Il Grand National Open Teams assieme alla Spingold, alla Reisinger ed alla Vanderbilt, è uno dei 4 eventi del Grande Slam ed è una delle competizioni più antiche dell’intero calendario ACBL, che è stato originariamente copiata dall’inglese Gold Cup e può essere paragonata alla nostra Coppa Italia, anche se il Campionato nostrano, davvero molto simile fino a qualche anno fa, si è andato distaccando nel tempo dai progenitori
Le eliminatorie cominciamo a livello di Circolo, per poi espandersi gradualmente ai Distretti (un’area corrispondente ad un grande stato: in tutto i Distretti rappresentati in finale sono 25). Arrivate ai Summer National, le venticinque formazioni superstiti vengono ridotte a sedici per giocare a KO puro. La competizione, come moltissime altre negli USA, è “Stratified”, ovvero rigidamente divisa in categorie, basate sul numero dei master point dei giocatori in campo
La divisione opera nei due sensi: non solo i più forti non possono giocare con i più deboli, ma anche, viceversa, solo i migliori hanno accesso alle categorie superiori. I possibili “Flights” sono cinque, ma solo tre nel caso del GNT. Il limite per giocare il Flight A – quello superiore – è pari a 6000 Master Point (per darvi un’idea, ce ne vogliono 1500 per diventare Life Master, ovvero qualcosa di abbastanza simile alla nostra “Prima Picche”)
In Inghilterra si comincia a giocare addirittura casa per casa: è infatti tradizione che le fasi preliminari della Gold Cup si giochino in private abitazioni, che fanno a gara per offrire la migliore ospitalità possibile a chi viene a giocare.
Gli anni in verde riguardano campionati di bridge on line.
The Grand National Teams (GNT) bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC).
The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event and together the Spingold, the Vanderbilt and the Reisinger is part of Grand Slam.
The United States Bridge Association, established by Ely Culbertson and his staff, conducted a Grand National Team-of-Four championship from 1934 to 1937 (the lifetime of the organization before merger created the ACBL).
The extended, grass-roots tournament was re-established in 1973, when about 1500 teams participated. Initial stages were contested in the 25 geographically defined ACBL Districts. Champions of eight Zones were determined in a semifinal stage, who qualified for the final stage at one of the North American NABC meets.
By 1980 there were 6032 teams in the first stage, although the distinct Canadian National Teams championship was introduced by the Canadian Bridge Federation that year, leaving only the 23 U.S. or partly U.S. districts in the GNT (The ACBL encompasses Mexico and Bermuda, but each is entirely within a partly U.S. District.)
The Zonal stage was eliminated in 1985; since then every District champion qualifies for the final at the Summer NABC.
Conditions within the Districts differ; some now hold a single weekend tournament. Winners received some money to pay expenses in part.
Also in 1985, the event was divided in three Flights called A, B, and C. The Championship Flight was added in 2001. That is, Flights B and C were added to the Open Flight in 1985, with player eligibility restricted by upper limits on career master points. In 2001 the previously open Flight A was renamed "Championship" or "Super flight" and Flight A was restricted to players with fewer than 5,000 career masterpoints. As of 2012 the other ceilings were 2,000 points for Flight B players and 500 points for Flight C. In 2014 the cutoff for Flight A was raised to 6,000 masterp oints and the cutoff for Flight B was raised to 2,500 master points.
The Open winners have their names engraved on the Morehead Trophy, donated by The New York Times in memory of its longtime bridge editor Albert H. Morehead.
The green years are on line championships.