BIC 2020: Finals this weekend!

The Bridge International Championship is up and running. The qualifications are over. Friday is a day to rest, relax and get ready for Halloween. The BIC Finals take place this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday.

The BBO team wish you all the best. Thanks to all participants - and good luck to the finalists!

BIC, short for Bridge International Championship; is a worldwide online event taking place across several bridge platforms, in partnership with the World Bridge Federation. Ranked players will be awarded both WBF and BBO points.

There are International and Country titles to play for. You’ll be up against players from all corners of the globe as well as your compatriots.


Your IP address will determine which country you represent (for example, Garozzo will represent the USA if he’s in the USA). If your country doesn’t have at least 10 players, you’ll represent the “Rest of World”.


The Main Event - BIC 2020

Monday to Thursday will feature the BIC Qualifiers - individual tournaments with robots. There’ll be 100 BIC tournaments (daylong style) to choose from, with your top ten scores counting towards your ranking. Finish with an average score of 55% or higher at the close of play on Thursday and you’ll progress to the BIC Finals.

Friday will be a day to rest up and get yourself prepared for the BIC Finals on Saturday and Sunday.

For the Finals, there’ll be 6 BIC tournaments to play, with your best 4 scores counting towards your overall ranking. As per the qualifiers, the finals will be individual tournaments with robots. Finish top and you’ll be named the first ever BBO BIC International Champion!

BIC Side Events

Don’t have space in your schedule for a week of non-stop bridge / not ready to mix it with the top players? Don’t worry. We're running the BIC Transnational Survivor and the BIC Mini Championships; one for players with 0-100 BBO Points and another for players with 0-1000 BBO Points

BIC Mini Championships: The Mini BIC has been prepared for players with up to 100 BBO points and for players with up to 1,000 BBO Points. Monday to Sunday, one session a day (daylong, MP, 12 boards), 1BB$ a session, BB$ rewarded!

BIC Transnational Survivor: Not enough time for the BIC? This 80% cut survivor game is for you! Monday to Sunday, one session a day (daylong, MP, 18 boards), 3BB$ entry fee, with BB$ rewards! Registrations are only open on Monday for the BIC Transnational Survivor.

Side Event Prizes (BIC Mini Championships and BIC Transnational Survivor)

  • 1st place: 10 BB$ + 6 months BBO Prime subscription
  • 2nd place: 5 BB$ + 6 months BBO Prime subscription
  • 3rd place: 3 BB$ + 6 months BBO Prime subscription
  • 4th to 10 place: 1 BB$ + 3 months BBO Prime subscription for each

BIC 2020 - all the details

Qualifiers - Monday 26 to Thursday 29 October

  • There'll be 100 BIC tournaments available
  • Games consist of 12 boards, Matchpoints, deal pool, best hand
  • 3 BB$ entry fee
  • Your best 10 scores will count towards your ranking
  • Get an average score of 55% or higher to qualify for the final phase

Rest day - Friday

Finals - Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November

  • Only players who have an average score of 55% or higher qualify to play in the final
  • There'll be six BIC tournaments available, restricted only to players who qualified in the previous phase.
  • Your best 4 scores will count towards your final ranking.
  • Games consist of 12 boards, Matchpoints, deal pool, best hand. Free entry.
  • International and Country leaderboards

BIC Podium and Prizes

  • 1st place: ‘BBO BIC International Champion’ title + 230 BB$ + 6 months subscription to BBO Prime
  • 2nd: 150 BB$ + 6 months BBO Prime
  • 3rd: 80 BB$ + 6 months BBO Prime
  • 4th to 10th: 10 BB$ + 1 months BBO Prime
  • 11th to 50: 5 BB$ + 1 month BBO Prime
  • 51st to 100: 3 BB$ + 1 month BBO Prime
  • 101st to 150: 1 BB$

BIC Country Podium and Prizes

  • 1st place: ‘BBO BIC Champion - Country’ title + BB$50 + 3 months subscription to BBO Prime
  • 2nd: BB$40 + 3 months BBO Prime
  • 3rd: BB$30 + 3 months BBO Prime
  • A country is represented only if it has at least 10 players.

BBO BIC FAQ - this page aims to answer all your BIC related questions.

How to participate in the 2020 BBO Bridge International Championship

76 comments on “BIC 2020: Finals this weekend!”

  1. Once I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any manner you can remove me from that service? Thanks!

  2. I concour 100% with jardaholy above.
    A priori it is inconceivable to achive a score of 89.93 on a session where every board was played by dozens of others.
    I also went over each and every board. The usla's bidding on every hand was completely random. And for these random bids he consistantly got 85%-100% per board.
    So if you believe this my friends, I got a beautiful bridge on the Hudson to sell to you...

  3. Why group all the orphan countries into rest of world

    Cant we divide into 7 regions?

    Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

  4. Hi
    I regret I participated in this, the computer make a disaster every 4th board. I don't undersstand how its so hard to add 13 + 15 for a computer, not bidding, and when it has 8 + 15-17 it bids game with no fit

    1. Hi Deb. Log in. Click Competitive, then click All Tournaments (or Daylongs, or BBO Point tournaments). The BIC and mini-BIC tourneys will be listd there. Click once to register to the tournament you want. Click on it
      again to play.

  5. I am playing main BIC event and it looks like I could possibly qualify after 10 rounds having 56,9% after six rounds. Anyway, to improve my game, I checked the best results of the others and the ways, they had been achieved. The first player, according to the ranking today, achieved unbelievable result of 89,93% in one of the rounds. I went into details and could find that he/she made crystal clear 100% in five boards out of twelve, in four of them bidding just 1 minor - 1 major - 3NT usually having just 14 HPC (16 HPC in one board). In other five boards, his/her result was more than 85%, in all of them after crazy bidding (opening 1D with 2-4-1-6 distribution, diamonds being the shortest suit (94,5%), responding with 2 clubs to one spade opening with 3 clubs and 5 hearts in hand (97,06%), opening 1 diamond with three diamonds and five clubs in hand (86,67%), opening 1 diamond with 3-5-1-4 distribution, singleton diamond in the hand (87,5%), responding 2D to 1H with 4 diamonds and 5 clubs (94.74%). I was graduated years ago at university from probability theory and risk analysis and I have been earning money for my whole life by risk analyses, and I really have to ask myself whether such results can be achieved in fair way. (If yes, the lesson is that one should not follow any bidding systems agreed with the partners (bots here) and just generate the bids from crystal sphere...). I know that there is a pool of boards distributed among all players, but this is probably not the answer...

  6. Hi
    I have already qualified for the ten games in the main event.
    I also played one daily session in the mini series 0-1k group. I do not see my names listed.
    It says four session event, I also read one session a day for seven days. I am confused

    smallslam8

    1. Hi. For the Mini-BIC Championships there will be one session every day for 7 days. You need at least 4 sessions to get an overall score. Your best 4 scores count, so you can play all 7 days if you wish, to improve your average.

      If you played only one session, it will not be listed in the Mini-Championship rakings, you need at least 4 to get ranked.

    1. Yes there are prizes for the mini-BIc Championships too, but they are given for the final scores, not daily. When the championship ends, top finishers will be rewarded based on their best 4 scores for each of the mini-Championships.

    1. If you played Day 1 and qualified for the next day, the Survivor is highlighted in yellow at the top of the list of tournaments in Competitive --> All tournaments, as well as in Competitive --> BBO Points and in Competitive --> Daylongs (that is, same areas where all the other BIC games are).

      If you skipped a day, you can not play in Day 3 directly.

      1. Why could nobody answer this yesterday? I sent an email to support, and asked through here. I looked in Robot games (which is where I found day one) and competitive, and never found it

  7. Repeating mrzee's question; there does not appear to be a link to register for the 2nd day of the BIC Transnational Survivor?

  8. I know it is off topic,but I wish we could have a zoom meeting of all the skyclub players. It would be so much fun.

  9. For BIC Mini Championships it is written BB$ rewarded. There is so BB$ reward for the first day tournament. So how will be the BB$ reward?

    1. Rewards are given at the end of the championship. For the BIC Mini championships you need at least 4 tournaments (out of 7) to be ranked.

  10. I think for games with less players
    It is very unfair as not all players play the same hand

    Can you ensure there are at least 100 players in each game?

  11. Will you immediately notify those players who have obtained 55% or higher average in 10 tournaments so they don't have to play anymore?

    1. Results will be updated at the end of each day, when that day's tournaments are completed. So for today's games you will have the final scores tomorrow. If you already played 10 BIC Qualifier games, you will also get your average.

      While the games are still open and being played by other players the scores are not final.

  12. What happens if you don't finish a round? Do you receive zeros for the unplayed hands, or does it count as not playing that qualifier?

  13. I HAVE OVER 20.000 bbO points and would like to take part to the championships. Please inform details about registratiom.

  14. Where can you find the robot system card? I would like to know their signals which seem random at best! Thank you.

  15. for me it's a stupid and illogical formula
    I have to play 10+ x 3$ to get to the free final ?
    and how they will play with the star ? no elimination .. all for free 🙂 ?
    should (logically) > 10+ x 1$ .. and a paid 4 x 3$ final ! 🙂
    besides, i can't buy bbo$ (nothing works there)
    01vega .. wish everyone health :):):)

  16. Are the tournaments timed? Once you start playing a 12 board tournament can you pause and take the rest of the day to finish it? or is the usual time limit in play?

    1. The BIC tournaments can be played any time during the day, for 24 hours (from midnight to midnight US Eastern Time). You can start a game, stop, and resume later, as long as it's with enough time before midnight to complete your boards.

  17. What if you play the first event and get 70%? The "average" of tournaments you played is then well above the 55% cutoff. Do you have to play at least nine more?
    Or to phrase differently, is it really 55% average, or 550 pro mille total over the top 10 tournaments that matters? So option 2 - Play 8 tournaments averaging 70% for a total of 560 pro mille. Is that enough, or are two more still needed?

  18. Is there any advantage (eg carryover) from the average score attained in the 10 qualifying tournaments. That is, once having attained a 55% average for 10 qualifying events, is there any purpose for playing more qualifying events in order to increase one's average?

    1. No, once you have 55% it's sufficient. The extra tourneys are for players who do not get 55% in 10 games... they can play more to improve it till they reach their 55.

    1. Hi Subhash - yes, you should play 10 tournaments as your top 10 scores will count towards your ranking. You can play more if you need to, but as a minimum you'll need to play 10.

  19. Same question as Felix - all my friends tell me this is a pairs event. But I think they are wrong. I have a hunch that it is an individual with robots - six 2 board rounds. Not that anyone can tell.

  20. […] What is the BIC? BIC, short for Bridge International Championship; is a worldwide online event taking place across several bridge platforms. Click here to read everything about the first Bridge International Championship. […]

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