The 23rd edition of InterCity League (ICL), will start on Wednesday March 11th and will end on Wednesday June 3rd. ICL is the BBO international online Team Championship established in 2004 by the late Tonci Radelja, a Croatian professor of mathematics who loved Bridge and used it as mean to become friends. So wrote Tonci several years ago:
…Think of this as a night in your local club: be friendly and enjoy meeting old/new friends at the table…
And, later:
…The succes of this League, in my opinion, is mostly due to friendly atmosphere, fixed playing time and, above all, great support I get from participating teams and their captains…
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 Italian team of Ascoli Piceno, which has established the amazing string of four straight wins in the last two years; Ascoli won nine times since its first participation in autumn 2006, and still is the only one team which won more than once.
The tourney develops in two phases: round robin and knock-out. The teams are divided in groups; the best ones (not more than sixteen or 50 per cent of the teams) will forward to the knock-out phase.
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 round robins shouldn’t be employed in the knock-out, unless the team needs to complete the foursome.
The mandatory playing time is on Wednesday at 20:45-21:00 pm CET (GMT +1; EST +6) unless both captains agree for different time, but displacements only should be done exceptionally.
In the round robin the matches have to be by sixteen boards. In the final stage the matches will be by twenty-four, or more if both captains agree to do so, but no more than twenty-eight.
The default is Barometer off, Undo on, Silent Kibitzers; this too can be changed by captains agreement, but the kibitzers, that cannot be excluded and it’s advisable not allow them to speak at table.
For any question contact Turbin or Willemm in BBO (nicknames respectively of Paolo Enrico Garrisi and Willem Mevius), or write to Garrisi at turbinazione@gmail.com