ONLINE BRIDGE GAMES
In the current circumstances with bridge clubs closed and events cancelled, many of our members will be thinking of playing online bridge. Some will already be familiar with the options below (there may be more providers, which could be added to this list if we are informed of them) but here is some information to help those who do not play online, to point them in the right direction to investigate the various options. We will be adding to this as things progress.
Bridge Club Live is a UK based online bridge provider, which runs a variety of individual and partnership games for which EBU master Points are awarded to members as well as a social room for casual play. There is a free Guest room for players to try it out and a range of membership types to suit those playing more seriously. Most of its members are British so whilst Acol is prevalent, all systems are catered for and members from all over the world keep the bridge going 24/7. They have just issued a press release detailing enhancements made to help accommodate the increasing demand for online bridge from F2F Club players.
Funbridge hosts our regular daily online robot games, which give EBU master points. Information about them is available on our webpage.
Bridge Base Online (BBO) is the largest international online bridge provider. Signing up and playing in many of the games is free, though they do have some tournaments that are paid for. Since it is an American company payment is in dollars and the most common bidding systems are Standard American type (sayc or 2/1).
For students who would like to practice their bridge, please register for free with No Fear Bridge via this link, free for the first three months.
We are currently in the process of organising our own EBU games on BBO which will start on Tue 17th Mar with a 12-board game at 7.30pm and another at 9pm. Assuming there is enough demand, we intend to expand soon after by having afternoon games as well. Each game will cost $1 and you will need to buy some BBO$ in advance.
Our advice to players who are interested in playing in them is first to sign up for a free login to BBO and play in some free games to familiarise themselves with how the game works, so that they are ready to take part as soon as our games are running.
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