct kibitzing at all the tables). 

Last year great efforts were made to prevent cheating, so we are encouraged to continue our policy.
Bridgefans very much like to watch the experts in real time, players like to be followed by their fans and love to watch “the last boards” of their side pair after finishing their own session, being able to follow the end of the match.
That’s the way to keep bridge not only alive but also kicking.

Schedule of play, Monday-Friday
10.00 EDT / 16.00 CET (16 boards)
12.30 EDT / 18.30 CET (16 boards) 

THREE DAYS MINI ALT
This week (Monday-Wednesday) we present the first Mini ALT (22 teams playing 3 x 4 rounds of 12 boards), Swiss, last round Danish (1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, 5 vs 6 etc. with playbacks allowed).

As usual Alt will open all the tables for direct kibitzing, so come to BBO and follow the top players with the expert commentary of Martin Cantor's team.

This week we play the second session of Alt’s competition, NewCo 2.

After the first event in January, 4 groups were formed.
Three groups of 6 teams  (A, B and C) and 12 teams in the last group D, so a total of 30 teams, all playing for promotion and (avoiding) relegation.
Next to that “teampoints” will be provided to the teams (the highest 8 to 10 will play a Grand Final in december) and individual players are collecting AMPS (Alt Master Points) for the Triple F Alt Race (the numbers 1-5 winning money prizes at the end of the year).

Alt's new formula Swiss Team-Pairs starting Monday 10.00 EST / 16.00 CET

Twenty "units" (teams consisting of 2 to 8 players, playing IMPS in every possible pair-combination) registered for this new event, starting Monday: 13 rounds Swiss (4 x 3 x 10 boards) and Danish (only 10 in the last round, Friday).

The main reason for making the last day short is the "2021 USBF JLall Open Teams" event which starts on Friday. As it is clear that part of our players would like to participate in both events we tried to avoid an overlap.

We do hope you will enjoy the event!

All tables open, Altwise.

Kick off NewCo

From January 25-29 Alt will organise the first session of its competition with promotion and relegation.
During the year (10 sessions) teams collect points for their results and at the end the numbers 1-6 will play the Grand final.
The competition (34 teams) will start in three groups "to make the field" for the next round.
Starting 10.00 EST / 16.00 CET everybody can watch the show, since Alt will keep the tables open (unless circumstances urge to decide otherwise).
The players also receive AMP's (Alt Master Points), fighting for the places 1-5 in the new Triple F Alt Point Race (with prices).

 ALT’s first special in 2021

For the first time Alt will organise a Board-a-Match tournament. It’s also the first Alt event of the new year.
It will be held from January 11-15.

Today a new event begins; Felines to the Rescue, an initiative to support the CAT Legal Defense Fund founded by Gary Donner. All entry fees go directly to the Legal Defense Fund, and we are happy to have such an exciting field.

This week we have our last major Alt of the year (14-18), 38 teams in it.
The event will directly be followed  (19-21) by the Felines to the Rescue tournament (11 teams so far).
Don’t miss all this, among which the appearance of Michael Nowosadski. 

This week Alt has two events at the same time.
First the Minor Alt IV with 16 teams (two groups of 8), and a Qualification (also 16 teams) for the TampAlt in December. The first two in this Q get a free ticket for the main event.

This week 12 teams at the start of a new top bridge week in the Alt, including a new name: Swissarabian UAE. It is already the third Minor Alt.

Mixed IV will be played by 16 teams. Which team will take first prize this time? The first three editions were for: Pepsi (two times) and Donner.

 Welcome to a new version of the Minor Alt Invitational. The Minor Alt II consists of 14 teams divided in two groups of similar strength according to the completely unbiased organisers. Each group plays all teams in the other group, 7 matches of 24 boards.

The final ranking within the group (the teams will not have played each other but all the same opponents) will decide who qualifies for the quarterfinal.

In the quarterfinals, number 1 plays number 4 and number 2 plays number 3 in each group. See the Conditions of Contest in the pre-bulletin for details. 

We are back with the event Alt began with; eight top teams competing in a Round Robin, followed by knockouts for the top 4 teams. We renamed it Minor Alt to distinguish from our Major Alt-events. We are excited to welcome new and familiar players and look forward to five days of world class bridge.

Former editions of the Alt Mixed Teams had only 8 participating teams; since mixed has become a popular discipline and we would like to give more players the cha nce to compete in our events, we have allowed more teams to enter and changed the format from a round robin to a swiss. We play 10 matches of 14 boards, followed by quarterfinals for the top 8 teams on Thursday and semi- and finals on Friday.

Enjoy the MontreAlt

Welcome to a new Major Alt event after a summer break. 

Right now we all wish we were in Montreal joking with our friends and beating our opponents, but the MontreAlt is the best we can do until that will be possible again.

We are happy the holders of the first Major Alt (Gupta) are back to defend their title. Also we have strong teams from China, USA, Argentina, Sweden and England. And for the first time we even have 8 teams found through our qualification. 24 teams were fighting really hard and Lombard was the winner. We wonder if they will also challenge the teams in this top class field? Our prediction will be place number 13! Who dares to bet?

We wish all the teams lots of success and we wish kibitzers a lot to enjoy. They can see all their favourite players live in action.

Fight for it

Welcome to the first qualification for a Major Alt event. We are so happy to see players from so many different countries. 2020 is a historic year also for bridge. All tournaments are cancelled and we have moved online to play. 

There are hundreds of tournaments every day, but for players who like to compete against the world top, possibilities are limited.

This is the reason the Alt Organisation created the qualification for our MontreAlt in the first week of August. We want to give all players the chance to enter while maintaining a high level at our main event. Which means you have to fight for it.

The first two will be invited to play in the MontreAlt free of charge. Teams placed 3-8 will be invited as well, but will have to pay entry fee. In case a team is not available, number 9 gets that spot and so on.

You will find all results on Bridgeresults.org. 

Enjoy the fight! 

Major Alt Stars Finally! 

When we got the idea for a Major Alt we never imagined to present such a world class field. 36 star-studded teams with players from 22 different countries. And unlike the major championships where only a select number of matches are on BBO, anybody can watch their personal favourites. We hope the Major Alt will be the most entertaining online event of the year, with great plays and clever comments. We encourage all participants to be cordial to your opponents and remember that kibitzers from all over the world are watching. Let the Major show begin. You can find all results on Bridgeresults.org right after the last match is finished. Shortly after you can watch the replay at any tables to see what happened at the other tables.

Welcome to the sixth Alt Invitational.

As usual we have a spectacular field. Not only in terms of bridge skills, but also sparkling personalities. First of all we have the great (figuratively speaking) Brad Moss playing with ditto Joe Grue. We finally got rid of Brink-Drijver, since Blass has replaced them with Upmark-Nyström, and finally we have the one and only David Gold playing with a pakistani gentleman.

Have fun on this last regular Alt.
June 22-26 we will end for this season. After a break (how long will it be?) we strive to continue the series.

This time we are playing the second edition of the Alt Mix; again 8 world class teams, including Pepsi, defending the first title from two weeks ago.
After this one, we have the last regular Alt Invitational (VI), a week off, needed for preparing the Major Alt (Swiss, 32 teams).

May 25 we start the 6th Alt event of the series. Again 8 world class teams who will enter the ring together : Blass, BridgeScanner, Bussink, de Botton, Donner, Gillis, Gupta and Street. 

After this one we continue with Alt Mixed II (June 1-5) and Alt Invitational VI (June 8-12).
And because it’s so special, we look forward to the highlight of our project (see below).

Breaking News!

To conclude the spring season of the Alt Bridge Events, we present the Major Alt Invitational Teams.June 22 to 26 we will have an extended version of the Alt Invitational. It will be a maximum of 32 teams, still by invitation.
We strive to have world class teams of ethical players.
Teams who feel they might fit this category can write to info@netbridge.online to request an invitation. It will be up to the organising committee whether they will accept the team.
So far more than ten top teams have confirmed their participation including Blass, Swiss Team, De Botton, Lavazza and Tulin.

Since we have more teams, the format will be different. Instead of a round robin we will have a swiss with 10 rounds of 14 boards, concluding on Thursday the 25.
The top 8 qualify for the quarterfinals, also taking place on Thursday.
Friday we will have semifinals and finals.
Playing times for the swiss will be 10:00/12:30/15:00 eastern time / 16:00/18:30/21:00 European time.

After the Major Alt the tournament will take a summer break. We hope to be back in the fall and run as long as live bridge is not an option. 

 Alt 4ever

While the Ghost of Corona is still haunting the (Bridge) World, we are forced to quiet our craving for bridge online. Welcome to the 4th edition of the Alt Invitational.

The Alt Invitational has become a source of satisfaction for insatiable bridge addicts. Not only for the players, but also for the kibitzers. The difference between watching regular vugraph and following the online Alt is much smaller than for the players who sit at home rather than at the table, where they can smell their opponents’ sweat after a well-placed double.

We all long to return to live bridge, but we are happy that the Alt Invitational plans to run indefinitely - or at least until we can all look each other in the eyes again.

Sometimes You Swallow

Corona goes on and on. The world of bridge had to swallow two new huge disappointments: the cancellation of the Montréal Summer Nationals (July 16–26, 2020) and the World Bridge Series in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy (August/September, 2020). Hopefully we can go live again at the Tampa Fall Nationals (November/December, 2020). That was the bad news. The good news though is that this third Alt is stronger than ever. The format is the same as number two: a round-robin of eight teams followed bysemi- and full finals. Apparently online events make up a  bit. Have fun and stay tuned.

You can follow the information, nicknames, schemes, results etc. on the tournament site (click on the banner above).

Among Peers

The success of the Columbus Alt last month encouraged us to organize more Alts. Last month's tourney was named after the Spring Nationals, which were supposed to be held in Columbus, Ohio. The virus thwarted that one, but luckily bridge has quite a few online alternatives. This week's Alt Invitational has the same, though extended, format as the aforementioned Columbus Alt. Extended? Yes, we start with a round-robin of seven matches, but ad a 24 board semifinal and a 36 board final. Therefore, this Alt takes an extra day. We hope to arrange a new Alt every three or four weeks.
So, we are now on the brink of a series of (hopefully) great events joined by eight world class teams. How to participate? Well, to play an Alt is not that easy, as it is by invitation only. The field is carefully picked, where quality and honesty are the main criteria. We are aware of the fact that playing online offers lots of electronic opportunities to cheat. On the other hand, we are convinced that due to the 'among peers' factor we can achieve enough security. What bridge pro would put their reputation at stake?

Have fun with this one! The next Alt Invitational is scheduled already for the week of April 20th.

COLUMBUS ALT

 The Show Must Go ON

 The Corona virus is definitely changing our lives. Mass events are cancelled. Sport organizations suffer and bear the consequences, amongst others live bridge tournaments.

ACBL was forced to cancel the Spring Nationals in Columbus (Ohio), a measure without precedent. Still there is some good news as well. This has everything to do with the fact that nowadays bridge can be played on the internet. Stay safe at home and turn on your pc, smartphone or tablet to play online.

‘The Show Must Go On.’ Exactly that phrase must have crossed Paul Street’s mind when he designed an online equivalent of the Vanderbilt KO Teams, traditionally the prestigious main event of the Spring Nationals. Paul succeeded to engage eight world class teams (Lavazza, Spector, Street, Blass, Upmark, Tulin, Moss and Meltzer) to join an online tournament under the name Columbus Alt.

 The event can be followed on BBO from Monday March 23nd through Thursday March 26th, 2020 and is a co-operation by bid72 and netbridge.online. At this place you gradually get more information of this great event. And if you wish to receive automatically Daily Bulletins with results, stories and pictures in your inbox register for the Newsletter, which you can find on the bid72 website (see the  bid72 banner on this page).

You can follow the information, schemes, results etc. on the tournament site (click on the Netbridge Columbus Alt banner on this page).