Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, President Emeritus of the World Bridge Federation introduced the World Junior Championship for the Ortiz-Patiño Trophy in 1987 and when José Damiani became President of the WBF he continued the development of this sector by introducing a Schools Bridge Championship for the Damiani Cup for younger players, and later introduced a Pairs Championship and a Girls Team Championship for which Gianarrigo Rona presented the Rona Cup. These events are all held together in what is currently known as the World Youth Championships, held in the even numbered years.
The World Youth Open Bridge Championships were introduced in 2009.
The World Bridge Federation is committed to the promotion of Youth Bridge, which it strongly believes represents the future of this wonderful sport. Because of this, it has been decided that a new series of Simultaneous Pairs events will be introduced, the money from which will be used specifically to assist the development of Youth Bridge.
The WBF’s Youth Projects will include:
- better teaching aids for countries trying to encourage young players,
- assistance for youngsters to attend World Championships
- special Simultaneous Pairs for schools
- and other initiatives to encourage youngsters to learn bridge.
