The North American Pairs (NAP) is a set of annual North American championships for pairs contested over two days at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships (NABC). The events are restricted to pairs that have qualified through local, regional and district levels within their ACBL Districts.
Three fields or "Flights" compete on the same schedule:
Flight A, open to all players, is formally the Baldwin North American Pairs.
Flight B, restricted to players with 0 to 2500 masterpoints, is formally the Golder North American Pairs.
Flight C, restricted to players who have not yet become Life Masters and have fewer than 500 masterpoints, is formally the President's Cup North American Pairs.
Each competition is a four-session matchpoint pairs tournament with two qualifying sessions on the first day and two final sessions on the second.
Qualification Process - Club Level
Each club can hold NAP (North American Pairs) games during the months of June, July and August. These games award 100% sectional rated halfred/half black masterpoints. Qualifying in these games makes the participants eligible for the regional qualifying event in November.
The NAP event has been a major ACBL pair championship since 1979 and was originally known as the Grand National Pairs. This grassroots event is staged in qualifying rounds at the club, unit and district levels. It culminates in a final held in conjunction with the Spring NABC.
Qualification Process - District/Regional Level
Qualifying pairs (pairs who qualified at the club level) then compete is a district-wide event to determine who will represent the Distrcit at the next NAP event at the following Spring NABC.
In 2024, the Distrct competiion will be held as part of of the Norwich, CT Regional in November. Any qualifying pair can can play in their level event and above,
The winning pairs will represent the New England District at the Spring, 2025 NABC in Memphis, TN.
The list if qualfied pairs (at the club level) can be found here.
Previous D25 Winners
New England has a long and storied history of NAP winners:
Flight A
Year | Winners | Runners-up |
---|---|---|
1979 | Arthur Moore, Eric Robinson | Steve Landen, Larry Mori |
1984 | Steve Sion, Harold Stengel | Marty Bergen, Larry N. Cohen |
2001 | Doug Doub, Frank Merblum | Ed Davis, Jill Meyers |
2010 | Doug Doub, Frank Merblum | Michael Polowan, Jared Lilienstein |
2015 | Mark Aquino, Shome Mukherjee | Jim Munday, Richard Oshlag |
2018 | Adam Grossack, Zachary Grossack | Joel Wooldridge, Kent Mignocchi |
2023 | Zachary Grossack, Linda Robinson | Louis Glasthal, Jay Apfelbaum |
Flight B
Year | Winners | Runners-up |
---|---|---|
2001 | Walter Lee, Jonathan Weinstein | Mike Ralston, Mahesh Rathi |
2009 | Robert McCaw, Lewis Gamerman | Jon Brandon, Harley Bress |
2019 | Yin Yichen, Chang Liu | Mark Golding, Robert Kitchen |
Flight C
Year | Winners | Runners-up |
---|---|---|
20xx | No D25 Winners (yet) |