21st BFAME CHAMPIONSHIPS – ONLINE ON REALBRIDGE

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BFI Information Letter # 1

Following the World Bridge Federation’s (WBF) decision to stage this year’s (2021) World Team Championship for the Bermuda Bowl (Open Team event), Venice Cup (Women Team event), D’Orsi Trophy (Seniors Team event) and Wuhan Cup (Mixed Teams event) from 27th March 2022 to 9th April 2022 at Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy,, hence accordingly, BFAME shall organize a qualification round (21st BFAME Championships 2021 for the Zone 4 representatives in the various categories).

Due to the pandemic, this event will not be hosted by any individual National Bridge Organization (NBO) of the zone as done in the past, but instead will be managed by a organizing committee from the BFAME Council. As other zones across are doing their selection for World Team Championship online, hence BFAME will also follow the same.

TOURNAMENT DATES:

  • 8th Dec 2021 (Wednesday) to 14th Dec 2021 (Tuesday) – to be organized by BFAME.
  • OFFICIAL SITE: www.bridgewebs.com/bfame

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

  •   OPEN Team Event
  •   WOMEN Team Event
  •   MIXED Team Event
  •   SENIOR’s Team Event

PLATFORM:

  • Online RealBridge Platform. The BFAME Head TD and his team will run the operations of the RealBridge Platform.

PARTICIPANTS:

  • The following teams from ZONE-4 of World Bridge Federation called BFAME possibly will be participating in the event: Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and UAE.

Tournament Directors:

  • Head Tournament Director – Waleed Menyawi (WBF accredited TD from Egypt) along with One TD each from Jordan, India, Pakistan & Egypt.

Reviewers: Will be decided by BFAME Committee Members

INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS OF INDIAN TEAMS:

GENERAL INFORMATION:

  • Except for the Seniors category, selection trials for which will be held from 23rd Oct to 27th Oct 2021, all other teams have already been selected as per the Selection process of BFI. The selected players in each category are:
OPEN Category:Mixed Category:Women Category:
RajeshwarTewari ‐ Keyzad AnklesariaKiran Nadar – B SatyanarayanaPuja Batra – Asha Sharma
Sandeep Thakral ‐ Jaggy ShivdasaniRajeev  & Himani KhandelwalVasanti Shah – Bharti Dey
Sumit Mukherjee ‐ DebabrataMajumderMarianne & Sandeep KarmarkarAparna Sain – Feroza Chothia
  • The above players will represent the Indian Teams in the 21st BFAME Championships 2021, which will be held from 8th Dec to 14th Dec 2021.
  • No one will play from home, or any other private settings. Participating NBOs will gather their teams in clusters at a local venue set up according to BFAME specifications, in order to prevent any unauthorized communications between the players.
  • Players will have to be present at the venue chosen by their NBO and will have to play on a PC/Laptop or tablets or iPads but not on a cell phone and (any device should have a sound system and camera) as required by the online playing platform RealBridge.
  • The event will be played simultaneously by all BFAME participating countries. The timings of the tournament for each country has been informed by BFAME. For India the online event timings will be – S1: 1300 – 1515 Hrs; S2 – 1630 – 1845 Hrs; S3 – 1930 – 2145 Hrs.
  • All important information like CoC, ScoC have been updated on BFAME web site on https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwon/bw.cgi?club=bfame&pid=display_page41.  All are requested to please visit this website for frequent updations.
  • If there are only 2 teams participating in an event,  then there will be no trials for that event category and both the teams will be declared winners and will represent the Zone-4 in World Championship.
  • TDs will operate within the platform itself, as well as in a separate TD “room” for consultations and polling.
  • Kibitzing will be allowed using the kibitzer website (not the play platform) with a time‐ delay of 30‐45 minutes (depending upon the number of boards
  • WhatsApp groups will be formed for: 1) Team Captains, 2) Organizing committee, 3) TDs and 4) local monitors.
  • The NBO’S are to submit comprehencively filled convention cards  to the BFAME Zonal Secretary by 20th November by e mail (ihsanqadir@imlpk.com.) The Convention card should preferably be in PDF.
  • The BFAME will organize three tester Sessions on freal Bridge platform on 23rd, 25th and 27th November starting time 3:00 PM GMT

SECURITY RELATED INFORMATION FOR THE EVENT:

  • Seperate Sets of boards will be used for each event Category.
  • 2 surveillance cameras (means a security camera installed in the playing venue connected to the Internet and transferring a live time broadcasting with a zoom and 360-degree movement capability under the full control of the TDs) will be installed in the local venue with live broadcasting to the BFAME control room.
  • Neutral Observers/Monitors, approved by the BFAME, will supervise throughout the play at every location. No other person will be allowed in the playing area. Observers/Monitors will not act as Tournament Directors (TDs).
  • All NBO’s are to forward names of Monitors/Observers being nominated by them for approval of the organizing committe. One Recent Photograph is to be included.
  •    The Tournament Schedule will depend on no. of entries received from different NBOs. However, the tentative schedule will be as follows:

Day 1 to 5 – Round Robin matches of 16 boards (3 matches per day)

Note: There will be a double Round-Robin for Open Teams & Triple Round Robin for Women, Seniors & Mixed event, depending on the no. of entries in each event.

Day 6 – Semi-Finals (of all 4 categories) – 4*16 Boards. Last session may be played on Day 7.

Day 7 – Finals (of all categories) – For finding Title Winners

REQUIREMENTS FROM THE INDIAN TEAMS

  • One Team representing each NBO, and in each category (Open, Women, Mixed, Seniors) shall be admitted to play. While submitting the players name you have to attach a recent Photo of all players. Players will have to send their latest photos to Mr. Srinivasan Iyengar BFI communication Manager.
  • Players will have to bring their own lap top / tablet / I-pad to the venue for playing.  It is advised that lap top / tablet / I-pad are having adequate battery backup of its own. Please replace your battereys of your laptop, in case they are very old.
  • Each pair should be ready with their comprehensively filled convention cards, which have to be submitted to BFI by 15th Nov 2021. BFI will further send CCs of all to the BFAME CTD latest by 20th Nov 2021. All CCs should be in pdf format.

VENUE FOR THE INDIAN TEAMS

  • The venue for all Indian team players participating in the BFAME is:

SHIV NADAR UNIVERSITY Campus, NH-91, Dadri, Gautam Buddha Nagar, U.P. PIN: 201314

All players are requested to reach the venue latest by 1700 Hrs on 7th Dec 2021 and leave for back journey to their place on 15th Dec 2021 latest by 1200 Hrs.

  • As venue is quite far from the Airport, players will be requested to book their flights in such a manner that all players from one place come together and take a cab or two together to the venue.  They should reach the Delhi Airport latest by 1530 Hrs. It is possible that for going back from Venue to Airport some common transport arrangement is made by BFI on 15th Dec 2021.
  • The playing arena has already been earmarked by BFI and it is a huge hall with 4600 Sq. Ft area in the Sports Complex of the university. 16 splaying stations (4 stations each for an event) will be created within the arena, which is connected with Internet connectivity (in fact the whole complex is having connectivity).
  • Lodging & Boarding will be taken care by BFI as per the SAI rules.
  • The Accommodation for players will be provided by BFI in the “Guest Room” area of the complex. We are booking 12 Twin rooms (Each twin room contains 2 bed rooms and a common area attached with a kitchen area and a bathroom) for the 24 participating players. Each team will be provided 3 rooms each. The room bookings will be there from afternoon of 7th Dec to 1200 Hrs on 15th Dec 2021.
  • There will be facility to provide Breakfast & Dinner (up to 2315 Hrs.) in the residential area and Lunch and Tea / Evening Snacks at the venue. This point will be discussed further with the players and then decided.  
  • More information will be passed to all once the Senior Selection Trials are over. We may circulate another note with more details on 1st Nov 2021.

NOTE: We are planning to form a WhatsApp group of players after Senior Selection trials. BFI will announce on Ticket Bookings of players in the WA group. Also as our play timings are clashing with normal Lunch & Dinner timings, we may take opinion of players on the preferred timing of Lunch & Dinner. Accordingly, we will plan it.

Any one having any further query may please contact TC Pant at 9811094407 on mobile or WhatsApp or write e-mail on tcpant@hotmail.com