The 2026 World Youth Transnational Championships were held in Hefei, China, from August 3-8, 2026. Over 40 USBF Juniors participated, many in pairs and teams with players from other countries. US players earned 2 Gold and 2 Silver medals in A Finals, and many others had high finishes.

U26 Teams

In the U26 Teams, Jackson Zhou earned a gold medal and Brian Zhang earned a silver. Both of them were playing on teams with players from other countries, Jackson with 2 players from Denmark, 2 players from Israel, and one player from Netherlands; Brian with 3 Chinese players. Michael Xu also made the A Final, playing with 3 New Zealand players.

U26 Medal Stand, photo by Francesca Canali

U26 Pairs

Brian Zhang improved his medal position to Gold in the Pairs, playing with Baozhuo Jiang from China.
 
Baozhuo Jiang and Brian Zhang, photo by Qiang Zhang 

Rory Xiao won the U26 B Final playing with Canadian Olivia Laufer

U21 Teams

Although no US players medaled, Andrew & Charlie Chen made the A Final

U21 Pairs

Jeff Xiao earned a Silver medal, playing with Yuxuan Liu from China
Arthur Gong and Jason Yao finished 4th, only 28% behind 3rd, and Andrew & Charlie Chen finished 8th.

Jeff Xiao & Yuxuan Liu, photo by Qiang Zhang

Joan Gerard Sportsmanship Award

In addition to his two medals for performance, Brian Zhang won the Joan Gerard Sportsmanship Award for U26 players. Players nominate their peers for the award, but may not nominate a player from their own country. The award recipients are decided based on aptitude, fair play, good sportsmanship and a friendly international spirit, rejecting any discrimination.

Brian with the Sportsmanship Award, photo by his proud father Qiang Zhang 

Congratulations to all of the players in Hefei!

The USBF Board has approved a proposal to revise the seeding for the 2027 Open USBC as follows:

Teams will be seeded based on the sum of:

1. ACBL seeding points after the Spring NABC. ACBL seeding points before the Spring NABC will be published in February and there will be an online tool where any player entered in the Open USBC can verify their ACBL seeding points. ACBL Seeding points will be capped at 70. This is the same as the current rule, except for the availability of ACBL seeding points for players to view in advance.

2. Individual Performance Points (IPPs): Open USBC results & previous 2 years' results in NABC team events and Open USBCs. This represents three main changes from the current rules: adding seeding points from the previous five Open USBCs, reducing the weight given to performance points from the prior year, and adding IPPs for results from the year before the last.

a) Seeding points for performance in the previous 5 Open USBCs will be awarded on the same schedule as seeding points for the Spingold, Soloway, and Vanderbilt (10 for first, 7 for second, 4.6 for 3/4th, and 2.7 for 5/8th), decayed at 10% per year. Plus

b) Additional points for performance in the previous 2 years of main events (Open USBC, Spingold, Soloway, Reisinger, and Vanderbilt) of 1x the normal seeding points for the previous year’s events, and .5x the normal seeding points for the year before that. For 2027 there will be no cap on IPPs or on total USBC seeding points

A small committee which recommended these changes to the Board will be considering whether there should be additional changes for the Mixed, Seniors, and Women as well as how many additional seeding points should be awarded for Round Robin finishes and how to set the Quarterfinal bracket for the Open, Mixed, and Seniors.

We wanted to announce the general approach that is going to be taken in 2027 before the Spingold so it would be clear that Spingold results had not influenced the committee or Board decisions. We welcome any comments you may have on seeding and setting the Quarterfinal bracket.