Style Guide

Event name and date

Where possible, state the event, the date, the town/city, and if appropriate the country. If there is a sponsor, the correct full sponsor’s name and logo should be provided.

Deal v Hand v Board

Always use Deal to mean 52 cards, always use Hand to mean 13 cards.
Board can be used as an alternative to “Deal”. But be consistent.

His/her/she/he

Prefer gender neutral commentary. Use seats (North, East, South, West).
If the player’s name is known, it is fine to use gender pronoun.

Capitalisation

Avoid making a whole word or phrase uppercase.

Examples:
Recommended:
Spectacular Endplay by Garozzo
The Final Match
Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat
(notice that words like “by” and “of” are all lower case).

Avoid: SPECTACULAR ENDPLAY BY GAROZZO

Advice to typesetters for word or heading emphasis

Instruction to use bold or “rule below” (not the same as underline) can be supplied.
eg << make the contest name appear in bold or demi bold>>

Do not put compass positions all in capital letters.
Recommended: North East South West
Avoid: NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

Rotating deals

Some authors choose to rotate deals so that the declarer is at the bottom of the 52-card deal layout. Then add the text phrase: “rotated for convenience”.

Some magazines and websites prefer that this practice is not carried out, because they prefer to see the original orientation of the 52-card layout.

The advice is to talk with the recipient.

Writing suit symbols

Method 1
For ♣5
Do cx5
No space between cx and 5.
For clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades use: cx, dx, hx, sx.
Some publishers may ask for another method. Consistency is the key.

Method 2
For ♣5
Type }5
For clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades use: } { ][
Warning: this means that the article cannot use []{} for any narrative.

This is known as the “Gill Sans Bridge method”.
The fonts are hollowed out for red suits.
Link to font here:
http://www.brenning.se/mcdocsgillsans.asp
Note that there is a minor kerning issue with this font.

Method 3
For ♣5
Type \c5
For clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades use: \c, \d, \h, \s
This is sometimes known as “The BridgeComposer method” or “PBN method”.

Suits in a row

A hand written in a row should have 2 spaces between each suit.

There is nowhere else in text that a double space is required.

Always prefer to put each suit on a separate line.

Bid tables

Start bid tables with West.

Calls

Consistency is most important.

Method 1
Use Dble Rdbl Pass All pass
Some use Dble and Rdble but this uses a bit more space in a bid table.
Some use Dbl and Rdbl.
Alternatively use All Pass (ie the letter P is upper case).

Method 2
Use X XX P All pass
Alternatively use All Pass (ie the letter P is upper case)

Hand patterns

Ask the publisher which they prefer. If you do not have the answer, then method 1 is better since it is easier to convert method 1 to method 2, than vice versa.

Method 1
Exactly: 5=4=2=2
Here = means exactly that shape. Exactly 5 Spades, 4 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 2 Clubs.
Any: 5-4-2-2
Here suits can be any order.

Method 2
Exactly: 4-4-3-2
Here – means exact that shape. Exactly 4 Spades, 3 Hearts, 4 Diamonds, 2 Clubs.
Any: 4432
Here suits can be any order.

Method 3
Brackets means any: (4432)
44(32) means exactly 4 in each major, but the minors can be 32 or 23.

Annotations

In the auction put brackets around the reference. Prefer to use numbers rather than punctuation marks or symbols like #*&, because these are used in social media, X (formerly Twitter), and other places.

If space is short, use * to indicated an artificial call, and in the article, in the narrative, explain the meaning.

West	North	East	South
2cx (1)	All pass

Method 1
Put one space before the (

Method 2
Do not put any space before the (

Explanation of the annotations

Method 1
(1) Precision – exactly 1 space between ) and the explanation

Method 2
(2) Precision – tab between ) and the explanation

Opening lead

Method 1
Lead: dx4
Typically under the bid table

Method 2
The opening lead was the dx4.
Typically at the start of the article, or in the narrative.

Image annotations

When annotating photos, prefix with “Left to right:” or something similar.

Examples:
Left to right: Ann Smith, Pete Jones, Clara Adam, Carl Perkins
Standing left to right: Ann Smith, Pete Jones, Clara Adam, Carl Perkins
Sitting left to right: Ann Smith, Pete Jones, Clara Adam, Carl Perkins

Names of players

Do not put last names in upper case.

Use full names of the players, not nicknames. If you want to include a nickname, the first time you mention the player, put it in brackets.

Examples:
Elizabeth (Liz) McGowan
Douglas (Kip) Rotchell
Andrew (Tosh) McIntosh

Be sensitive to spelling names. Always ask players from Ukraine and India what they want to be called, and exact spellings. Ask players in the far east about the order of first name and last name, since there is a strong preference amongst some nations.

Do not use just the first name. It is exceptionally rare that a person has a single name. Mononyms exist in Tibet, and some parts of the world. Even if the person insists, use the name set up on the WBF or Zonal page.

If two players with the same last name play in partnership (example sisters, father & son)

Use the full name, given and family, the first time the players are mentioned. Later use only the given name for the rest of the article, instead of the full thing every time.

Example:
Sophia and Cathy Baldysz (who are daughter and mother).

First time, refer to both in full. Later, refer by first name. If the article has two pairs of players with the same first name, then either use their full name, or initialise the first name (S. Baldysz, and C. Baldysz). Use non-breaking spaces so that the initialised first name is kept with the last name (in Word this is Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar).

Special note: search engines do not identify people with nicknames. Whilst somebody may think that using the name Pepsi enhances the article, using the name Jacek Pszczoła (known as Pepsi), must be stated before the first use of the nickname.

Contractions: in some nations, names are very long (more than 32 characters). There is no universal rule about how to contract the name. Ask a native of the country or the player. If in doubt, try to use the full name in the first appearance, then use your best guess.

If the topic is sensitive, perhaps related to cheating or substance abuse, always use full real names for all persons in the article. This is to eliminate, as best as possible, any confusion with a player with a similar or identical name.

Take special note of player names (or event names) that when converted from upper case to mixed case, may require accents or diacritics. The tendency to dispense with accents on capital letters does vary across languages. It is a common practice, for example, in French and Portuguese, less so in Italian and Spanish. In Greek accents are omitted in all-uppercase words but an accent is kept as part of an uppercase initial.

Titles and honorifics

Unless a player specifically asks, do not use Dr, Prince, HRH, Professor, Lord or any title like that.

Do not punctuate the title or name.

Example:
Dr I G Smith MBE

Special care proper nouns

Be careful about ACBL, USBF and NABF. It is easy to use the wrong phrase.

Take exceptional care when referencing “China”. Verify the correct national name.

If the article refers to a period of time in the past when a trophy was awarded to a nation with a different name, then use the current name, and follow it in brackets with the former name.

Example:
Türkiye (formerly Turkey) are winners of the gold medal.

Three years after the name change, use the new country name. Clarity is of the utmost importance.

If you believe that the reader may not understand then try to be as clear as possible. Only mention the name change in the first instance of the article. Alternatively, add a footnote.

If the historical event’s trophy pictured shows the name of a country that either no longer exists or has changed, for example, Czechoslovakia, then refer to that name.

Commas & punctuation

Where necessary, use Oxford commas or rearrange the sentence so there is no ambiguity.

Examples:
Caribbean nations such as Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago are likely candidates for …
Caribbean nations such as Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica are likely candidates for …

When there is a bracketed phrase at the end of the sentence, the full stop (period) should be at the end.

Do not punctuate these: eg NB
Unless you have specifically been asked to do this.

Abbreviations

Spell out once in full any abbreviation you wish to use later in your article.

Example:
The European Bridge League (EBL) decided that ….. Eric Laurant, President of the EBL commented “I would like to thank …”.

Date and time

Use international style: Day, Month, Year. Do not abbreviate the year.

Example
Recommended: 15 March 2025
Avoid: 15th March ’25

For time, use this format 11:30 am.
Notice there is a colon between 11 and 30. There is a space between 0 and am. The abbreviation am is not in upper case, and there are no dots after the a and the m.

This complies with ISO 8601.

Bullet lists

Do not punctuate the end of a list item unless it contains more than one sentence.

Example

Recommended

France
Germany
Spain

Avoid

France rejected the motion,
Singapore did not vote,