WHEN AND WHERE The main event starts at Friday the 19th Feb 1999 and ends at Sunday the 21st Feb 1999. A detailed program is given below. It is played at the S:t Erik Bridge-club in Stockholm. 

TYPE OF BRIDGE The main event is played as imps across the field. Every pair plays 13 boards against each other, 17 rounds making a total of 221 boards. The time allotted for each round is 100 minutes. 

SCHEDULE   Friday  10.00 - 10.30 Breakfast and registration
10.30 - 12.10 Round 1
12.15 - 13.55 Round 2
14.00 - 14.55 Round 3:1 (7 boards)
15.00 - 15.45 Lunch
15.45 - 16.35 Round 3:2 (6 boards)
16.40 - 18.20 Round 4
18.25 - 20.05 Round 5
20.10 - 21.00 Round 6:1 (6 boards)
21.00 -         Dinner

Saturday 10.00 - 10.30 Breakfast
10.30 - 11.25 Round 6:2 (7 boards)
11.30 - 13.10 Round 7
13.15 - 14.55 Round 8
15.00 - 15.45 Lunch
15.45 - 17.25 Round 9
17.30 - 19.10 Round 10
19.15 - 20.55 Round 11
21.00 -         Dinner

Sunday   10.00 - 10.30 Breakfast
10.30 - 12.10 Round 12
12.15 - 13.55 Round 13
14.00 - 14.55 Round 14:1 (7 boards)
15.00 - 15.45 Lunch
15.45 - 16.35 Round 14:2 (6 boards)
16.40 - 18.20 Round 15
18.25 - 20.05 Round 16
20.10 - 21.50 Round 17
Approximately 22.10 Dinner and price-giving ceremony

FOOD & DRINK  Free food - breakfast, lunch and dinner – will be served in the same place as we play. There will also be fruit, coffee, tee, biscuits and bagels free of charge.

AIM     This tournament serves a twofold purpose. 
Firstly it is the first try to establish a Swedish international invitation tournament with financial sponsoring of Niklas Data.
Secondly it serves as the third stage in the qualification, or more correct “observation” as we call it, for the Swedish national team. This second purpose explains some of the strict regulations that follow below. 

TD + AC   Tournament Director will be Benny Forsberg. Chief responsible for the whole tournament is Daniel Auby. These two will jointly serve as AC. They may consult with other persons if they decide it may be advantageous. The players are expected to refrain from appealing the decisions of the AC to the Swedish Law Commission. 

SYSTEM RULES All systems are allowed. The rules of the Swedish national squad apply. A brief description of these rules is given below for the benefit of the foreign players. All Swedish players already have these rules.
     Please note the obligation to send “messages” as described in these rules. These messages and the convention cards, both in English n.b., shall have arrived to the Swedish bridge federation, email: micke.melander@bridgefederation.se
not later than the 4th of February. Note that they must be sent by email because they will be made available for all players at the home page of the Swedish federation (www.bridgefederation.se/landslag/ndc_info.htm). Preferably use the WBF convention card editor or MS Word for the convention card. Late arrivals will automatically result in penalty points in the tournament, issued harshly at the discretion of Daniel Auby.
  
CONV. CARD  Also according to the rules of the Swedish national squad - see below.
In short, convention cards shall be filled out according to the WBF rules, in English.
Those pairs whose convention card is grossly incorrect, will be put out of the tournament until the faults are corrected and they will receive average minus on those boards not played, there opponents will receive average plus (average minus/plus is +/- 3 imp from each table).

LANGUAGE   All conversation with partner, TD or the opponents must be in English when one or more players have their cards out of the card sleeve. Gross violation of this rule will result in penalty points.

ENTRY FEE   Players living not more than 80 kilometres from Stockholm pay an entry fee of 800 SEK per player. Other players pay no entry fee. If a junior without employment lives less than 80 kilometres he or she pays half the normal entry fee. There is no travel allowance for Swedish players.

PRICES    The first three pairs will receive price-money, 25.000, 10.000 and 5.000, all in SEK.
 
DRESS    In the main tournament there is no formal rule for correct dress. There may however be for the PRO-AM.

PAIRS    Inside the parenthesis the following abbreviations are used:
A = A-pair in the Swedish national squad
B = B-pair in ditto
-  = Swedish pair outside the national squad
F = Foreign pair
 1. Anton Maas - Vincent Ramondt, The Netherlands, (F) 
 2. Jon Baldursson - Magnus Magnusson, Iceland (F)
 3. Kauko Koistinen – Osmo Kiema, Finland (F)
 4. Geir Helgemo – Per Erik Austberg, Norway (F) 
 5. Tommy Gullberg - Lars Andersson (A)
 6. PG Eliasson - Tomas Magnusson (A)
 7. Mårten Gustawsson - Magnus Eriksson (A) 
 8. Ulf Nilsson - Göran Lindberg (A)
 9. Göran Gjerling - Jan Becklén (A)
10. Peo Sundelin - Johan Sylvan (A)
11. Hans Göthe - S-O Flodqvist (A)
12. Fredrik Nyström – Peter Strömberg (-) 
13. Magnus Lindkvist - Peter Fredin (A)
14. Torbjörn Axelsson – Håkan Lindblom (-)
15. Mats Nilsland - Björn Fallenius (A)
16. Christer Hedborg - Magnus Berg (-)
17. Anders Palmgren - Calle Ragnarsson (-)
18. Hans Kvick - Björn Alenfalk (B) 

SYSTEM RULES Basically we try to follow the WBF rules for event of category 1 (Bermuda Bowl etc). However, we do have some specialities.

All systems are allowed.

As we know by the 21st of Jan there will be no HUM systems in the tournament. We will therefore not spend too much space here on our rules about HUM. Should any foreign pair announce that they play a HUM system I will inform them about their responsibilities more in detail.

Brown Sticker Conventions (BS) are allowed. The fact that you use BS must be noted on the first page of the convention card. It must be clearly stated which BS you play. The detailed description may of course be given on supplementary sheets.

When your opponents play a BS convention you are, during the bidding, allowed to consult private prefabricated written notes about your defence to this BS. If you have such a defence your opponents have the right to look at it before the round starts.

PRE-INFORMATION We have special rules about informing your opponents before the tournament starts. There are three different obligations.
1. You must send in your convention card 
2. If you play HUM you must send in your whole system description
3. If you play something you believe your opponents would like to see in advance you should make a “message”. This aims at non-standard conventions and treatments in potentially contested auctions. Try to be brief if possible. For instance you do not need to tell that you play a nebulous 1D opening, the players are assumed to have met that before on frequent occasions. BS conventions should of course be mentioned. Only in exceptional cases there will be need for more than a page. Many pairs will have nothing at all to write a message about.

All this information must be sent by email to Micke Melander, see above. 
If you do not send in the information required, you jeopardise your right of playing these conventions or treatments.