The 24th edition of BBO InterCity League (ICL), will start on October 7th and will end on January 7th. ICL is the BBO international online Team Championship established eleven years ago by the late Tonci Radelja, a Croatian professor of mathematics who loved the bridge and used it as mean to become friends. So wrote Tonci several years ago:
“The idea was born in 2003 when I suggested to few of my friends from all over ex-Yugoslavia that we should start some kind of competition on BBO, primarily to allow teams from small towns to be able to play serious bridge without traveling. We started in spring 2004 with only 4 teams… Think of this as a night in your local club: be friendly and enjoy meeting old/new friends at the table…”
The tourney is held twice a year, in spring and fall; the teams have to have the name of a town (that’s why “Intercity”). The title holder is the Bulgarian team of Sofia, which in the spring edition of this year broke a string of four straight victories of Ascoli Piceno. The tourney develops in two phases: round robin and knock-out. Teams are divided in groups; the best twelve will forward to the 4+8 knock-out phase, that is to say the best four will get the bye to quarter-finals whereas the others will have to play one more knock-out match.
There are no limits to the number of players: each captain can line up as many players as he or she likes, but players that haven’t played in the round robins shouldn’t be employed in the knock-out, unless the team needs it to complete the foursome.
The mandatory playing time is on Wednesday at 20:45-21:00 pm CET (GMT +1), unless both captains agree for different time, but displacements only should be done exceptionally.
In the round robin the matches will be by sixteen boards. In the final stage the matches will be by twenty-four, or more if both captains agree to do so.
For any question feel free to contact Turbin or Willemm (BBO nicknames of Paolo Enrico Garrisi and Willem Mevius), or write to Garrisi at turbinazione@gmail.com
Past winners:
23rd edition: Sofia, Bulgaria
22nd: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
21st: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
20th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
19th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
18th: Wroclaw, Poland
17th: Cardiff, Wales
16th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
15th: Napoli, Italia
14th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
13th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
12th: Haskovo, Bulgaria
11th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
10th: Leerdam, The Netherlands
9th: Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia
8th: Milano, Italia
7th: Ascoli Piceno, Italia
6th: Connacht, Ireland
5th: Zagreb, Croatia
4th: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
3rd: Cologne, Germany
2nd: Skopje, Macedonia
1st edition (spring 2004): Beograd, Serbia
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Paolo Enrico Garrisi