In 1996 the American Contract Bridge League established an official
annual World Computer-Bridge Championship to be held at a major
international bridge event. The first event was held at the 1997
summer North American Bridge Championships in Albuquerque.
Following championships were hosted by World Bridge Federation
World Championships, ACBL North American Championships and the EBL
first European Open Championship.
Before 1996 there had been some small-group championships with
only 3 or 4 participants, and relatively short (12 to 16 boards)
matches. From 1989-1992, there was an annual "Computer Olympiad" for
thinking games, organised by David Levy, where one of the competitions
was for bridge. In 1993 David Levy had other commitments and some of
the programmers decided to gather and hold a competition. In the
years 1994-1995 an event was organised by Bridge Baron but by 1996
this had crumbled into non-existence.
When in 1996 New York Times bridge editor, Alan Truscott, asked
ACBL's Al Levy (no relative of David Levy) why the computer contest scheduled for the 1996 spring
Philadelphia NABC didn't take place Al Levy decided to revive the
championship and petitioned for an official ACBL computer competition.
Whit Al Levy as the organizer and coordinator the ACBL managed to
get the majority of the leading bridge programs to compete. In the
early years Jack didn't participate for one simple reason: it didn't
exist yet!