Entries for both the Open and Women's USBC have now completely closed. There are 17 teams entered in the Open USBC and 7 teams entered in the Women's USBC. The formats for the two events are described below.

Open Format

With 17 teams in the Open USBC, the format will be:

Friday & Saturday, April 28-29: Complete Round Robin among the teams without byes. There are 13 teams in the Round Robin; they will play 8 board matches; each team will sit out once.

Sunday & Monday, April 30-May 1: The top 10 teams will qualify for the USA1 Round of 16, where they will be joined by the Fleisher & Fireman teams. They will play 120 board Knockout matches. The 11th, 12th & 13th teams in the Round Robin will play a 3-way in the USA2 Round of 64 to qualify 2 teams for the USA2 Round of 32.

Tuesday & Wednesday, May 2 & 3: The 6 USA1 Round of 16 winners will join Nickell & Diamond in the USA1 Quarterfinal. The 6 USA1 Round of 16 losers will join the two qualifiers from the USA2 Round of 64 in the USA2 Round of 32.

Thursday & Friday, May 4 & 5: The USA1 Quarterfinal winners will play in the USA1 Semifinal. The USA1 Quarterfinal losers and the USA2 Round of 32 winners will play Knockout matches in the USA2 Round of 16.

Saturday & Sunday, May 6 & 7: The USA1 Semifinal winners will play in the USA1 Final. The USA1 Semifinal losers and the USA2 Round of 16 winners will play in the USA2 Quarterfinal, which will be a 6 team Knockout.

Monday & Tuesday, May 8 & 9: The USA1 losing finalist and the USA2 winning Quarterfinalists will play in the USA2 Semifinals. The USA1 losing finalist will choose its opponent for this match.

Wednesday & Thursday, May 10 & 11: The winning USA2 Semifinalists will play in the USA2 Final.

Women's Format

With 7 teams in the Women's USBC, the format will be:

Thursday & Friday, May 4 & 5: Double Round Robin. Each team will play 8 boards against each other team on each day. Every player must play against each other team. Click here for the Round Robin schedule. The teams were randomly assigned numbers for the Round Robin and are now listed in that number order on the teams entered list.

Saturday, May 6: The top 4 teams from the Round Robin will play in the USA1 Semifinal, which will be a 60 board KO. The Round Robin winner will choose their opponent from the 3rd and 4th place finishers.

Sunday & Monday May 7 & 8: USA1 Semifinal winners will play in the the USA1 Final. USA1 Semifinal losers will play in the USA2 Semifinal. Both of these are 120 board KO matches.

Tuesday & Wednesday, May 9 & 10: Losing USA1 Finalist and winning USA2 Seminalist will play the USA2 Final, a 120 board KO match.

This year, we are making two major changes with regard to systems allowed in the USBCs and how they are to be disclosed.

Systems allowed in Round Robin stages of all three USBCs will be those that are alloweed under the "Level 3 Chart" as proposed by the ACBL Conventions & Competitions Committee. This proposal has yet to be voted on by the ACBL Board of Directors, but a great deal of thought and effort has gone into improving the previous MidChart (the Level 3 Chart is expected to apply in more events than the MidChart, but replaces it for those events for which the MidChart applied). Many of the changes are ones that our Technical Committee had been considering, so instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, we are going to use this new chart for Round Robins and short (less than 60 board) Knockout matches. Click here for the Level 3 Chart as approved by the C&CC. Note that the Definitions section includes definitions for things that are not relevant for the Level 3 Chart but will be relevant for future charts (one important one to note is the "Rule of N" which does not limit any actions under the Level 3 Chart).

The way in which players disclose their methods has not changed this year - each pair is required to submit a System Summary Form (SSF) & an ACBL Convention Card at least 2 weeks before the day on which the event starts. The change this year is that a subcommittee of the ITTC will review each of the submitted SSFs and contact the players submitting them if they are not adequate (Jan will tell each pair whose SSF has been approve that it is adequate). The Technical Committee has also revised the Guidelines to Completion of the SSF and we strongly recommend that you read them before completing your SSF. Until the SSF Review Committee has approved your SSF, your opponents will have seating rights whenever you are playing.